by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I would like to note that I’m aware that a man saying “female” gives some women the “ick.” But, like the headline above, sometimes you have to say female because “woman” just sounds weird and awkward.
The heroine of my first novel looks kind of like this in my mind.
Anyway, I write about this all the time because it really bothers me. A lot of squeaky wheels in my prospective audience get really worked up about how bad male authors are at attempting to write from a female POV. As such, I really get kind of nervous whenever I write something about the female experience that I can only extraplate or reverse engineer from a male perspective.
I had no idea this was even an issue when I started working on this six novel project. But now, I think about it all the time. There is, in real terms, little I can do about it. Either you accept that a man can write from a female POV, or you don’t.
All I can do is just write my vision for the novel out and see what happens. I’m feeling pretty good at this point about my ability to write female characters (really, some people want me to say “woman characters?” that is so awkward to write.)
Or maybe this?
Anyway, I’m getting really excited about writing the third draft of my first novel. And I’m also really thinking hard about the other six novels in the project. My only fear, at this point is, of course, that I’m being really, really ambitious and I’m going to drop dead before I come anywhere near finishing all six novels.
But I definitely have the overall, macro arc of the six novels well thought out in my mind. It deals with events over the course of a generation and has an open ended conclusion that would setup a whole new series of books with a Lisbeth Salander-type heroine.
At least, that’s the vision. I’m 50, I could very well just die of a heart attack and that will be that. But wish me luck, I guess?
