Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

A MAN WRITING FEMALE CHARACTERS

By: Jon Sprunk

Better Than Great by Arthur Plotnik

There is an idea in our culture – and perhaps it’s universally felt – that women are not as good at writing male characters and men are not as good writing female characters. I’m not going to waste my time or yours debating whether this is true. (Hint: it’s not.)

However, when I talk to people who have read my books, I’m sometimes hit with the comment, “I’m surprised how well you write women characters.” While I take the compliment in the spirit it was intended, part of me is always thinking, “Why wouldn’t I be good at it? I’ve known women all my life. My wife is a woman. Some of my best friends are women. Hell, even my mother is a woman!”

Yet, people sometimes get strange ideas in their heads when it comes to sex. It seems predetermined in some circles that women authors write squishy, feely, ‘romantic’ sci-fi/fantasy, while men write bloody and gritty. If that were true, I’d probably have to look into gender-reorientation therapy, because I firmly believe that emotion — that gooey, squishy stuff — is the bedrock of all fiction.

To read the rest of the post, click here.

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again: 

1. Black Gate » Blog Archive » A Man Writing Female Characters http://ow.ly/rkDoB
2. W.I.P. It: M. Pax: Top Five Highs and Lows of Publishing http://ow.ly/rkDsL
3. Question of the Week: Do You Print Out Your Manuscripts? http://ow.ly/rkDwA
4. 10 Keys to Becoming a Successful Writer: An Agent Spills Secrets | WritersDigest.com http://ow.ly/rkDGK
5. How to Trick Yourself into Writing, Editing and Marketing - Rachelle Gardner http://ow.ly/rkDPX
6. Literary Rambles: Tip Tuesday #175 - Sue Copsey on Booktrack http://ow.ly/rkDXt
7. Cec Murphey's Writer to Writer: What Makes a Book a Best Seller? (Part 12 of 13) http://ow.ly/rkEds
8. Janet Reid, Literary Agent: Do you know enough to be querying: Quiz answers http://ow.ly/rkEgE
9. W.I.P. It: You, Too, Can Review http://ow.ly/rkEs5
10. The Write Type - Multi-Author Musings: 10 Mistakes Authors Make That Can Cost Them a Fortune (and how to avoid them) http://ow.ly/rkEtT
11. Advice on Writing the First Draft of a Novel | WritersDigest.com http://ow.ly/rkDKr
12. Beyond E-Books: HarperCollins Looks For the Next Big Thing http://ow.ly/rkEFp
13. Breaking up with books is hard to do | Books | theguardian.com http://ow.ly/rkEJ8
14. How to Begin People Watching: 9 Steps - wikiHow http://ow.ly/rkGxk
15. Self-Publishing And Direct Sales: Pros, Cons And Problems - Forbes http://ow.ly/rkKrw
16. Social Media: Great Tools For Teamwork - Forbes http://ow.ly/rkKvN
17. How to Add a Pinterest Hover Button to your Blogger Images - Digital K http://ow.ly/rkVFe
18. 5 Key Ways to Choose the Right Word (Without a Thesaurus!) - Helping Writers Become Authors http://ow.ly/rlcRe
19. Publish on Amazon Only? One Author's Perspective » Book Promotion . com http://ow.ly/rlcUZ
20. Julie Musil: A Newbie's Baby Steps Toward Self Publishing http://ow.ly/rld0u
21. Is there a return problem for digital books? | The Passive Voice | http://ow.ly/rld2q
22. Writability: Discussion: Does the Protagonist Have to Be Likable? http://ow.ly/rld6e

Happy writing & running, Kathy