I received an interesting question yesterday about writing a romance in first person from the male point of view. To be honest, I’ve never come across this format in romance. I believe there are two reasons for this:

#1 Men don’t write romance and therefore a male first person POV would be tough for most female writers to manage. I remember reading She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb. In this case a man is writing as a first person female. He did a pretty good job with it – but it’s not romance. Which brings me to the second point.

#2 Women read romance. I don’t think most women care to be in the mind of a man, particularly not first person, when reading a romance. They want to read first person female or third person. Many romance publishers require no male POV at all. They prefer it to be first or third person but only from the heroine’s perspective. Why? Because this is what their readers buy.

That being said, it is important to be able to write from a male POV. I’ve gathered a few blog posts from other notable sites. If you’re struggling to get into your hero’s shoes check them out:

• http://www.writer-on-line.com/content/view/309/66/~Articles/Romance/Write-from-the-Heart:-The-Men-of-Romance.html
• http://www.likesbooks.com/226.html
• http://www.loveromancepassion.com/male-pov-in-a-romance-novel-sex-scene/
• http://romanceuniversity.org/2009/05/20/anatomy-of-the-male-mind-women-writing-in-the-male-pov/