The Creative Writer's Guild

[Blueberry Chicken]

It's the first day of NaNoWriMo everybody! Is anyone else (besides me) competing?

[The_Brigadier]

I'm not. I'm too much of a square to come up with stuff on the spot. I need time and preparation to write. And by time I mean months unto years. I say that with no shame.

[The_Brigadier]

How do you write women without being too sexist or making her too much of a feminazi bull-dyke?

[Blueberry Chicken]

Well, I can't say I've perfected the art, but I've got a basic idea. In http://figment.com/books/24576-Modifications, Aster isn't submissive, but she doesn't go around saying that she's superior because she is a wimmenz. None of the other characters (so far, Aster's the only female) seem to mind it, either.

[The_Brigadier]

I don't know. It's so hard to find the balance between someone's feminine side and their masculine side.

With female characters, authors usually try to get the right mixture, but often the character winds as a too much of a ball-busting b*tch (Nynaeve from the Eye of the World), or too submissive, dependent, and pathetic (any chick from V.C. Andrew's work). It's a bit sad that male characters are hardly ever experimented on. Men are usually an uber-masculine man, average, or a conyving faggot (if you'll notice, the feminine guy tends to be on the darkside and has to be crushed by Mr. Manly Man or Sir Average).

How do the rest of you write your ladies?

[capnnerefir]

the character winds as a too much of a ball-busting b*tch (Nynaeve from the Eye of the World)

But we love Nynaeve for that! Besides, those guys all require ball busting ever now and then. Otherwise they'd end up as insufferable assholes (*glares at Matrim*) or do something stupid like rid up to Shayol Ghul and try to punch the Dark One in the face (*glared at Rand, Lan, and a good 30% of the characters*).

How do the rest of you write your ladies?

I really don't write them any differently than I write men. When you get right down to it, the differences between men and women really aren't very important. I've found it helps if I don't sit down and say "I need to write this woman" so much as, "I need to write this character".

[The_Brigadier]

the character winds as a too much of a ball-busting b*tch (Nynaeve from the Eye of the World)

But we love Nynaeve for that! Besides, those guys all require ball busting ever now and then. Otherwise they'd end up as insufferable assholes (*glares at Matrim*) or do something stupid like rid up to Shayol Ghul and try to punch the Dark One in the face (*glared at Rand, Lan, and a good 30% of the characters*).

What do you mean we? I thought she was an annoying b*tch who needed to shut the f*ck up and get with the program. The "war" between the sexes is completely irrelevant when lives are on the line.

As for the whole writing females, I don't think I ever escape the whole balancing act between her yin and yang. I'm so paranoid about making her too much a *shudders* Nynaeve or a (oh merciful heavens) Catherine Dollanganger.

Hm. Now that I think about it, KAA did a great interpretation of females in Animorphs. Rachel appeared to be outwardly feminine, but even before the war, she was harboring a bold side that turned into something more psychotic. Cassie was actually quite the opposite, being outwardly non-feminine, but displaying the archetypes of the healer, empath, and mother.

Sorry for bothering you guys, but gender analysis has always piqued my interest.

[The_Brigadier]

Hey, capn. Since you're an English major, can I ask you these questions?

[capnnerefir]

Well, I'm not technically an English major anymore, since I left college years ago, but I might still be able to help. Shoot.

[The_Brigadier]

A little birdie told me that Western literature has taken a shift. Awhile ago, writing a story was about asking a question, proposing an answer to a question, or challenging society. At the moment, literature is more focused on plots, settings, and characters, rather than philosophy or picking a fight with the world.

From your studies and literary range, have you noticed the shift between "philosophy being the most impotant aspect of a piece" to "plots, settings, and characters being the most focused upon part"?