Rules of Attraction Blog Tour: Simone Elkeles Talks Getting Into Boys' Heads

Today I'm fortunate enough to take part in the Rules of Attraction Blog Tour! Simone has very kindly written a guest post about getting into male characters' heads and having her fans fall in love with them!

As a teen, I had a lot of guy friends. That meant that I got a lot of, “I could never date you Simone, you’re my best friend and know way too much about me” from guy friends who I developed crushes on. I guess the great thing now is that writing from the guys’ point of view is easy for me. Believe it or not, my female characters are a huge challenge for me! I guess I should say writing realistic and likeable girls is hard. Guy characters can be jerks and still be redeemable, but girls. . . not so much. When girls are bitches, readers have a hard time liking them in the end even if they redeem themselves. Why is that? I don’t know. . . maybe there should be a psychological study dedicated to that topic! Or I could be totally off my rocker and my theory could be completely wrong.

The number one thing I learned from being friends with so many guys was that they are not as complicated as girls like to think. HOWEVER, they are just a little bit more complicated than they let on. Also, contrary to what they will tell you, they DO have feelings. When they like a girl, they’ll go out of their way to impress her. Many just don’t want her to know how much they actually like her. Unless, of course, another guy is hitting on her. . . then, it’s on!

I love writing heroes who my female fans fall in love with – I have to fall in love with them as I’m writing them, too. I like my men to be witty, so most of my male characters are sarcastic and pretty quick with a comeback. Carlos from Rules of Attraction was so much fun because I could let him say almost anything he wanted – the more obnoxious the better. He definitely entertained me. But, I also like my characters to have a sweet side. I think Avi from the How to Ruin series is probably the sweetest guy I’ve written. He’s noble and honorable, but he’s still strong and manly. Luis is also going to be that way in Chain Reaction. That’s another tricky thing about writing boys. Most boys put on a show of being tough. When I write I want to reveal their vulnerable and emotional side, but I don’t want to make them weak. No one wants to fall in love with a pushover who won’t stand up for himself or you. Alex from Perfect Chemistry is a guy who has it all. . . although he gets himself in trouble when he thinks he knows all the answers. Nobody knows all the answers, so I make sure he gets knocked down a few pegs when he starts getting cocky. I wish I could do that in real life, ha ha! I have interviewed a lot of guys while I’ve been a writer. . . teen guys will actually share a lot of information when asked (and given a pizza dinner).

I think my favorite thing about writing from the male point of view is showing girls what they deserve. I get so many emails from teen girls telling me that my book made them realize that they deserve a guy who will treat them right. YES!!! You do!!!! Being treated right by a guy without compromising your integrity is so important. Don’t settle for less than what you deserve!

Thanks for the opportunity to reach all my fans in the UK!

Thank you so much, Simone, for writing such a great blog post! Rules of Attraction was released on 6th January 2011. Be sure to check out Simone's website, and you read my review of Rules of Attraction.

Tomorrow, Simone will be stopping by at The Book Girl, make sure you check it out!