I’m wandering on over Unleaded Fuel for Writers to with a post on how gender affects characters. Here’s a preview:
Sometimes finding books with good women characters is really hard. I’ve spent a lot of time in the bookstore scanning the shelves for stories that I wanted to read. For a while, I even read romance novels — Harlequin Intrigues mostly because they had action and mystery, too — because it was so difficult to find much. I’d also look at the covers of fantasy novels for pictures of women. But then I’d have to flip to the summary to see if the book actually featured a woman. Sometimes the publisher would put a woman on the cover to get the guys and then she’d be nowhere in the story.
Then there’s the current trend of having a female protagonist because — news flash — women buy books! It’s most noticeable in Thriller, where the writer often pairs the protagonist with a male sidekick. Am I ecstatic about this, given all the difficulties finding books? Read more on Unleaded Fuel for Writers.
tktrian
February 14, 2013 at 6:29 am
Hi! Read the article, gotta agree with the top 5! It’s a surprisingly flammable topic, and especially women with no experience in combat sports / army/ etc. don’t enjoy being told things like ‘oh, men have in general more upper body strength.’ -K. Trian
Linda Adams
February 16, 2013 at 9:51 am
I’ve been surprised when it turns up on writing message boards and how people start declaring “Everyone is the same.” Though I think most women already know they don’t have the same upper body strength just from doing basic things like carrying in the groceries and then watching a must stronger guy carry more in.