Do we use it or don’t we use it? If we use it – when and where? How much or how little?
In the normal way it works for me, I don’t really make any conscious decisions about the when why’s and wherefores of Hero POV. I just give him a brain to use from the beginning and let him butt in whenever he feels he has something to say.
Ah, but wait, it’s a bit more complicated than that… A hero with a voice has been around since the beginning of Romance. Indeed, if we go back through the decades of romantic fiction, (Mills & Boon is celebrating its Centenary this year) our hero has always been very good at voicing his opinion on anything and everything to do with our heroine. However, did he tell us what he was really thinking or feeling? Not on your life. These tall dark handsome guys from decades past wooed our heroines with their brooding silences and enigmatic expressions. We had to guess what they were thinking or feeling. We liked it that way back then.
But…hold on, I need to back up a little bit here…We had to guess what he was thinking or feeling??? No, that isn’t right.
Body language. I forgot about body language.
Understanding and using the power of body language is the mainstay, bottom line, inherent craft that every good writer of romantic fiction must have. Body language is the artist’s paintbrush which puts the colour into the story, the shades of dark and light. It’s the needle that sews layer after layer of texture into the rich tapestry of our hero and heroine’s journey. Without body language we don’t have a romance, we have a flat black and white one dimensional record of events between two people. Shrug the shoulders – chuck the book – bor-ring.
Heck, just hang on a second…again. I’m supposed to be blogging about Hero POV not body language. Yet the two things are linked. These days we get to see inside our hero’s head. We get to know what he’s feeling because he tells us through his POV.
The problem I have with this is that if we’re not careful, sometimes the story can become a series of, she said – he said, or, he thinks – she thinks. And the craft in using body language to add those special extra layers gets lost in the ping-pong game being played out on the page. There is a danger in letting us (the reader) know too much about his motivations, and the heroine not enough, so the final confrontation ends up a series of long and tedious explanations. Or worse – an assumption that the heroine knows everything the reader was made privy to, so when he says, ‘But I did it because I love you,’ and our heroine says, ‘Oh, that’s okay then,’ it isn’t okay.
A Presents novel is built on passion, on the super-charged emotional conflicts between two people so fiercely attracted to each other they can’t walk away from the relationship even when they wish that they could. These two people are so involved with each other that even the physical side to their relationship is never just sex. They might call it sex. They might hide behind the sheer ruthless physicality of the word but in truth they are, always, making love – passionate, overwhelming, I-can’t-cope-without-this, kind of making love. Hero and Heroine POV tells us that. Body language tells them that.
So, back to my original question: Do we use Hero POV or don’t we use it? If so, when, where, how much or how little?
Last year, I started to worry that I was losing the craft of using body language to colour my books because it was so much easier to let my hero tell his POV. So I set myself a challenge; I wrote a book called The De Santis Marriage with no hero POV (almost none, I copped out and cheated a couple of times) I admit, it wasn’t as easy as I expected it to be. Since publication, The De Santis Marriage has been causing a bit of confusion via reviewers on the internet. Most readers loved it (thank goodness) other’s were unsure if they liked it or not. However it only occurred to me as I was thinking about writing this blog that most had not noticed the book contained no hero POV!
Is there a lesson for me to learn there? I’m not sure, which probably makes me as confused as the readers. It was an interesting challenge for me though, to see if I could still write a good page-turning book with no Hero POV. I’m not sure I won that challenge either!
I suppose what I was trying to do – am always striving to do – is to keep my work as fresh and exciting as I can make it. Challenging myself, is a major part of achieving that goal. My next book for instance, The Greek’s Forced Bride out in January 2009 is packed with Hero’s POV because he is the one doing all the chasing. He’s a guy who knows what he wants and goes for it. So I suppose the bottom line has to read – POV is all in the hands of the characters themselves!
My question is: Which do you prefer – with or without Hero POV? I will send a signed copy of The De Santis Marriage to one of the commenter’s.
Michelle
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m a huge fan of yours, Michelle. I don’t write but I do read romance. The heroes point of view in my opinion as a reader is that there’s not enough of it in the short stories. Its always about the heroine which is fine but I tend to get bored with the way the girls are always portrayed as helpless or whiny. Yours are always so refreshingly strong and not at all wimpy.
Sometimes the heroes aren’t always as sensitive as some of my friends would like but I think that’s because their more like real men and I tell them that the men in Europe and abroad are often more masculine and sure of themselves. ;-)
I think heroes are just that, guys that go that extra length to take care of those they love.
All I can say to you Ms. Reid is that I sure hope you never stop writing!
I usually like a bit of male POV in the book, as it is usually quite opposed to the heroine’s POV and can bring an extra touch to the book, plus sometimes a good laugh.
Hi, Michelle!
I love the heroes POV because it’s always so cool to watch the h/h struggle through both sets of eyes. That way you know the internal struggle is on both ends. :-)
Sorry to be so late posting…been away with the little ones today.
Be back soon!
Heather R.
Definitely prefer romances with hero’s POV. I love to see him setting himself up for hubris (knowing, of course, that his love for the h will redeem him!)
Hi Michelle, fascinating post and very interesting that you set yourself that challenge. I love reading hero POV – I think because it can show so clearly that he’s this wealthy, powerful alpha male who is really struggling to come to terms with his emotions for the heroine. But as a writer I find it really hard not to tip over into him being too in touch with his emotions and verging on ‘soft’, so your exercise in going back to the roots of body language to show this sounds fantastic – I must read a copy. Can I ask whether you told your editor whether you planned to write in that way and if not whether she noticed? I would think the fact that no one mentioned it in a line where hero POV is so expected now means you did it very well!
Thanks for all your fascinating replies, it’s kind of good to know that most of us here prefer to know the hero’s POV because I have to admit, having written a book without it, I much prefer to have the freedom to use it if, when and where it feels right to use it.
Anonymous made a good point when she said the books are too short to leave out his POV. In the way a modern classic Presents novel works the hero needs the same rights as the heroine to show his own POV to help underscore his feelings and motivations. Especially so since I do try not to write “wimpy” heroines:) As Heather said, it’s cool to watch the internal struggle from both ends. And I love the way Ann put it – “I love to see him setting himself up for hubris (knowing, of course, that his love for the h will redeem him!)” That’s my favorite kind of Presents hero!
Hi Sabrina, lovely to see you here! For those of you that don’t know about Sabrina, she is our newest author to sign up for the Presents line. Her first book, Valenti’s One-Month Mistress will be out in the UK Feb 09 and March ’09 in the US, I’m so looking forward to reading it. In answer to your question, Sabrina, yes I did warn my editor I was trying to write a book with no Hero POV. One of the most wonderful parts about writing for the Presents line is the freedom I’m given to write whatever I want to write. Whether I get it right every time is another story – and perhaps another blog!
Michelle
My grandmother still reads the old Harlequin Romance (and Presents) novels, those from way before Hero point of view became popular. I read a lot of them when I was young too because I first got my hands on books at her house. I have to say, I really love having the male POV in most of my books, but when I read Harlequin Romance and Presents that use the male POV, it still feels odd to me, even now! It’s funny, but she was reading an old Harlequin when I visited her last time. (When I say old, I mean early 1970s, late 60s old).
Terescia, I cut my writer’s teeth on those older books (70/80′s) and loved them. They’re the books which made me want to write one for myself! Strangely though, the hero’s POV seemed a natural way for me to go way back then, even though I left it out of my first few books. When I think of some of those fabulous authors who are still writing for the line, such as, Sara Craven, Carol Mortimer, Anne Mather…amazing careers, I’m so in awe of them.
Michelle
Michelle, I’ve read books by them all! This may be where I get my need for larger than life heroes. I love them!