[ SECRET POST #2419 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2419 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Way early because taking dog to the vet. :c

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 075 secrets from Secret Submission Post #346.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. http://oi44.tinypic.com/34yqrrr.jpg

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

I think this is pretty common actually, OP! I know I've seen plenty of female writers complaining that they can't write girls for the life of them.

[transcriptanon]

[Picture is a drawing of the characters Sony and Amy from the Sonic videogame/comic/cartoon franchise "Sonic the Hedgehog", but their colors are inverted: Amy is blue and her headband is gone, while Sonic is light pink and now has a red headband. They're both anthropomorphic cartoon hedgehogs, with huge connected eyes, thin limbs, large white gloved hands and big sneaker/trainer/tennis shoes. Their muzzles and stomaches are cream-colored, and Amy-now-Sonic is wearing a green blouse, and a red skirt, blushing and throwing out cartoon hearts while being carried under one arm by a running, tough-looking Sonic-now-Amy.]

I don't seem to have any problems in creating and developing female characters. Male characters, on the other hand, are unimaginable hard to make. It just feels like anything I try just feels either bland and uninteresting or unbearably annoying.

Secret because: I'm male, so it should be the other way around, I guess.

[ariakas]

You're right, most writers do seem to have no clue what to do with the opposite sex, but you wouldn't be the first I've read who had no clue what to do with their own, either.

You could try a trick my English teacher suggested (originally for men who said they "couldn't write women", but it works for both): make a cast of genderless characters. Flesh out their backstories, give them personalities and professions and relationships, decide on their roles in the story, grow interested in them and attached to them as most creators do - then, flip a coin to determine each character's gender. You must keep the result.

For the few writers I've seen try this out, it turned their one-note damsels and smurfettes into fully-fleshed, fascinating women overnight. It might do wonders for you, too.

Bonus: this method will not only give you a cast that is roughly equal-gendered, but will result in some same-sex relationships if you establish those before the coin toss.

[ill_omened]

Double bonus,

50% of pregnancy stories become Junior.

[ariakas]

Looooool. Or the kids become adopted, but your solution is more hilarious.

[blunderbuss]

That's actually a very good trick. I'm gonna try that!

And I guess if you can't create genderless characters in your head, then I guess you can just imagine them as men and then flip a coin to keep them as male or not.

[ariakas]

Yeah, that's the other version. The bonus of imagining them all as men first is that you will rarely (or never) have given them the tropey baggage that female characters so often get saddled with (Rape as Backstory, Smurfette syndrome, pregnancy as character development, justifying their existence through their relationship to a man, etc.).

[(Anonymous)]

not op, but I'm gonna do this from now on, it sounds like a neat way of writing!

[(Anonymous)]

Why not try writing a genderless character. Just make someone you find interesting and fun, and then bam make them male.

[caecilia]

Keep making female characters and make something awesome.

[(Anonymous)]

I can write women, and enjoy doing it, but I often identify far, far more with my male characters (maybe because I'm very butch in RL and have a lot of male friends?), so I can relate.

[(Anonymous)]

No big loss. too many males in the media as it is.

My experience, and advice.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to have trouble writing females when I was younger mostly because of fear, because it seemed like females got accused of being Mary Sues and from what I had seen online if you wrote a Mary Sue people online pretty much treated you like you were lower than dirt and the most pathetic person ever. Being a bullied kid with serious self esteem problems, well I didn't need shit in my place of escaping.

But I got older, I studied writing and educated myself on what a Mary Sue was. I gained some self esteem and confidence.

But eh that's just my experience. Yours is probably different. I eventually learned to create female characters and male characters by simply not dividing character traits as male and female. Just think of them as people who happen to be [gender]. Once you start thinking that way it becomes less hard.

Also keeping in mind there are a variety of ways to show that trait. You can have two honest people one who is honest, practical , and dependable,and generally seems like an outgoing hardworking and maternal type (Team Mom to reference a trope) and one who is stubborn, sometimes too bluntly honest, keeps to himself , and generally seems to keep to himself and study a lot. Two different people with one shared trait who even show the trait they share in a different way. If that example made any sense.

[feathercircle]

I don't really have anything interesting to say about the secret, but I'm kind of intrigued by that fanart.

[owen_in_boots]

I'm the same way, only opposite. I'm a female that always writes males, but can't write a female to save my life.

[(Anonymous)]

Try writing them as people, not genders. I honestly don't understand the OP or you. People in real life don't fit stereotypical molds, so why should fictional characters?

[owen_in_boots]

I don't think it's so much of a gender-specific issue for me, not in the way it's presented here, it's just that I get very "into" the mind of the character that I'm writing and it's harder for me to get into the head of a female character because I'm generally not as passionate about them.

[(Anonymous)]

Just turn some of your female characters into males. Bam. It's that easy.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to be the same way about female characters (I'm female myself) because I was concerned they'd end up a self-insert or a stereotype. Keep at it and your comfort level will increase until you know it's not an issue. Fleshed out characters of both genders are something we always need more of so I think some of the replies of "Who cares? Stick to what you know!" don't make sense. I do think it's cool that you're interested in female characters so I hope that even while your male characters become stronger, your female characters remain strong themselves. :)