Beyond Prince Charming: One Guy's Guide to Writing Men in Romance (and Beyond): Strategies for Success, #5

By M. L. Buchman

Why are men so often clichés on the romantic page? They don't need to be. Not even when real-life men appear to be clichés of themselves. These techniques can create male characters who pop off the page in any genre for their realism and depth.

Come join the male author of over a hundred short stories, fifty romance novels, and twenty thrillers (including numerous Top 10 Romance of the Year accolades from B&N, NPR, and various industry reviewers) as he explores: common tropes (and why they're wrong even when they're so right), guy-speak, emotions, physicality, journeys, and much more.

Also we'll tackle the Kinda-Myths: grunting, silent, brooding, uncommunicative, punching walls, rampant sex drive (while in a gunfight), arrogance, lack of emotion, conversations all about them…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Buchman Bookworks, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781637211311

M. L. Buchman

USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller M. L. "Matt" Buchman has 70+ action-adventure thriller and military romance novels, 100 short stories, and lotsa audiobooks. PW says: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.” Booklist declared: “3X Top 10 of the Year.” A project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50’ sailboat, and bicycled solo around the world…and he quilts.

Book preview

PART I

A BASIS TO BUILD FROM

1

THE OTHER SHOE

At the 1996 national conference of the Romance Writers of America, I fell flat on my face in front of an audience of eighty women and had an epiphany about sexism that launched me on a career of over fifty romance novels.

I sold my first novel to a terribly small romance house. By terribly small, I mean three-four novels per year…in a good year.

The editor wanted to prove that men could write romances—and to prove that her small press stood boldly on the cutting edge and deserved far more attention than, well, it actually deserved. So she took four male authors (two of us had sold her a book, the other two were students of hers) to a conference. Not just any conference, but RWA National in Dallas, Texas.

She arranged a spotlight session on the press. In front of a room of eighty women, she had the four of us and one female author each read a key structural scene from our novels.

A word about RWA Dallas in 1996. There were eighteen hundred women in attendance. There were a dozen presentations every hour. Talks by old pros with millions of books sold (literally), midlist authors on a particular topic of craft or business, and among those there was our tiny press.

These women attending the conference—from neophyte to the likes of Nora Roberts and Debbie Macomber—had one thing in common: they were all incredibly passionate about the business and writing of romance. Simultaneously daunting and inspiring, it was amazing as my first-ever writer’s conference.

In all that week-long conference, there were seven male attendees who weren’t on the business side, i.e. editors and agents. Yep, seven men were there as writers. It turned out that two of them weren’t; they were boyfriends of attending female writers—being both supportive and bored out of their skulls. So actually five male writers: one writing successfully under a gender-neutral pen name and the four of us.

So, what happened?

We became absolutely and utterly invisible.

I had my first-sale sticker on my name badge, which is a big deal at that conference. Yet, if I asked a question during a session, it stopped the session as abruptly as if I’d thrown a wrench into a spinning gearbox. Then the qualification questions began:

You’re a writer? (Not some boyfriend wasting our time.)

You’ve written a novel? (Then not quite believing that…)

You’ve sold a novel? (I’d hold up the First Sale banner on my