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Fun fact: up until recently, I found it more difficult to write female POV characters than male POV characters.
Now that’s not to say that I consistently wrote one with a greater degree of success than the other, but I often found the voice harder to nail with my female POV characters than I did with the guys.
For the longest time I couldn’t really figure out why that was—as a heterosexual woman, it would make sense that I’d find it easiest to write from a female POV…right?
Problem was, I often got bored with the voices of my female characters. They largely came out sounding the same, which I knew was a problem, and if I was being honest with myself, they really weren’t all that interesting. It wasn’t until I wrote a WIP with a female POV character who was absolutely nothing like me that I realized the problem—my previous female characters were too much like myself.
Writing is an opportunity to take a journey through someone else’s eyes. It’s a chance to step out of yourself and experience someone else’s life. I love that about writing, and so it makes sense to me that I love to write characters that are very different from me.
Granted, parts of myself do slip into my character’s personalities. Many of my MCs share my love for sarcasm and have analytical minds. Some of them have trouble with empathy, like me, and many of them are pretty strategically-minded.
I’ve often seen people online ask how to write characters different from themselves, and the biggest bit of advice I’ve seen is one that I couldn’t agree with more: think of them as people first. Beyond race, gender, religion or sexual orientation, our characters are people first. They have opinions, desires, fears and dreams like everyone else, they have tempers and motivations and pet peeves and loved ones.
If you figure out who they are first, the rest falls into place. It’s just a matter of getting to know them well enough so that you can.
Do you find it difficult or easy to write a character unlike yourself? Why?
Twitter-sized bites:
Twitter-sized bites:
"Beyond race, gender, religion or sexual orientation, our characters are people first." (Click to tweet)
Do you find it difficult or easy to write a character unlike yourself? Join the discussion at @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)
16 comments:
For me, its hang ups and social expectations. I worry about what's expected from my female characters and then struggle to shake those things. Weirdly, I'm able to write female characters fine from outside my male POV.
Once that female character is developed through another character's eyes, I reckon I would be fine to use them as a main POV...but by then its too late to switch things up like that.
I still hope to attempt it next year though!
Nice post, Ava!
Someone on Twitter (wish I remembered who) once said she realized her characters could never be funnier than she herself, since she was the one who had to write it. So I think every character I write needs to have a part of me, even if it's only a small part. Even my villains do. But I can "stretch" the rest as long as it makes sense to me. I'm sure I have my limits. I just wrote a short story with a character very different from myself. It was fun ans something to striver for more and more in the future.
I think of characters very much as a part if me but I find it quite easy to write different aspects that are not like me at all. I think I may suffer from having too many similar characters though. I'll have to think about it.
My narrator really is the complete opposite of myself. Being able to write from his point of view can sometimes be a sort of guilty pleasure. I get to pretend to be someone who doesn't act or think in any way close to how I do. I find my own personality traits often pop up more in the supporting characters for some reason.
Thanks, Shay! There's definitely a lot to consider with male/female expectations and what rules you want to break, etc. It can be a lot to think about, especially early on.
Best of luck! :)
It's definitely fun to step outside of yourself and write as a character unlike yourself. I think your Twitter friend's thought is interesting—in a sense I agree, although I sometimes think my characters are funnier than I am if only because they'll say things that I won't. So I suppose they're as funny as my internal monologue, which I will often keep to myself. :)
Having too many similar characters is something pretty easy to slip into. But it's (thankfully) yet another issue that can be solved by some revisions.
Could be maybe your troubles are similar to what mine were? Or maybe it's something else entirely...but I know how you feel. Heh heh.
I love that! It's so true about writing POV characters who are different from yourself—it can be extremely entertaining. I hadn't really thought about how many of my supporting characters end up with some of my traits though...hmm.
Does this mean all your characters both male and female are awesome lol?
One other thing about writing funny characters. You can consider carefully what they'll say and still make it their quick comeback. In real life, I might not think of a funny reply until a few hours later. (sigh)
So true!
Of course every character has a bit of the writer in them, but I think you're right, Ava - characters who are not like us are often easier to write. That's been my experience, at least. One of my favorite characters I wrote was someone who was Nothing Like Me At All; if fact, if she'd been real, we probably would not have gotten along at all. I disliked her as a person, but loved her as a character to write, if that makes sense. :-P
It's funny, because I've found that unlikable characters can actually be pretty interesting to write. I don't think we have to necessarily like them as people to enjoy writing them. :)
Character voice is something I have trouble with- right now I'm writing a novel with two different MC's... one male and analytical, one female and more emotional (typical, I know...), so I've found that digging deeper into the character first can help a lot! Answering questions like their fears, how they look at the world, etc... but in the end, practice makes perfect, right?
PS- love your blog!! :)
Character voice can be tough to nail, especially early on, but you're definitely right that getting to know your characters ahead of time can be a big help! Also, practice helps. :)
PS- Yay! Thank you!!! ^_^
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