And also Soman thank you for these journals and for listening to your fans. I loved meeting you in Chicago and giving you some sample of my writing as well along with the dreamcatcher
This post reminded me a little bit about the Bridgeton boys one of the characters Anthony is very overprotective of his sister Daphne and tells her he cannot marry a person due to his playboy reputation and in his book/ season Daphne calls him out for courting a women when he's actually in loved with that woman's sister because all the Bridgeton boys suffer a bit of courting a woman who is in a more vulnerable situation than them and yeah that's on point for regency era inspired work but it's interesting how the story tackles some of these themes
Kinda sad Tedros is now confirmed hetero, he and Agatha both give off major bi energy. Just putting that out there….. Bi’s exist and Tedros and Agatha both kissed someone of the same gender when they were carried away by their feelings soooooo.
P.S I had a longer comment about how much I loath and love Tedros because he is a complex multifaceted and realistic character.
But the page reloaded and it vanished so, you get a brain dump on how I love that gay energy vibrates off of the SGE series and that’s what made a little closeted Indian girl so happy.
my only thoughts after reading this post, soman, is yesterday's WHAT WENT WRONG podcast episode... no one could write a woman. except a gay man who'd never objectified them.
for all the contradictory things a woman "should" be in the eyes of men (in america, in particular, in the 1900's)... well, there's a reason it took so long to make WONDER WOMAN into a film that women would appreciate. :)
also: kinda sad your emo angsty boy (with all his feelings) didn't pass "reality" muster. i know they're out there. i dated them. (some problematic, sure; but naive romantics in love? yeah. real life and on the page they're hard to identify/resist the red flags.)
i eventually married one of them. (an artist, no less: ALL the FEELINGS and self-doubt. all the time.)
i'm grateful you got to put the book out there YOU were happy with. but i also like that books let us write what should be-- not necessarily what IS.
contemporary or not. :/
but yay edits. (er, revisions.) finally doing that myself on my draft! Yay!!
I love that porcast so much! I think the issue with a male protagonist comes if you are a MALE author -- because then your POV can be confused with the character's (even if you are a gay male author and the character is straight). Hm. That's a topic for another diary sounds like!
also: how stinkin great that patti jenkins knew WHEN to say no to “opportunities “ they woulda used against her when they flopped?! all those years preparing her for WW….. i love it! 🥰
Letting a character be themselves is also what helps me write things that are difficult. So writing male characters have been the same level of ease/difficulty as female ones. Real life examples also help me write haha! I think not overthinking helps a lot when writing a character. I'm really excited to see your character's story and his problems with romance. It seems very human and hopefully not the same kind of male character that's present in fiction too much.
When I read, I noticed that many male characters, especially in the fantasy/romantasy genre, kinda follow the same "morally gray grumpy" formula and of course, "super ultra hot man." After that, he barely has any personality and I really don’t see what the female protagonist see in him. And those I do think have potential turn out to be traitors or dead and just have a really lame character development after that. Even your Aric, who was meant to be toxic, had fans. I think it's becoming the same with even morally gray characters. (I love morally gray, but now I feel as if it's slowly losing meaning AND I think morally gray women are just as cool as males, since people seem to be more adverse to a female character having less or questionable morals compared to always being a hero.)
I think the super hot male character who has a dark side but also just needs a girl to bring out his light side... is... tired. I appreciate the idea of writing males that people actually can recognize versus just pure fantasy and wish fulfillment as well.
What strikes me when I read male characters was Tedros funny enough going from the pawn in Agatha and Sophie love triangle for us really getting just how much his father death and his mom abandoned him messed him up. They're a show I loved called Supernatural which followed two brothers hunting things and they where always very emotional in terms of yelling, crying, and getting upset at their absent father. You also had Dean who seems to be bi coded although the show ran on CW so... take with that what you will. There Shadow from the Sonic Franchise and he is the ultimate lifeform and is very aggressive but the person he's softest to is Rouge who a female bat and Maria the human girl who named him and sacrifice his life for her . I think male and female narratives have a lot in common its just society makes a big deal on how you present males tear as if nobody didn't all cry when Joel from Last of Us got emotional after losing his daughter Sarah. One time I find male are kind of toxic is in dark romances where they treat even the protagonist they're supposed to love with contempt and yet those are popular so I don't know what readers want at times I think it's like gambling you just got to take a chance
It's amazing how popular the toxic male can be -- manga is FULL of them and they end up being the most beloved series. I can't quite wrap my mind around why our subconscious is attracted to those types.
I want to say maybe conservatism because a lot of romance is rooted in patrichal values . I liked remarried empress a light novel and webtoon with the main character Navier being cheated on by her husband with an ex slave character and instead of hating her husband most people hated Rastha the literal slave character as if slavery just a minor incovience no really and I like remarried empress for the other romance in the series but the way that novel tackled slavery leaves such a bad taste on my tongue
And also Soman thank you for these journals and for listening to your fans. I loved meeting you in Chicago and giving you some sample of my writing as well along with the dreamcatcher
This post reminded me a little bit about the Bridgeton boys one of the characters Anthony is very overprotective of his sister Daphne and tells her he cannot marry a person due to his playboy reputation and in his book/ season Daphne calls him out for courting a women when he's actually in loved with that woman's sister because all the Bridgeton boys suffer a bit of courting a woman who is in a more vulnerable situation than them and yeah that's on point for regency era inspired work but it's interesting how the story tackles some of these themes
Kinda sad Tedros is now confirmed hetero, he and Agatha both give off major bi energy. Just putting that out there….. Bi’s exist and Tedros and Agatha both kissed someone of the same gender when they were carried away by their feelings soooooo.
P.S I had a longer comment about how much I loath and love Tedros because he is a complex multifaceted and realistic character.
But the page reloaded and it vanished so, you get a brain dump on how I love that gay energy vibrates off of the SGE series and that’s what made a little closeted Indian girl so happy.
Definitely not confirmed hetero!!! He just very clearly likes girls. The rest is up to him and the reader :) Thank you for your kind words!
my only thoughts after reading this post, soman, is yesterday's WHAT WENT WRONG podcast episode... no one could write a woman. except a gay man who'd never objectified them.
for all the contradictory things a woman "should" be in the eyes of men (in america, in particular, in the 1900's)... well, there's a reason it took so long to make WONDER WOMAN into a film that women would appreciate. :)
also: kinda sad your emo angsty boy (with all his feelings) didn't pass "reality" muster. i know they're out there. i dated them. (some problematic, sure; but naive romantics in love? yeah. real life and on the page they're hard to identify/resist the red flags.)
i eventually married one of them. (an artist, no less: ALL the FEELINGS and self-doubt. all the time.)
i'm grateful you got to put the book out there YOU were happy with. but i also like that books let us write what should be-- not necessarily what IS.
contemporary or not. :/
but yay edits. (er, revisions.) finally doing that myself on my draft! Yay!!
I love that porcast so much! I think the issue with a male protagonist comes if you are a MALE author -- because then your POV can be confused with the character's (even if you are a gay male author and the character is straight). Hm. That's a topic for another diary sounds like!
can’t wait! 🥰📝
also: how stinkin great that patti jenkins knew WHEN to say no to “opportunities “ they woulda used against her when they flopped?! all those years preparing her for WW….. i love it! 🥰
Letting a character be themselves is also what helps me write things that are difficult. So writing male characters have been the same level of ease/difficulty as female ones. Real life examples also help me write haha! I think not overthinking helps a lot when writing a character. I'm really excited to see your character's story and his problems with romance. It seems very human and hopefully not the same kind of male character that's present in fiction too much.
When I read, I noticed that many male characters, especially in the fantasy/romantasy genre, kinda follow the same "morally gray grumpy" formula and of course, "super ultra hot man." After that, he barely has any personality and I really don’t see what the female protagonist see in him. And those I do think have potential turn out to be traitors or dead and just have a really lame character development after that. Even your Aric, who was meant to be toxic, had fans. I think it's becoming the same with even morally gray characters. (I love morally gray, but now I feel as if it's slowly losing meaning AND I think morally gray women are just as cool as males, since people seem to be more adverse to a female character having less or questionable morals compared to always being a hero.)
I think the super hot male character who has a dark side but also just needs a girl to bring out his light side... is... tired. I appreciate the idea of writing males that people actually can recognize versus just pure fantasy and wish fulfillment as well.
What strikes me when I read male characters was Tedros funny enough going from the pawn in Agatha and Sophie love triangle for us really getting just how much his father death and his mom abandoned him messed him up. They're a show I loved called Supernatural which followed two brothers hunting things and they where always very emotional in terms of yelling, crying, and getting upset at their absent father. You also had Dean who seems to be bi coded although the show ran on CW so... take with that what you will. There Shadow from the Sonic Franchise and he is the ultimate lifeform and is very aggressive but the person he's softest to is Rouge who a female bat and Maria the human girl who named him and sacrifice his life for her . I think male and female narratives have a lot in common its just society makes a big deal on how you present males tear as if nobody didn't all cry when Joel from Last of Us got emotional after losing his daughter Sarah. One time I find male are kind of toxic is in dark romances where they treat even the protagonist they're supposed to love with contempt and yet those are popular so I don't know what readers want at times I think it's like gambling you just got to take a chance
It's amazing how popular the toxic male can be -- manga is FULL of them and they end up being the most beloved series. I can't quite wrap my mind around why our subconscious is attracted to those types.
I want to say maybe conservatism because a lot of romance is rooted in patrichal values . I liked remarried empress a light novel and webtoon with the main character Navier being cheated on by her husband with an ex slave character and instead of hating her husband most people hated Rastha the literal slave character as if slavery just a minor incovience no really and I like remarried empress for the other romance in the series but the way that novel tackled slavery leaves such a bad taste on my tongue
Other example is Leon the professional which I can't get too into but I think the film did a good job describing Leon well.
John Wick a man of little words but loved his wife and loved the dog.
Interview with a vampire both book, TV show and movie.
Season two of Bridgeton with Anthony story
Rhett from Gone with the Wind. I say Rhett because while he initially writes the south as a lost cause he goes back anyway to fight for his brother's
Outsiders by SE Hinton had several examples of masculinity