HE WROTE: Real Men, Part Duex

I received an email from a Cherry asking about writing the male POV character in a story realistically.

Interesting, because while I was outside pounding my hands and feet into coarse rope wrapped around a two-by-four to toughen them up (the way Korean Special Forces soldiers-- all of whom are required to have black belts-- do) I was thinking about the previous posts where Jenny talked about my suggestion that we 'switch' character roles in the Hotel Book. And I realized I couldn't do it. Write a librarian or a clerk kind of guy. Not that's there anything wrong with that. I just don't have any experience like that.

And no, you over there snickering, I wasn't hitting a two-by-four wrapped in coarse rope, because I am older and wiser and that's called being kind of dumb, although I did earn my black belt in Korea. Just enough training to hurt myself. Which I tend to do and did. Shane in Agnes and the Hitman is leery of knives becase I gave him my trait of cutting myself on every single knife I owned. I was actually out kayaking on the Intracoastal and communing with nature and the dolphins, Fred and Louise, while listening to Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner on the iPod Jenny got me last year when she realized I was musically deficient. I just figured out today how to load it with specific playlists rather than everything on iTunes because I am also computer deficient. I tell you, I can not get Johnny Cash songs out of my head now after watching Walk The Line. But Roland was kind of our theme song in Group. Warren Zevon.

Where was I? Real men. Writing them. Hell, we're simple creatures. Really.

First, there's the question of fiction versus reality. Characters in a novel are fictional. Most of your fictional heroes don't exist in the real world. Sorry, there are no James Bonds out there. And if someone talks like he is, run away, because he's likely a poser. I can't tell you the number of times a female friend has told me about some guy she met in a bar who claimed to be in the CIA or Special Ops or whatever. There really are not many out there and you can shred their cover story pretty quick. "What color is the boathouse at Hereford painted?" And most who do the real stuff don't talk. Which can be scary. They just sit there with those dead eyes. Nah, most of the guys I served with are really neat people. There was a guy on my team who spent several tours in Vietnam and was more than capable of doing whatever needed to be done who now teaches school and coaches a soccer team of kids with Downs Syndrom. Of course he was reformed by a woman, his last and current wife, who we called Saint Barbara. A good woman can tame any man. Well. Maybe.

I used to get asked about my military thrillers: "How realitic is the book?" and I say: "Well, if it were real it would be one page long. We drew our weapons and ammo, went to the airfield, and the plane never showed." End of story. Reality can be kind of boring.

I remember getting ready to deploy with my team one time. We were at the airfield and the C-130 actually showed. And the only thing the battalion operations officer could say by way of support was to tell me my senior weapons man's mustache was too long. Woo-hoo.

Or the time we were skiing down out of the Rockies after a couple of weeks of winter warfare training and the word came up the line that the battalion sergeant major was waiting at the bottom of the mountain checking to make sure everyone had shaved. Never mind that you shouldn't shave in extreme cold as it removes hair and natural oil that protects your skin. So we were passing an electric razor up the line as we tried to ski with 150 lb rucksacks, weapons, gear, etc. Now that was High Speed. And Real.

So I still haven't answered the question. Damn. And I'm getting some questions from one of my retreat participants that I'm trying to answer.

Speaking of the retreat, I think that might help answer the gender thing. Because the manuscripts I saw were really different from what I'm used to.

So.

Men focus on action.
Women on emotion.
Men think action is emotion. A woman might ask a man: "Do you love me?" And he'll say: "I'm here, aren't I?" And he won't understand why the woman gets mad. And whacks him over the head with a frying pan. And then he'll say, if he's a good guy like JT Wilder or Shane: "I'm sorry" still not sure why she's mad.

Heck, think about Johnny Cash. The song wasn't titled: I'LL TALK THE LINE. It was titled: I'LL WALK THE LINE.

A good male character will Walk The Line. He just can't tell you why.