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: 2012-03-25 07:43 pm (UTC)I agree Battle Royale is better literature but Hunger Games was a fun.
I have to pause here because some teen girl is getting embarassed as hell after her mom convinced the rest of those waiting here to sing Happy Birthday.
Ok... I look at Katniss as being the anti-Bella. She has no real interest in romance and just concerned with survival. Obviously its a product of her life to that point but I agree it was nice to see a strong young female character taking such a proactive role.
As for works I read I've never been bothered by reading books with female protagonists. Young Wizards come to mine and Muriel of Redwall.
As for writing I'm fine writing either.
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Date: 2012-03-26 02:57 am (UTC)Bella, from Twilight i see as one of the worst characters in my opinion, she just doesn't have anything going for her, seeing you describe Katniss as being anti-Bella makes me a little excited about actually reading/seeing this.
And i always use Buffy Summers as the benchmark. LOL
As for writing, it's not a matter of gender for me, it's a matter of the actual characteristics. :)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-26 05:02 pm (UTC)I don't remember as a kid noticing that the girl/woman characters were any less prevalent or poorly presented relative to the male characters, but I am pretty sure I self-screened for that without even noticing. I'd just get bored of those stories and stop reading them without absorbing why.
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Date: 2012-03-26 07:04 pm (UTC)And it remains with me today. I like writing strong women and I do so consciously. 90% of my stories have female leads and I like that. I do occasionally write male POVs but only if the character is interesting or needs to be male. I have one short story on submission with a male doctor lead and a failed MG with a boy protag (who I liked a lot).
AND OMG! I should asked you to beta my short with the doctor! I'm sure I got piles wrong! And he didn't have as much as personality as I wanted...
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Date: 2012-03-26 08:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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