I belong to a writing group called ROR. (For background on the group, see here). Every year or so we get together to review out manuscripts and give feedback. There are 8 of us, but numbers vary depending on our families, work, deadlines etc.
There are five females and three males in ROR, it just happened that way, but this year there’ll be even numbers at the ROR retreat.
Although I don’t think of it as a ‘reatreat’ I think of it as a writing craft feast. Spending time with other people who are just as obssessed about the craft of writing as me, is heaven. I love dissecting story.
There is no point denying it, mens and women’s brains work differently. (Architect’s and trucker driver’s brains also work differently). I have four sons, I know their brains are wired differently from mine. As a writer I don’t write for a male or female reader specifically. But I like to know that I can appeal to both genders and this is where having feedback from both genders helps. So I’m looking forward to the ROR feedback this year. (Not that I don’t always look forward to ROR).
As a writer I don’t limit myself to writing from a female View Point, I have male View Point characters, too. One of the things I like to do is run a chunk of male VP text through the Gender Genie, to see if the genie can pick the gender of the character.
They say boys won’t read a book if the narrator is a female character. I can’t say that this bothered my sons. And I must admit that I don’t mind if the View Point character is male or female, as long as they are interesting.
I’ve deliberately written short stories where I don’t specify the gender and let the reader make up their mind.
What do you think? Does the gender of the View Point character influence how you relate to the character?
