Hi all, Brand-new to this site so not sure how it all works really, just would love some opinions on an important part of my plot. My characters all meet and are connected because they attend the same support group each week. My original plan was for it to be open to any and have a number of characters (male and female). The plan is to have the story be told in multiple perspectives. Then, I thought maybe I'd like for it to be a support group run by a women's centre so it's all girls. Then I thought, hmm, all girls makes it too female focused. Then I thought what about a guy comes to the wrong support group so he ends up in the women's one, just so there's a guy? And now I'm not sure what I want to do. I quite like the idea of it being a female focused story is appealing to me, means it would have strong themes of sisterhood etc. But also like the idea of having guys and girls. Help please! Thanks in advance
You don't need any guys. If you want to do an all-female cast, go for it. But if you want some guys too, do that. It's really just a matter of what you'd prefer to write
I'm not a fan of having one guy there because of an accident. I think if it's supposed to be a support group for women, some members might not be so willing to just have this guy join them. I don't see what the problem is of using all women or having it be a mixed group. You just have to pick one and give it a try. Or try them both and then continue with whichever one feels right.
This is the reason why I like the idea of a guy accidentally joining the group. It can create tension between him and some of the members. I'm also really curious as to how the guy managed to accidentally join the group in the first place and what makes him stay. This may not work for you, depending on what you have in mind as far as the plot is concerned but, I like the idea of putting a guy in the group. Its up to you though the story can work either way.
If it's a support group for women, there's probably a reason for that. I've understood female-only places are like these safe spaces where women don't have to fear harassment, or the topic itself is female-centered so it's been decided women benefit from it more. Then again, there was recently a panel discussion on TV about women and menstruation but male-identifying as well as non-women identifying individuals who menstruate found it very discriminatory since their PoV wasn't discussed. Maybe it's decided he can join cos otherwise it'd be discriminatory, especially if the reason to join isn't gendered.
Your idea of including one man for the sake of perhaps, keeping a balance is good. However, I would not write him in as a member of the group but someone else, like a computer repair person or delivery man.
At its core there have been plenty of gender centric groups in stories. Like the Hardy Boys, or the Babysitters Club as examples. Sure there are characters of opposite gender, but they are perspective exclusive to the MCs in the group. So you can have an all singular gender cast if you want, but it might get a bit boring. In a sense like how dynamic can you make them. Is it mutually exclusive to the on goings in the support group? If you have well developed characters then it will be more interesting, but diversity is always good if you feel the need to add other minor characters into the story. So if you can make it interesting enough, then go ahead and have an all female cast.
