Writing Pov

[spark]

In both "A Change for Naomi" and "Phone Conversation", and "Mimi's Struggle" are all excellent stories. What I find surprising is that these are all written by men, but have a female POV.

Personally, when I write something, I find it difficult to write in a female POV. Even when I write in third person, I'm always visualizing the events as myself, a male. In fact, it has to be a white male. I'm curious about other people's experience with this.

When I think about classic novels, most are written from the same perspective as the author- "Great Gatsby" written from the perspective of Nick-a white male. "Catcher in the Rye" is written in the perspective of Holden Caulfield.

How do some of you write from the female perspective? What issues do you have with writing with another POV?

[WBDaddy]

1) Mimi's Struggle is very much written by a woman, not a man.

2) If you've ever done any acting (or RP), it's about getting "into character". It can be very, very challenging, to abandon your own personality and take on one that has been invented, either by someone else or yourself. The biggest issues I've experienced with writing a POV that is drastically different from my own (Naomi is my third such effort, along with Alli and Abba and its offshoot Better Late Than Never) center around the problem of being unable to get into character, and therefore unable to advance the story. Better Late Than Never has been gathering dust for precisely that reason - the main character is such a precise mindset (six year old girl, severely developmentally and socially delayed, so mentality more like age 3-4) where, if I can't get to that mindset, I can't write anything that doesn't clash loudly with the rest of the book.

[Mama Melody]

In both "A Change for Naomi" and "Phone Conversation", and "Mimi's Struggle" are all excellent stories. What I find surprising is that these are all written by men, but have a female POV.

Personally, when I write something, I find it difficult to write in a female POV. Even when I write in third person, I'm always visualizing the events as myself, a male. In fact, it has to be a white male. I'm curious about other people's experience with this.

When I think about classic novels, most are written from the same perspective as the author- "Great Gatsby" written from the perspective of Nick-a white male. "Catcher in the Rye" is written in the perspective of Holden Caulfield.

How do some of you write from the female perspective? What issues do you have with writing with another POV?

I don't write abdl stories (yet) but I actually agree.

I may be a woman, but I find it hard to write from a female POV. My female characters are either called "too man-ish" or "too weak." I can't find that nice middle ground! GAAAH!!!!

And I would disagree that most of the great novels are written in first person. The Fountainhead, Catch 22, Of Mice and Men, Brave New World....I'd say it's about 50/50 between 3rd and 1st person.

[spark]

With the novels, I wasn't talking necessarily about 1st person (that is another discussion). Even if they are written in 3rd person, they always have some one telling the story- and often from the same perspective as the author. I think my issue is that I don't have any acting ability, and wasn't able to get into being another character when I tried (it felt make-believe).

When I write, the character I write always resembles myself. Of course, I haven't done very much writing fiction recently (it takes a lot of energy, and I sometimes get lost in doing other things).

[BoTox]

I have written male and female. When I write, gender isn't the important part, the feeling that I can see it happening is what is important. I see things through the character's eyes and just write what I see. Some of my stories are a bit self referential but most are as if I was peering through their eyes and hearing them think. Or, if you like, I'm describing what I see on TV.

[BabyJune]

It would be difficult for me to write from a woman's point-of-view without getting sarcastic. I've had so many bad experiences with the way some women have misunderstood and mistreated me that I would tend to put a bitter edge on the character's personality. I guess that unless you are actually a woman there is no way you can "feel" what they do or think the way they do. Must be a "Men are From Mars; Women are From Venus" thing. In my novel "Dirty Secrets," I did have to do a bit of writing from the perspective of the main character's female friend, though, and I think I did a good job of making it work. I simply put aside my negative feelings about women and created her the way I'd like women to be. (Dangerous territory, I know).

[pink nappies]

In both "A Change for Naomi" and "Phone Conversation", and "Mimi's Struggle" are all excellent stories. What I find surprising is that these are all written by men, but have a female POV.

Ah, this really does never get old. It must be my macho screen name and avatar.

I'm afraid to say that I am a very poor example of what you were trying to show, as I really dislike male characters and avoid writing them wherever possible. Of course, there is a difference between background characters that populate most fictional worlds and the protagonists into whom the author invests much of their self. I will never ever write a single solitary sentence with a male leading character for personal reasons, but I probably couldn't even if I wanted to. The sad truth is that I just find it too difficult to write out of my comfort zone and it is almost impossible for me to get into the right frame of mind to create a male character. As such I avoid them wherever I can, even very minor characters. I realise that the single mother is such an AB/DL cliche, but if I ever try and bring a father into the action it just seems laboured. However, I can't see any reason to omit male characters other than the one I just gave, so I can't see why it has become such a cliche...

I will also add that because AB/DL authors are for the most part amateurs, it is often blatantly obvious when a male author is writing against their gender, usually because the character is based on a fantasy of the guy writing it. Now of course this doesn't apply to everyone and it may well be true of female authors too, but I obviously can't comment as well on that. For this reason I try to avoid looking at the author before I read a new story, but the gender usually becomes clear quite quickly. For me, once I find out that I'm reading a story about a girl written by a guy, it can often ruin an otherwise perfectly good story.

[spark]

Sorry about that, That was me not going back and looking at the post. I enjoyed the story, and made assumptions. You're feelings are similar to mine. If I wrote in the mind of female character, it would feel forced. I can write about females, but only from the perspective of a male.

[WBDaddy]

I will also add that because AB/DL authors are for the most part amateurs, it is often blatantly obvious when a male author is writing against their gender, usually because the character is based on a fantasy of the guy writing it.

Is it that obvious in my stuff? I hope not, or at least I wish someone had said something before I got one story finished and another store 80,000 words deep...

[pink nappies]

I'm not going to lie WelcomeBackDaddy, I am very difficult to please when it comes to stories. I'm afraid I haven't read any of yours because they don't meet my strict criteria, coupled with my previously mentioned aversion to stories I know have been written by guys. As such, I really can't coment on how well you write female characters but I'm sure you're better than most, as I'm sure you can agree given the calibre of AB/DL fiction that appears on most sites these days.

[WBDaddy]

Of course, now my curiosity is piqued regarding your "criteria".

[langtab]

i struggle with this myself. I have a hard time developing my female characters but I do believe there is a work around. I like to stay away from any form of sexual side to my female characters and instead I focus on the experience. I think most of us can agree that in most abdl fantasies the objective is the same. The character, male or female, is genuinely concerned with finding a motherly, fatherly, or just plain dominant person to lead them through their experience. By describing the experience and the thoughts and emotions involved you can develop a well rounded character of the opposite sex.

Maybe I am wrong and maybe people wont see this in my writing but I do believe that people can develop well rounded and believable characters of the opposite sex.

[JDL23]

Most to all of the diaper stories I write are from the perspective of female characters or consist of an all-female cast. Partly, I find it's because I tend to fantasize more about women than I do about men, so it's easier for me to write a diaper-based story involving female characters. In my non-ABDL writings, however, I do write more male protagonists, although I've also written female characters and gotten good feedback about them as well.

In my case, I've struggled to actually get my male characters down right because, more often than not, they end up becoming either Gary Stus or guys with no real personality other than to be an author stand-in surrounded by far more interesting and complex characters. This occurs in both my regular and ABDL stories, and while I've started to get better with writing male leads in my regular stories, I still haven't figured it out in my diaper fiction.