Gender Politics
Dangerous ground this. I never feel comfortable talking about writing female characters, beyond saying that I don't feel confident in my ability to do so. In the same vein I don't feel comfortable talking about other women writing men because I tend to resort to stereotypes and in an ideal world any character could behave as they wish without the constraints of social opinion.
Let's break it down into simple and somewhat offensive terms.
Man writing woman as tomboy (yet still hot) = empowering.
Woman writing man as feminine (looks irrelevant) = not attractive.
So are the details of male and female in the character's attitude? The way they react to things? Is it overt or is it in the little details?
I'm thinking damn it!
First Workshop
So I volunteered to be one of the second years to submit a piece for the first fiction workshop. I decided to submit one of my more finished pieces and not surprisingly the reactions tended towards the negative. I enjoyed the experience at the time. The criticism and advice was all good. I left thinking that I could go home and write something good, something worthwhile. I think it was a combination of sugar running out and being incredibly tired that made me have a minor crisis. I began wondering what the point of the course was if I didn't finish it capable of writing publish-worthy prose. I mean really. I figured passing is kinda pointless if you aren't good enough...
The crisis is over now. I'm just back to writing again. I need to get things done. That's all. I just found the arc I went through interesting. I look forward to the next reaming!