# Are romance novels from the male perspective a thing?



## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

The Romance genre isn't something I normally deal much in, but I've had an idea floating around for a while that I kinda want to write.  Is there any kind of audience for romance written from the male perspective?  By Romance, I mean much less explicit that, say, 50 shades and closer to a romantic comedy with a mostly implied sex scenes.

My understanding (and sorry if this is just genre ignorance, I mostly do Sci-Fi and Thrillers) is that the Romance genre is more female readers than male, and my first guess is there is more demand for female driven books than male drive (female main character, from woman's point of view, etc).

Hopefully that didn't come off as ignorant in the way I asked my question.  Any feedback would be nice.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

Yup. Look up Chance Crawford. He's a guy writing from the guy's perspective, and absolutely killing it.


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## emmapearce (Nov 4, 2016)

Though very explicit, Lauren Blakely's most recent books are all male perspective and selling super well.


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## Nicole M (Nov 1, 2012)

As long as you follow romance novel guidelines, you should be fine. Lots of romance novels now-a-days have both perspectives (male and female main characters). Emma Chase has a very popular book called Tangled that is entirely from a man's perspective.  Also Lauren Blakely I think writes entirely from a male's perspective and that's romantic comedy (with lots of sex, however)


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Sure, there are a few more now lately it seems. Those are mostly in the contemporary romance arena. Those I saw and read are still steamy though, not closed door or such thing. 

Most romances I read actually have both views from both main characters. Both male and female, or male and male, female and female, depending on the couple. Its pretty standard for me to read romance that has both POV. I like to know about both of the characters. 

Women fiction and such has often mostly from the female point, I don't read those though.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Atunah said:


> Sure, there are a few more now lately it seems. Those are mostly in the contemporary romance arena. Those I saw and read are still steamy though, not closed door or such thing.
> 
> Most romances I read actually have both views from both main characters. Both male and female, or male and male, female and female, depending on the couple. Its pretty standard for me to read romance that has both POV. I like to know about both of the characters.
> 
> Women fiction and such has often mostly from the female point, I don't read those though.


^^ What she said!


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

What Writes at Midnight said:


> Do you mean perspective or point of view?
> 
> I ask because the answer is different if you're asking about romance for women vs. romance for men, or just male point of view.
> 
> ...


Both, Actually. Male writer (me) and male main character.


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## Crystal_ (Aug 13, 2014)

Tstarnes said:


> Both, Actually. Male writer (me) and male main character.


MF romance doesn't have one main character. The hero and heroine share the spotlight, though it's not always 50/50. Even if you write from the male POV exclusively, like Lauren Blakey's romcom series, the heroine is still an equally important characters, and readers will want to identify with her.

I have seen readers complain about all make POV books. Dual POV tends to be most readers' favorite style, but you can certainly get away with single POV.


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## RightHoJeeves (Jun 30, 2016)

I must admit I haven't read a novel like that... but there are plenty of films. Just about all the Judd Apatow films are male perspective romances. As are a lot of Woody Allen films.


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

Crystal_ said:


> MF romance doesn't have one main character. The hero and heroine share the spotlight, though it's not always 50/50. Even if you write from the male POV exclusively, like Lauren Blakey's romcom series, the heroine is still an equally important characters, and readers will want to identify with her.
> 
> I have seen readers complain about all make POV books. Dual POV tends to be most readers' favorite style, but you can certainly get away with single POV.


It was going to be written from the Male POV, but the female protagonist will have pretty much equal time. There will be very few moments when they aren't both around (I think) and it focuses on her struggles a little more than his.


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

What Writes at Midnight said:


> No, that was clear. I mean which gender are you writing for? The reader that identifies as a male or one that identifies as a female?
> 
> A male writer can write romance from the male point of view for readers who are women.
> 
> But that would be a different kind of romance than a male writer writing from the male point of view for readers who are men.


I think it will be targeting the female reader, more than male. What's in my head is a lot closer to a standard romantic comedy (ok, more steamy), boy meets girl, boy and girl dance around and end up together, they face the trials and tribulations with a relationship and with the outside world, and then the ever after (don't know if its happy or not, Right now its an idea not fully fleshed out).

My guess is that is for the female reader. My question was more, would female readers read books written by a male writer, with a male protagonist (well, its his pov, but female lead is equally as prominent)?


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## S.L. (Jun 6, 2016)

Mine have dual perspective and there are a fair amount that are male only.  As long as you capture the romance, it doesn't necessarily matter which POV you use.  I think we all want to know what's going through the other sex's head sometimes.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

If you want to write romance for women, read romance for women. Maybe it's just me, but I've never seen anybody talk about writing sci-fi or thrillers if they've never read any sci-fi or thrillers. Romance isn't any easier, trust me.

There's not really an "I think" when it comes to your target reader. Male readers make up 15% max of romance readers. (I believe that number is way high.) And a genre romance book is a totally different thing from a book written for male readers. 

Happily ever after is a requirement in romance.


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## nikkykaye (Sep 24, 2016)

Tstarnes said:


> male protagonist (well, its his pov, but female lead is equally as prominent)?


From a POV purist's perspective... if the story is from the man's POV, how do you show what she's doing/thinking when he's not with her?

I'm dying to write a book all in the hero's POV, but I struggle with this idea that she can never have a scene on her own.


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## Nic (Nov 17, 2013)

Yes. There are men writing both m/f and m/m romance from the male POV. 

They don't sell worse than female authors these days, if they can write well and stay within the main rules* of the genre. If you keep a male pen name, be prepared that there are die-hard romance readers who'll be prejudiced against men writing in the genre. That goes mainly for m/f. If you write romance under a gender-neutral pen name or switch to initials, that solves that problem.

Yes, there are also romances out there exclusively in the male POV and when well-written they also tend to be rather successful. I find most of these in steamy to erotic romances. Single-POV romances are by no means rare in general.

* A romance needs a central lovestory which ends in a Happy Ever After (HEA) or Happy For Now (HFN). Don't kill one of your main characters, Nicholas Sparks is listed in the wrong genre most of the time. I'd suggest you don't write cheating in m/f, because you immediately halve your audience again.


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## EllieDee (May 28, 2017)

Other people have already pointed out the big requirements of romance (HEA/HFN, nobody dies) but it can be a tricky genre to hit the right emotional notes for readers.  I think Rosalind's right and you should do some research.  Grab a few books from Chance Crawford, Lauren Blakely, etc. and get a feel for what readers of male POV romances love.  

How does the author make the characters sympathetic?  What kind of flaws give depth without turning the readers off?  Are the authors using any tricks to hint at the heroine's journey even though it's told exclusively from the hero's perspective?  Etc.

Remember to look at the novels' reviews too.  I find some good information at the three and four star levels.  Those are readers who aren't just gushing over the story, they generally liked it but have a few significant issues to point out.

Not sure if you're writing a contemporary or not.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of any historical romances with exclusively male POV, but you could certainly take a shot.  In fact, that could become an interesting hook that might draw reader attention in a crowded genre.

Good luck!


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## dianapersaud (Sep 26, 2013)

anniejocoby said:


> Yup. Look up Chance Crawford. He's a guy writing from the guy's perspective, and absolutely killing it.


Did you mean Chance Carter?

If so, yes, he is killing it. But he's also writing what's hot--bad boys. Very very bad boys.


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## BellaJames (Sep 8, 2016)

Yes, see these lists

Male Pov - http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/84480.Romance_Total_Male_POV
Male Pov - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/41890.Adult_Male_Only_POV (a few books should not be on that list, they are dual POV)

*
If you mean books written by male authors who write in the male POV or dual POV I would check out:*

_Chance Carter_ - https://www.amazon.com/Chance-Carter/e/B01671UVI6/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1497271518&sr=1-2-ent
_
Devon Hartford_ -https://www.amazon.com/Devon-Hartford/e/B00E6YDUAS/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1497271492&sr=1-2-ent

_Scott Hildreth_ - https://www.amazon.com/Scott%20Hildreth/e/B00EJNZICE/ref=la_B00EJNZICE_pg_2?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_82%3AB00EJNZICE&page=2&sort=author-pages-popularity-rank&ie=UTF8&qid=1497271692


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## KeraEmory (Feb 8, 2016)

Random question about dual POV (now that I've removed "Most Eligible Bad Boy Daddy" from my browsing history ...) --

Do they actually go back and re-write each sex scene from each POV?


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

KeraEmory said:


> Random question about dual POV (now that I've removed "Most Eligible Bad Boy Daddy" from my browsing history ...) --
> 
> Do they actually go back and re-write each sex scene from each POV?


You don't retell any scene. You alternate points of view depending who has more at stake in that scene.


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

I'm not sure I could do jumping POVs.  I've always written from a single POV in everything I've ever written.  I mean, I've read books written like that, but it feels wrong when I'm writing to do that for some reason.


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## GinJones (Feb 19, 2013)

Just want to reinforce what Rosalind says. Read a BUNCH of romance written for female audiences, regardless of whether the authors are male or not, regardless of the POV. 

I tried to write romance for a long time and was terrible at it. It's not as simple as following the rules (HEA, no main character dying, focus on the romance). There are subtleties to what the audience expects that I never could tap into. And that tends to be where a lot of male authors fail when trying to write romance. They're writing romance elements or characters that embody the fantasies and experiences of men, not of women. (Oversimplifying a lot here.) The only way to get a feel for those subtleties is to read a ton of romances. And even then, as my experience shows, the subtleties may not be something you can tap into.


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## Rose Andrews (Jun 1, 2017)

I write romance, too. My books switch povs although I mainly write from the female perspective since the target audience is mostly female. One thing I learned early on is that even if you're writing in the male perspective, his characterization must cater to the female fantasy. Not sure if anyone else agrees with this, but it's worked for my audience.


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## Kristen Painter (Apr 21, 2010)

Dual POVs is pretty standard in romance. Some genres - NA, I believe, use some single POVs and also first person (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that) but the standard for most romance (contemporary, historical, paranormal - my genre, romantic suspense, etc) is dual.


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

GinJones said:


> And even then, as my experience shows, the subtleties may not be something you can tap into.


This was my main concern actually. Anything I write would be based on what a man thinks/feels about romance


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## BellaJames (Sep 8, 2016)

Kristen Painter said:


> Dual POVs is pretty standard in romance. Some genres - NA, I believe, use some single POVs and also first person (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that) but the standard for most romance (contemporary, historical, paranormal - my genre, romantic suspense, etc) is dual.


I think NA romance has more dual POV stories than contemporary romance. I know most of the NA romance books on my kindle and in my audible library are dual POV. 
I believe the other sub-genres of romance have more single Pov's than dual. A lot of contemporary romance is written in third person. NA romance is mainly first person dual POV. I think a lot of the earlier NA romance books written in 2012 were single POV.

That's just what I've noticed.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Kristen has it right.

The majority of romance I have read over the many moons are 3rd person and have dual pov. I read a lot of subgenres other than CR, like HR. First person is a newer thing to me I didn't really see until I read some NA. I don't read those anymore as I am just not a fan of first person and childish characters, which I found most of them to be.


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

I write romance -- paranormal, new adult, erotic, contemporary. I have two series from the female point of view, one from the male point of view and two from dual points of view. A lot of readers want to know what the hero is thinking and feeling so I write both.

Some readers like reading romance from the male point of view written by a man. They believe it will be more authentic. I suspect there are some women authors writing as men writing male-point of view romance just as there are men writing as women writing female point of view romance.  I wouldn't chance masquerading as a male because of the possibility that readers might discover I was a woman masquerading as a man writing male point of view romance. I think they'd be p*ssed whereas they might be amused by the converse. I may be wrong about that.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

dianapersaud said:
 

> Did you mean Chance Carter?
> 
> If so, yes, he is killing it. But he's also writing what's hot--bad boys. Very very bad boys.


Yes, that's who I meant, LOL.


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## Crystal_ (Aug 13, 2014)

EllieDee said:


> Other people have already pointed out the big requirements of romance (HEA/HFN, nobody dies) but it can be a tricky genre to hit the right emotional notes for readers. I think Rosalind's right and you should do some research. Grab a few books from Chance Crawford, Lauren Blakely, etc. and get a feel for what readers of male POV romances love.
> 
> How does the author make the characters sympathetic? What kind of flaws give depth without turning the readers off? Are the authors using any tricks to hint at the heroine's journey even though it's told exclusively from the hero's perspective? Etc.
> 
> ...


I don't think there's a single thing. Lauren Blakely's guys are more along the lines of sweet, lovable dopes, wheras Chance Carter's are right on the border of misogynistic @sshole (no offense to Chance. He's clearly got his audience figured out).


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## Steven Slavick (May 15, 2011)

I've written a romance trilogy, but after having a difficult time getting anyone to read them, I went to a romance conference, and a roomful of female writers told me that women will not read a romance novel written by a man, so I published them under a female pen name. (I guess things have changed in the past three years.) 

I write romantic comedies, the kind you might see in a theater (if we still lived in the 1990's) not stories with tons of sex. I focus on the couple and their romantic journey. Those who left reviews have said very nice things about my male characters, mostly that they are the types of guys they'd like to spend their lives with. But few have made any mention of the female characters, which I'll take as a compliment, since I didn't set off any red flags with readers. 

Still, it's tough to get visibility for these novels because, although they have been well reviewed, the romantic comedy charts are composed of shirtless dudes promising a night(or nights) of naughtiness. And my covers tell readers what to expect: a cute couple and a cute story. Yet, I know many romance writers in my genre succeed, as Rosalind can attest. 

But overall, I recommend you learn what romance readers expect from a romance novel. That was my biggest downfall in the beginning. I'll also say that romance readers are way more unforgiving when it comes to female characters than male characters, so keep that in mind.


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## Steven Slavick (May 15, 2011)

What Writes at Midnight said:


> The biggest "tell" for me that a romance author is not understanding the female romance fantasy is that the heroes tend to be passive and have vulnerable egos."


That was definitely true of my first novel, although from there on out, the heroes were much more confident. Still, the guys pursued the women, not the other way around. Overall, though, I prefer to read a romance from both viewpoints. However, just as men have difficulty writing credible heroines, many women have trouble crafting a credible hero. For the most part, in many of the contemporary romance novels I've read, the guys are very similar. So many of them just feel the same.

I think women do that for a few reasons: (1) it lends the man more mystery (2) they have a better chance of not messing up the male psyche and (3) women want to fantasize about a guy, but if they know too much about him, it might make him less sexy. (However, that's not the case with New Adult or historical romance.) Do any contemporary romance authors agree with the rationality behind those statements or do I just need to read more in the genre?


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

What Writes at Midnight said:


> The biggest "tell" for me that a romance author is not understanding the female romance fantasy is that the heroes tend to be passive and have vulnerable egos. In books like these, the heroines tend to do the work of pursuit and there's a greater focus on how the hero experiences rejection.
> 
> My own belief is that such writers are intuitively writing about male concerns in romance and are assuming that traits women ask for in real life are what they want in romance fiction.


This is actually excellent advice that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since reading it earlier today. I am going over the story idea in my head and the beats I've already thought at, and looking at them through this lens.

Thank you very much.


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## What Writes at Midnight (Oct 11, 2016)

Tstarnes said:


> This is actually excellent advice that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since reading it earlier today. I am going over the story idea in my head and the beats I've already thought at, and looking at them through this lens.
> 
> Thank you very much.


So welcome. Glad it helps.


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

There's interesting research that suggests women want to cheat have pre-marital flings with square-jawed men but want to marry a man with a softer rounder face who is more likely to be a good daddy. So bad boys rule their fantasy life, but they want nice boys walk down the altar and help raise her child.

The PRIME fantasy of many women (not all) is the hot square-jawed alpha bad boy who falls hard and becomes the loyal man who walks down the aisle to the altar and helps raise her child.

At least, those readers have kept me in six figures for the past four years.


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## Shelley K (Sep 19, 2011)

It's worth noting that Chance Carter had a lot of experience nailing the market, building lists, and running a successful publishing business before he decided to "come out" as a guy and make the most of that. I don't think using his name has much to do with his success. 

I can think off another male author of the top of my head who decided to start writing M/F romance. He wasn't established or all that experienced doing it (though he had some success in another genre), and planned to really use his maleness as a selling point, thinking that in a sea of women writers, being a novel male writer would give him an edge. He has since removed his picture and male references from his book pages and gone back to using a first initial on his book covers. 

It's not the name, it's everything else.


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

sela said:


> There's interesting research that suggests women want to cheat have pre-marital flings with square-jawed men but want to marry a man with a softer rounder face who is more likely to be a good daddy. So bad boys rule their fantasy life, but they want nice boys walk down the altar and help raise her child.
> 
> The PRIME fantasy is the hot square-jawed alpha bad boy who falls hard and becomes the loyal man who walks down the aisle to the altar and helps raise her child.
> 
> At least, those readers have kept me in six figures for the past four years.


So, my idea is a loyal non bad boy who has moments when that alpha maleness comes out more and more as he is around the female protagonist (not by something she does, but just how he reacts around her). One of the main struggles in their relationship is going to be finding that balance of that relationship, and the drama comes from when one of them swings too far ( he goes a bit to bad boy, she goes a bit to needing the bad boy over the loyal man and then realizing that's not what she really wants), not counting the 'them against the rest of the world' moments which there will also be.


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

Tstarnes said:


> This was my main concern actually. Anything I write would be based on what a man thinks/feels about romance


My father was a career fighter pilot. He flew high performance jets for a living. He used to go to movies with fighter pilots and high performance jets and laugh his head off at the depictions of the planes and pilots. Top Gun, for example. There are many others.

He knew enough about the reality of fighter jets, dog fights, and the like to see all the mistakes and incorrect depictions of fighters and pilots that he was unable to enjoy the films.

The films were not made for fighter pilots who flew actual or simulated combat missions. They were made for the average joe who liked war movies and didn't know enough to know what was reality and what was fantasy.

Much of fiction, especially some kinds of genre fiction, is escapism. Not all of it. There is some fiction that attempts to portray reality but remember, a large portion of readers want to escape into a fantasy world, whether it is the romance between a hero and heroine (or hero and hero, etc.) or a space captain facing impossible odds against a superior alien race, or a canny detective solving a case or an intrepid spy fighting against terrorists and a ticking time bomb. They want to lose themselves in a fantasy. They don't want the gritty truth about the world. They don't want the messy truth about sex, or romance or space captaining, or warfare or case solving. Sure some do but most want their fantasies fulfilled according to established tropes.

Don't give them their expected tropes? Prepare to not sell well. There are some who can break tropes, turn them on their heads, etc and break new ground. Most of us have to follow tropes, adding in a new or fresh take on the same old story -- if we want to sell.

So, knowing what a man "really" thinks about romance might not cut it because maybe, women don't want to know that, depending on what the truth is. Last year I wrote a romance with a hero who some readers thought was too weak, even if it was for love, and I paid the price for it. My book flopped compared to my other series in which my hero is a strong alpha who could show love but not weakness. That hero has a lot of fans and my series still does six figures even though its four years old. My readers, at least, like strong alpha males. Not aphaholes, but men who know what they want and go after it. Men who don't fall apart under duress or when facing strong odds.

I won't make that mistake again.


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## C. Gold (Jun 12, 2017)

I prefer romance from both POVs but single POV can be equally good if you keep the one person mysterious. Then it's like unraveling a puzzle as to why they are X way and how you can soften them to get to Y. 

The only time I really look at author gender is when I run into a scene that's supposed to be sensual and is the equivalent of ape bonding behavior. This usually happens in the fantasy I read and I do a lot of eye rolling, maybe some laughing, and just skip those parts. Women can be just as guilty as the men and I kept a few text snippets of some of the more humorous offenses. So don't worry too much 

I also had the idea of writing romance and began reading different types of romances to see which ones I'd feel more comfortable with. I'd definitely suggest that since there are so many things to consider besides just how steamy you want it.


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

What Writes at Midnight said:


> If I understand correctly, the one red flag I see with this idea is that there's an undercurrent leaning toward "will she accept him as he is in his entirety" which is more of a male fantasy than a female fantasy. It's more of a female fantasy if you switch it around to "will he accept her as she is in her entirety?" If you intend the main character growth to be in him, with her coming around to accept him helping him get there, that's not quite there yet. In a romance, both hero and heroine have to come to acknowledge and accept their love of the other person and the risks involved. If there's an imbalance, it should be on the side of tracking the heroine's journey to discovering her true destiny, not the hero's. Even if it's the hero's point of view.


hmm, interesting. I can see that. I wasn't thinking so much "will she accept him as he is in his entirety" for him but "he likes who he is when he's with her, but is also afraid of taking it to far",he does changing as he tests his limits with her. And her journey is more she's afraid to let him know what she really wants, and slowly exploring that as she learns that its ok to ask for what she really wants. They're college kids, so they are both figuring out what it means to be in a adult (by that I man, not being kids in high school anymore but becoming independent people making their own way) relationship, making the mistakes college kids make while recognizing the bond they found in each other.

that's probably not quite right either, since right now it's this semi-formed thing in my head. But the "In a romance, both hero and heroine have to come to acknowledge and accept their love of the other person and the risks involved" is interesting and something I'm going to have to think on.


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## Tstarnes (Sep 25, 2013)

C. Gold said:


> I also had the idea of writing romance and began reading different types of romances to see which ones I'd feel more comfortable with. I'd definitely suggest that since there are so many things to consider besides just how steamy you want it.


Honestly, they steamy parts have hardly come to mind at all yet. I'm trying to think through the characters relationship and how that develops. Its the Romance part I am thinking about the most, since it has been well pointed out in the last couple of posts good examples of how men look at relationships (especially the hyper-extended versions from movies & books) verses how women see it.


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