Channeling the opposite sex

If its not a paying gig and just an artistic exercise, I'd suggest giving it your best shot and posting it in the forums review section for feedback.

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

I'm not saying you're wrong, but one of my favourite authors has a series with two main male characters, and everyone I know who's read her books assumes she's a guy. I've also come across one or two books with female MCs where I thought it seemed like it was written by a woman, but wasn't. So I think it can be done convincingly...it's just somewhat difficult.

 

Oh absolutely. There was that author, James Tiptree Jr., who was actually a woman using a male pen-name. (Her real name was Alice B. Sheldon). No one had any clue for over a decade that she was actually a woman, and Critics and publicists alike swore that she was male.

I'm not saying it's impossible to successfully write the opposite gender, but I do think if someone is uncomfortable writing an opposite gender, it can show. And, if it's really obvious that they are uncomfortable, it can be distracting. Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter. Really get into their head and write your character as they are. Then you'll feel comfortable writing your character, and he or she will seem real. If your male character is a little feminine, who cares. Some men are a little feminine.

Right now I'm reading Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and for basically the whole first chapter I thought I was reading about a male MC, and then was surprised to realize she was a she. In that book, it's interesting because the MC puts on a stoic, masculine demeanor, but her feminine side comes through in very subtle ways that you almost have to look for in order to pick up on. Very well done.

 

What are the things that tip you off in this situation?

 

You got brothers, guy friends, male co-workers, ... a father, uncle, male cousins, male neighbors or school mates, ... male teachers, police-men?

Do you watch and notice how males behave on TV, read books / articles from male perspectives, ... generally seen males interact for an extended period of time?

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Put yourself in their shoes --the ones you know best-- and think about how they would talk, what they would say, how they would react to situations, what they like, ... etc.
And you're on the right track.

The guys you know are most likely like the ones in this Forum. LOL!

Good luck.




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Be good, wise and strong --or don't be at all

 

I just paged through a book with a good male character that I could tell was conceived by a woman. The book was Divine by Mistake by P.C. Cast, and the character is ClanFintan, a shape-shifting centaur that the MC was to marry. Although I liked the character, he overall seemed a bit artificial, which I attributed to the fact that he was written by a woman. He was overly masculine, and stereotypically macho. If that was all he was, of course he would seem artificial, but that wasn't the case here. He did have a sentimental side, which should have made him a more well-rounded character to which I could relate, but his effeminate sentimentality clashed horrendously with his masculine demeanor. The juxtaposition felt forced and unnatural. I think that, if Cast would have conceptualized his character to a greater degree, this disparity would have seemed much more natural, and I would have liked his character a lot more.

Cast clearly wrote Divine by Mistake for a female audience. Perhaps a female reader would think ClanFintan was entirely believable, as it is a man written by a woman for women. But as a man, I saw the figment of a woman's dream: a burly hunk who loves like a woman. I still liked the character, but it wasn't enough for me.

I think Cast wanted to write a character that a female reader would fall in love with along with the MC, and I bet with that she was successful. I don't think she was successful writing a realistic character to which everybody, man or woman, could relate.

Anyway, thanks bumblebot for challenging me to define what qualities made me think this character seem unnatural.

 

Yeah, I remember reading about how Robert Silverberg wrote an article about how James Tiptree Jr.'s stories could not possibly have been written by a woman. I think you made some good points about the things that tip you off that a male character has been created by a female author...that was helpful.

 

Charlotte Bronte was another one - it was believed that nothing as amoral as Jane Eyre could have been written by a woman

 

Thank you, too. I am writing a male MC right now and was curious about the type of things that raise red flags for readers. Sounds like the character was appropriate for the genre but he doesn't sound particularly well developed no matter who wrote him.