Writerly Ways
Mar. 25th, 2012 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessI’ve been thinking a lot about The Hunger Games. Honestly, I wasn’t all that impressed with the book. It’s pretty much Battle Royale and The Running Man with a cute girl lead. However, the one thing that makes me cheer it on is that it IS a girl lead. Another moment of honesty, I don’t get that worked up if there are mostly male characters in a story. I DO get upset if the girl is only there to weep, wail and get captured every moment.
When it comes down to it, I’d rather the tweens get excited by a strong girl like Katniss than Bella. But it did get me thinking about my own writing. I’m more comfortable writing men. I do not know why. I just am. Even when I start out writing a female lead eventually a male lead crops up and takes over. The closest I’ve come is Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron with Tazia Dragonetti and Machiavelli Moon with Maddelena (who is an older female well at least in vampire years).
I think some of my unhappiness with the female lead stems from childhood where we often didn’t see any or the ones we did see were rather bitchy. I’ve always found C.J. Cherryh’s females to be more bitch than strong though the Nebulas and Hugos she’s been lauded with don’t seem to mind.
The other day two challenges came to mind, one fannish and one original. Granted, it would be a hard challenge to do so I will put it out there more as a request, I’d love to see some of my friends try doing a strong female lead (YA or otherwise). If you’re doing it, I’d be interested in seeing the result.
Also I thought this might be of interest. I got it from my author’s list. It discusses when and how to use social media to promote your latest work. When to use social media to promote your work
Total word count –
22511 / 75000 words. 30% done!
Kept Tear –
13420 / 17000 words. 79% done! (yes I shifted the word count up)
Geeklove – currently abandoned because of deadline issues and work. I’ll come back to it later sadly
Machiavelli Moon – unedited
Splinters & Until the Ice Breaks – ditto
Riding with Strangers – got a scene done. Imagine that!
All my help this charity stories are in limbo STILL. I am SO sorry.
When it comes down to it, I’d rather the tweens get excited by a strong girl like Katniss than Bella. But it did get me thinking about my own writing. I’m more comfortable writing men. I do not know why. I just am. Even when I start out writing a female lead eventually a male lead crops up and takes over. The closest I’ve come is Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron with Tazia Dragonetti and Machiavelli Moon with Maddelena (who is an older female well at least in vampire years).
I think some of my unhappiness with the female lead stems from childhood where we often didn’t see any or the ones we did see were rather bitchy. I’ve always found C.J. Cherryh’s females to be more bitch than strong though the Nebulas and Hugos she’s been lauded with don’t seem to mind.
The other day two challenges came to mind, one fannish and one original. Granted, it would be a hard challenge to do so I will put it out there more as a request, I’d love to see some of my friends try doing a strong female lead (YA or otherwise). If you’re doing it, I’d be interested in seeing the result.
Also I thought this might be of interest. I got it from my author’s list. It discusses when and how to use social media to promote your latest work. When to use social media to promote your work
Total word count –
Kept Tear –
Geeklove – currently abandoned because of deadline issues and work. I’ll come back to it later sadly
Machiavelli Moon – unedited
Splinters & Until the Ice Breaks – ditto
Riding with Strangers – got a scene done. Imagine that!
All my help this charity stories are in limbo STILL. I am SO sorry.
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Date: 2012-03-27 08:36 pm (UTC)I would hope they would just see it as a cool sci-fi/urban fantasy story and not pre-judge what the content is upfront and pass it over for that reason.
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Date: 2012-03-27 08:41 pm (UTC)On the other hand, you're not going to get every reader, and with the female reading audience being a pretty significant one, what's the value in sweating the audience you might be losing to 'girl cooties'?
That's not a rhetorical question; I think 'how much ground do we give to other people's prejudices'/ how much do we let it compromise our work is a legitimate issue!
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