[sindohte]

It's that time again girls and boys... Sindohte has a thinking cap question For the writers out there - since fanfiction tends to be a female dominated profession, what have been some of the joys and/or the struggles about writing male characters? And considering the fact that Tolkien did not give us many Tolkien created female characters to work with, writers have had to work with mostly males. How do you deal with writing what has been considered typically "masculine" pursuits such as battles or sword fights in your stories? Do you write about them, because that is authentic, but run the risk of turning off female readers or do you gloss over violence and gore? What are some of the tricks that you use to get into the heads of your male characters?

And for Inglor and the other male fanfiction readers/writers out there - what have you noticed about the male fanfiction characters that have been written by female authors? Do they seem authentic or are they totally off the mark?

All right folks, let's start spilling the beans. I want to know all of your good and juicy secres and thoughts.

[SpaceWeavil]

One of the things that’s helped me a lot is that I’ve had more male friends than female ones (and I mean that in a platonic, innocent sense ) So when I’ve written male characters in the past, I draw a lot from experience, maybe not so much in LOTR but certainly in other fandoms. I do worry though that my male protagonists might not be accurate, since no matter how deeply I imagine their responses and reactions, I am still looking at it from a female perspective.

Saying that, I also read quite a lot of books written by male authors, and for things like battle scenes and smut scenes, I pay attention to the way they’ve handled the scene. I do include battle scenes in my fan fic if they are necessary. Just as an example (and as a bit of shameless advertising) in the last chapter of ‘Alliance’, I needed to do a small fight scene, to set things up for later plot twists and character development. I did worry that this might turn readers away, not so much because it ‘was’ a battle scene but more because, in order to put as much pressure on Elrond as possible and make it clear to readers why the stuff that’s going to happen would happen, it had to be fairly realistic and graphic. It did worry me that in the midst of a fairly calm love story, that might turn people off, but it had to be done.

What I did for that was to get a hold of as many fantasy books as I could lay my hands on and read out for battle scenes that held my attention and that I thought were well written, had a look at the way that author used language to achieve what he wanted to, then applied that to my story. I’m doing the same with smut scenes, not for ‘Alliance’ just yet but for a little First Age thing I’ve been pottering with.

To my knowledge I’ve only ever been reviewed by male readers on FF.Net for my Dr Who / Matrix or UFO stories, and they seemed happy enough, but it would be interesting to hear opinions on LOTR fan fic. (Not just mine but in general).

Sorry, that turned into an essay.

[GypsieRose]

I have a feeling my answer is not going to be all that popular, but oh well.

I really don't focus on "Hey, this character is a man." I think that leads to the trap of bringing all kinds of 20th/21st century cultural baggage into Middle-Earth where it doesn't belong. Instead, I try to steep myself in what is known about the character and his culture from the books/movies. Not "How would a man react in this situation?" but "How would Aragorn react in this situation, given his age, his cultural background, and his personality?"

--Rose

[Lossefalme01]

This is an interesting question. And it was actually brought up in a writing workshop I attended with A. C. Crispin. She mentioned the fact that in general, females are better at writing male characters than males are at writing female characters. This is because, as women, we tend to be brought up (whether it's intentionally or unintentionally/consciously or unconsciously) to be aware of what makes men tick, what turns them on, what turns them off; just as a gender we tend to be more aware of other people's feelings and attitudes. Which is why our male characters tend to be more realistic than a guy's female characters, because we pay more attention to a guy's habits/attitudes/likes/dislikes/feelings/reactions to certan situations than they usually pay to ours. Not that that's ALWAYS the case, of course, but just in general. I've read several published male authors who do a fine job with their female characters. But in truth, I've never yet read a fanfiction by a male author, so that's for sure on my To Do list, because I'd be fascinated to see if they write the male characters of LOTR any different than I or other female ff authors do.

I have no idea if my male LOTR characters are well done from a guy's perspective or not, because to my knowledge no guy has ever read (or at least, has never left a review for) my fic. I would actually really like to get a guy's perspective on it, but my husband doesn't like to read the things I write. Not because he's not interested in them or thinks they are bad, just because to read things he says he can't know the author personally. Don't ask me... that's just what he says! And currently I don't know of any other guys who would be interested in reading a Legomance!

[sindohte]

[Haleth]

[Lossefalme01]

And now to finish my thoughts:

[SpaceWeavil]

[Mitasova]

While writing my first attempt in a fic from a man's POV in Dragonlance fandom (don't ask), I was driving my husband up the wall. I was trailing after him asking to read the next part and tell me if I described my character's reactions in a correct way. To make matters worse, my character was an OMC and had quite a "mediocre" personality - no distinct flaws, no huge virtues, just a guy. By and by, the hubby has convinced me, that I didn't do any glaring mistakes - my character didn't act like a woman. So I have to second GypsieRose's thoughts - there's hardly any strictly "male" or "female" way of thinking and feeling and acting. It's all in the personality. If the writer knows her character's mindset, his history, quiks and flaws, there shouldn't be a problem. As for accurate depictions of battles and gore, I think that's a matter of the writer's skill, not gender. Some of the best battle scenes in modern sci-fi and fantasy were written by women, so I don't see why fanfic writers cannot do it as well. The specifics of the equipment, supplies and battle formations can be researched and anyway, people's thoughts and reactions are always more important than small details (not that the details should be ignored).

Another thing that I've noticed is that when I applied some pop-psychology to my characters (textbooks, magazines and such being the source), trying to line them up with an average male, that made them look a) clished and b) OOC. Guess Tolkien's males are not average after all!
==

Tanya

[Andreth]

I guess I'm the odd man out because I do make a conscious effort to have some kind of distinction in the characteristics of male and female characters. I consider it part of getting into the head of the character. In some situations, the thoughts that run through a woman's mind and the thoughts that run through a man's mind are far, far different things.

Men and women characters are going to behave differently in some aspects, just as they do in real life. Not to say that I use cliched old stereotypes of women wailing at the drop of a hat or cowering in fear, or men swaggering around, flexing their muscles and scratching their balls. Although now that I think about it, those cliches would have their uses, depending on the character you were writing.

But I try to make subtle differences in speech patterns and word usage, emotional reactions, sexual reactions, etc. I have noticed that women seem to identify more with male characters who are given some feminine inflections. Nothing overboard, like painting their fingernails or chatting about bras, but more like male characters who are in touch with their 'feminine side' as it were.

So for me, there is a difference between writing masculine and feminine characters, something that's part of establishing the overall nature of the individual character.

[Lossefalme01]

I would agree that males and females react/act/think MUCH differently in certain situations, but in my LOTR fanfic I don't really come to too many of those really different situations and so it's not a HUGE issue to me. I do take it into consideration when I need to however, but the difference between the sexes is a much bigger deal to me in my Orlifics than in my LOTR fic. I'm not sure exactly why, probably because more of those "situations" arise in the Orlifics. Also, I think what you said about the cliches also is a good point, Andreth. There ARE some characters that would fit those stereotypes and where it would be appropriate to use them... I also think that the differences between males and females can depend on the characters you're writing. Even if they don't follow the cliches, I would tend to make Legolas much less "man cliche" than, say, Aragorn, and I'd probably make Boromir or Gimli more "man cliche" than Aragorn. Depending on their personalities/cultures/backgrounds/upbringing and such, because all of that would have an influence on their character and how "manly" or whatever they acted.

[Eyborg]

I don't really have a problem writing about male characters, since I'm such a tomboy myself, he he... But yes, it's right that males and females often behave quite differently in various situations. Especially when you're writing about humans... If you're writing about non-human characters, like elves or hobbits, you can sometimes "bend" the gender stereotypes a little bit, since, for instance, hobbit males or elf males don't always behave like human males, if you follow me. And I must admit that I find it much easier to write about a male that is non-human, than a human male (probably because then I can make the character however I like, he he). But writing about a human male character is a good challenge, and I want to practise more on that! (BTW how about making that a challenge... writing a story about an original male character?)

[Ningloreth]

If you go here:

http://www.bookblog.net/gender/genie.html

you can paste in a sample of your text and they will analyse it and tell you if it's written by a male or female. (It's to do with certain constructions being typically male or typically female, apparently).

I tried it on some stream of consciousness from one of my OMCs and he came out male...

[Havetoist]

Posted a couple of paragraphs on Isong (my original bad elf/object of lust and desire).

It seems I found my masculine side in him.

I feel much better now. Afriad I was writing a wuss.

Thanks!

[Elennare]

I tried the site as well, and the results were most amusing.

Two-thirds of the time it thought I was male (especially on backgrounds for female RPG characters).
My boyfriend was always (correctly) identified as male by his writing, but our collaborative efforts are always judged to be female...