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

[tyleet27.livejournal.com]

I tend to write more male characters than female characters as well, but...I think why I do that is largely part of who I think my intended audience is. In RL & original fiction, when I write female characters, most people automatically assume that I'm being autobiographical, so male characters are more freeing in that sense to be sure...

In fanfiction? I think a large part of it is that the most interesting characters imo are men....and a great part of that is that the most interesting women always end up attached to someone by the end of canon, and her story gets wrapped up pretty neatly most of the time. What I love about fanfiction is being able to fill in the blanks, and I think that the characters with the most loose ends tend to be male--and that makes them easier to write and more fun to explore.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

It's my opinion male characters aren't judged the same way female characters are. A male character is analyzed for motivations and influences, not because they're male, whereas frequently, a female character is picked apart solely on her gender.