I’ve been doing a rewrite of the first YA novel I wrote.
While the pov is split between a few characters, the majority of the story is
told in the pov of a 17-year-old boy. Not only do I need to have the narrative
sound distinctive between characters, but I also need this boy to sound like a
boy. I can tap into his mannerisms and I think I’ve got the dialogue down, but I’ve
read books that still sound like a woman wrote them when it’s a male
character and vice versa.
What I’ve been doing is reading, and sometimes rereading,
books with male leads. Some written by men, some written by women.
-The Unwind series by Neil Shusterman.
-The Furnace series by Alexander Gordon Smith.
-I just finished reading TWISTED by Laura Halse Anderson. Her male character sounded like a male. Never once was I aware that a woman had created Tyler
As a teen, I
hung around a lot of boys, but that was many moons ago. Still, I’ve been paying
close attention to the men in my life just to see how they think, because
usually when I become aware that a woman wrote a male character its in the
narrative, the boy’s inner thoughts. Hopefully, I can tap into my mc's thoughts and
make him sound like a boy and not a boy written by a woman.
How do you all go about writing characters of the opposite sex?
Karen @~>~
With a lot of help! My wife clued me in to what a woman would think and do.
ReplyDeleteI find it easier writing as a male character, for some reason. Much easier to get into their heads, maybe because I've always gotten along with males more than females.
ReplyDeleteI always find it easier writing boys--but sometimes I still get the dialogue dead wrong. That's when having a seventeen year old son as a writing partner REALLY comes in handy. haha.
ReplyDeleteIf you are having a problem with any of the scenes, send them over and I'll critique them with Chance. He's awesome at spotting non-authentic sounding teenage guy dialogue. :)