30 Days - day 6

[graculus]

6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

Given the fandoms I write in, I'd be on relatively short rations if I preferred writing female characters.

I have no particular interest in writing about Sam Carter, Janet Fraiser, Mary or April Dancer as primary characters in the vast majority of my stories. They may (and often do) get to play strong supporting roles or are there to drive the plot in some direction or other, or they may not.

My heart belongs to the smart, sarcastic, yet ultimately damaged individuals that I do like to write about and in my current fandoms it just so happens they're men. I expect, for example, if I wrote Buffy fic I'd be writing about Faith (all of the above and hot in leather pants) but since I don't, I'm not.

For me it's about who the characters are, not whether their genitalia are on the inside or the outside.

Comments

[cycnus39]

Like you, I'll quite happily write female characters -- they just never feature largely in my stories because they are not the focus. I think people are surprised that people who write slash don't hate on female characters. They seem to think that if we didn't we'd be writing het. Rather nonsensical but there you go.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I guess it's about what stories need telling, what the original source material doesn't give you - if the show/movie/book itself doesn't use female characters as the main storyline then why should I be obliged to? If those characters don't have the qualities that draw me in the first place, since I very clearly have a type I like to read/write about, then where does that leave me as a writer?

When they do (like, for example, Fringe - a show I love immensely where the protagonist is a female FBI agent) I don't really need anything else I'm not already getting from the show itself, therefore no fic.