On Gender

I love a strong female character, specifically, a strong female protagonist. Even better when that female protagonist breaks gender roles. One of the best examples of strong females in a gender-role bending fantasy world is the Dark Jewels series by Anne Bishop. Queens rule and women automatically wield more power then men. Yet, Bishop manages to balance societal the role-reversals without compromising the masculinity and femininity of the male and female characters respectively.

My favorite Greek classic? Antigone, of course. A woman who stands up against the authority of the house patriarch and the head of state.  I've also been fascinated by the accounts of female pharaohs and the Queens that were the heads of state. 

Female rulers were not unheard of, but were rare. And most of the time, that rulership came with a caveat - acting Regent until the Crown Prince comes of age, or only succeeded to the throne if there were no sons in the family. Even Queen Elizabeth I kept her reign for as long as she did due to her refusal to marry and was lauded as "The Virgin Queen." 

A writer in one of the communities I belong to posed a question to the group. He was changing the gender of one of his characters from male to female. And due to this, came across a stumbling block in a line of dialog where the character references male genitalia in a nearly crude way. This got me to thinking about gender and its place in a fantasy world. I passed along the questions I'd asked myself when I was world building. 

How is gender treated in your world? Does a female warrior have something to prove? If it is rare enough that she is the only female in the group... does she constantly have to prove herself? Is she the only female in a unit? Squad? Platoon? In the entire army? Does she sleep in the barracks with the men or does she get her own quarters? Are there traditional gender roles and this character breaks that mold? If there are female warriors, fighters, mercenaries and knights, are their also male servants? Male servants to female gentiles (in lieu of handmaids) or without the need to make those males into eunuchs? Are you in a patriarchal society? Matriarchal? Is it taboo for a woman to lead her house? Are masculine women part of the norm? Are there feminine heterosexual men that are part of the norm? Can a woman legally have property or does her property become her husband's when she marries? Is female virginity sacred? 

The gender of a character is really touchy. Keep in mind that gender equality is not the same as gender neutral. If a female character acts exactly as a male character would, she might come off as "butch."  If we make the assumption that gender in the fictional world is similar to modern gender roles... A male character has male privilege. There are some things that are assumed that a man can do and a woman needs to work doubly hard to prove herself "in a man's world." You'd rarely see a man work doubly hard to prove himself in a "woman's world." Hell, sometimes, a male has to defend his masculinity if he wants to delve into an area that is considered to be a "woman's" domain. 

What are your thoughts on gender roles, masculinity, and femininity in fantasy and sci-fi? What is the norm in your world? 

On Revising and Publishing

I worked damn hard to write a book. Now, I'm working damn hard to revise, revise, revise.

And, following some self-promotional links in a couple of G+ writing communities, I decided to read some of the stuff they were self promoting. It's a book. A YA Book. I've read some pretty darn good YA stuff and have a few YA authors that I really like. Tamora Pierce being one of them. In addition, there are those who we all know who've have made it to Mainstream USA and Movie Deal Land. The cover looks amazing and professionally done... so what have I got to lose? 

Here's how it went -- 

*reads first page* Huh? 

*re-reads first page* - Oh. There are two figures here, and this is supposed to be a dream scene... it said so in the first line, so maybe the disjointedness is intentional. Wait, was this sentence referring to Red or the Other One? Two "hes" and "his's" each wearing a cloak... *head hurts.* Oh great, now there is a third un-named, hooded/cloaked figure slipping through the shadows. 

*puts down Kindle. Thinks for a bit, then removes book from device.*

Call me a literary snob. Maybe my literary standards have been ingrained in me through my years as an academic who studied writing as an art.  Maybe I'm the type of reader that is not the right kind of audience for this novel. Perhaps this will one day be the Jackson Pollock of YA fantasy literature and I am more appreciative of the classics. 

My work may be just as bad, and when I revise my work from cover to cover, I will be just as critical. 

I felt that this novel (in the first 3 pages, so it may be too much of a snap judgement, but agents and traditional publisher make just this kind of judgement) could use some MAJOR revision. Language needed to be tightened, characters needed to be fleshed out, and more time needs to be spent refining the work. 

The initial "feel" that I got from the book's opening was something gothic, akin to Frankenstein or Dracula, but abrupt shifts in the focus within the sentences/paragraphs, the language of the characters' dialog, and the grammatical/punctuational errors all detracted and distracted from the mood the author tried to create. These are things I'd expect a good group of beta readers to catch. These are the things I'd expect a good agent or editor to catch. 

So I did some sleuthing and my suspicions were confirmed... this was a self-pub work being distributed by Amazon.  There's a reason why it's free. I felt deceived and cheated by the 4-star ratings that it has... until I saw that less than two score of readers have bothered to review it since 2009.  

So, here're my questions to the published authors out there, whether you are self-published or traditionally published (and if you choose to answer them, indicate if you were a self-pub or not)- 

1) What is your revision process and how many revisions did you end up going through before publishing? 

2) Questions on test readers: 

How many people did you ask to read your initial work and did any of them offer constructive critiques? Were there any writers in this group of readers? 

If you had multiple revisions, did you have separate groups of readers for each revision? 

3) Did you have a professional to edit and proof your final revision? 

4) And if you are self-pub, did you try the traditional publishing options before going the self-publishing route? 

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for answering! 

-JWM

Getting over the hang ups (over thinking)

One thing about writing that seems to hang me up is the idea of being "fresh" or "new" without being too removed from one's audience. I have my beta readers in line and a very short novel that I expect will need heavy revision

I'm currently fleshing out the last few chapters of the novel and have come upon a few major stumbling blocks. One is the niggling feeling that the literary device I'm using is contrived. Then, there's the idea that I'm doing something that feels like every fantasy writer before me has done it before. Or worse, the little voice in my head that says, "Didn't the ________ storyline do something similar?" 

Is this valid? Or am I just using this as another excuse to let the work sit?