*Disclaimer – today’s post may be offensive to some men so please ignore and disregard if it is!
On random occasions, I wander to the Yahoo home page where I peruse the headlines and see if anything catches my eye. As corny as this is going to sound, I like to read the articles with relationship tips. You know the type like “Five Things Men Hate About Women,” or “Six Steps To Better Communication with Your Man.”
I read these for a variety of reasons but the main two are 1. I find them entertaining and 2. I get some fantastic information to use for my characters.
Since I write character-driven stories, I’m always looking for ways to flesh out characters, details that can make them seem more real.
The other day I happened across and article and wish now I’d saved a link to it, because it was awesome.
Written by a man, it was entitled something like “5 Things Men Don’t Want Women to Know.”
As I was reading through it, I was actually laughing out loud when I got to a section highlighting how men don’t care about the irrelevant details in a story. It talked about his eyes glazing over two minutes into your detailed description of what happened during your day. Referring to the language men understand as “man-speak” I completely understood what he was conveying because Captain Cavedweller is an expert at “man-speak.” All other communication – not so much. I’ve seen that dazed and glazed look settling over his face too many times to count as I launched into detailed descriptions of ______________ (fill in the blank with any given topic, I like words and know how to use them.)
When speaking to my beloved husband, I try to remember I need to use bullet points instead of long-winded paragraphs. Seeing the fact written in black and white was a great reminder to me as I’m developing characters that the manly men in my stories aren’t going to be giving flowery speeches. Bullet points all the way.
The other thing in the article that had me rolling on the floor was the fact that the author said men are basically like a four-year-old who shaves – they throw tantrums, pout, and can have infantile reactions to situations.
This is good stuff.
It immediately had me thinking about working that into a new character I’m developing.
If you ever need some character ideas or are struggling to create tension in a relationship with characters, check out one of these articles (or several). You really can find some fun inspiration.
And sorry guys, I promise I’ll find some article about how women are clingy, talk too much, or something along those lines to share soon to even things up.
