Writing considerations

[veronica_rich]

Who else out there is female but prefers writing male characters to female ones, by and large? I don't mean in the sense of having someone to lust over or wish you were with - I'm talking about having empathy with that character enough to want to tell a story about him.

While there are certainly moments in time I wish I could escape the biological processes of being female (including water retention), the fact is that I like this gender better than I'd like being a man, I suspect. And I confess, also partly because it's still socially easier to openly sigh over men if you're a woman, rather than if you're a gay man. There are other reasons, but I'll not go into those.

Certainly I prefer watching male characters largely if I think they're attractive, both in body and interest of character. But there's something beyond that, and I think it may be more than simply "the guys get the best adventures." I never felt the need to write about Buffy or Bones (not the "Trek" one) or Xena, though I appreciate and enjoy all of them. The last female I really would have had any interest in writing about, had I been old enough (I was 5), was Wonder Woman/Diana. There are plenty of female characters I could pick if I simply wanted to BE them or emulate them.

But that's not why I write. I write fanfic because I see something there that either the creator didn't, or didn't have time or inclination to explore further. For me, fanfic - and original fic - is character-driven. I'm not so good with the plot, I usually treat it as secondary (and I pay for it with frequent writer's block, because it's sort of necessary to drive things along). And when I write, I generally prefer to write male characters, both in fanfic and original fic.

I've tried writing female characters, but I don't enjoy it as much - even being female doesn't seem to help much in that respect. I simply don't find them as fascinating as male characters. When I was younger, this made me feel like a traitor to the cause, but I eventually learned to accept what I am and concentrate on the choices that stem from that.

Comments

[tesan.livejournal.com]

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, when I used to write fiction, I almost always wrote male characters. (Just for clarity's sake, I've never written fan fiction. Oops. I take that back. I have written one.)

In the pre-Women's Lib Movement days, I was very much aware that men always got the best things in life. Even their clothing was much more comfortable and practical. Most of them gave up wearing dresses centuries ago. Women are still far behind, in this respect. But enough of my hatred of dresses. I "di-dress." ;)

It was always far easier to write a male character because men had more opportunties to do things. Also, for me, they were -- and still are -- more interesting. I find women boring, when it comes to fiction. I especially find them boring when the subject matter is romance. As Tom Fontana said, Boy Meets Girl. Can you get any more fucking boring than that? It's been done to death.

Not only do I find men interesting, I find them sexy. That gives them a big advantage over women. And, let's face it: They're not complicated creatures. It's easier to know what they're thinking and what they're motivations are.

So, IMO, they're pretty to look at, easy to understand, lend themselves to adventures better than female fictional characters, and can be written shirtless without giving one's story an automatic NC-17 rating. What more could a writer ask for? ;)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I think you've hit something with the simplicity of it. You might want to see my answer below to another commenter, about how male characters aren't judged the same way female characters are, or in the same manner - they're more likely to be judged as characters reacting to motivations, not "a woman doing something."