Let's hear it for the boys.
15 Jun
I always write as boys in my stories. Always. I don’t know if I’ve ever written a story that wasn’t told primarily from a male viewpoint. I like writing men: I think men are funny, endearing, and straightforward. Women say things and mean another, but, for the most part, if a man is saying something, he believes it. I like little boys and the way their minds work. I love hearing about mothers with a houseful of testosterone– it makes me wistful, to have that noise, activity, those stories of GUESS WHAT THEY DID TODAY. I like their toys, their gadgets, their friendships, their adventures. I like the clothes they wear. It makes me jealous, sometimes. There are certain things that look SO GOOD on men that I could never pull off. Brad Pitt’s abs, for one. On me? Not so good.
I love when men have a long-sleeved shirt under a short-sleeved one, usually white under gray, the lumberjack look. WHAT. I can’t stand it. It’s too good. I love their office clothes: I love their pressed khakis, ties, dress shirts with the sleeves rolled up. I like the way men look wielding things– baseball bats, hammers, power tools– things that, if I lugged them around, would look stupid. I love their height and their broad shoulders, their deep voices. I like that they have buddies they don’t have to call or catch up with to keep a relationship going. Their friends are just their friends. End of it.
I like being a woman, because one of the things that seems true, to me, is that women are the driving force behind manhood, and that most of what they do is because of or for us. I like the ones who don’t understand us, at all, and I like the ones who think they do.
This novel, this all-consuming thing in my life, has a boy as a lead role, and I have to write it trying to imagine everything from a male perspective. This book went from a little novella thing to a big epic coming-of-age story, and I have to imagine every possible emotion from the opposite gender: revenge, grief, falling in love, sexual encounters, death, murder, even casual relationships. I’m less afraid that people will hate the story than a man will read it and say, No. This isn’t us at all. You did it wrong.
I’ve just been thinking about it, a lot. It’s 12:38 in the morning. I’m drinking Diet Pepsi, and water, and I feel really small and lonely.
It’s so much easier for me to write from the male perspective as opposed to the female. I’m not really sure why. Maybe because it’s so foreign and so much easier to get really involved in…I mean, I’m used to girls and how they act. How boring! Besides, if I write as a guy, then I can make him my ideal. Which generally means really, really messed up.
Do you ever have times where you look at women — or maybe just a certain type of woman, acting in a certain way — and go “Huh?” I just don’t get it: the backstabbing, the bitching, the mind games; it just seems pointless to me. I’ve always thought that if I were a parent, I’d rather have a son.
I understand why you’d be worried about having men say, “No. This isn’t us at all.” I’ve had the same worry when writing from a male protagonist’s point of view, so much so that I used to ask my guy friends/boyfriends how they would feel if put in a certain situation, just as a kind of baseline. But there are so many different types of guys out there that what one guy may dismiss as false might hit a chord with another. As long as your character displays a range of genuine emotions (and I’m sure he does), you’ll be fine.
So… don’t feel really small and lonely! I’m sure that your novella/epic coming-of-age story is amazing, gripping, and honest. And when you publish it, there are tons of people who are really excited to read it, me included. =) Good luck, and I’m sure you’ll get the characterization thing sorted out in the end.
You made me wish to be a man
I think it’s the curiosity of how it would be like to be in the opposite sex’s shoes. Even if i dont think men stop and wonder how it’d be to be a woman lol.
The majority of my friends have always been male. I guess I just relate to them better, since I’m not and never have been the typical girly girl. It makes sense that I now have a house full of boys of my own.
Oh, I think you said it all well. I always thought, or at least a few times, about trying to write from the other perspective but I’m afraid to mess it up, and get it all wrong. I hope I do try sometime.
Nothin’ wrong with boys
I love ‘em! I think it’s really neat that you’re writing from a male perspective. That’s out of the ordinary and I’m sure will expand your audience to males AND females now.
I’d feel pretty tiny too if I had an imagination the size of yours to wander in! I think you’ll do fine, I’m sure you’ve read a sufficient amount of male perspective stories written by males to have it come out naturally.