Fic Talk > General Discussion

Question of the day part 9 (even though days go by lol)

<< < (90/150) > >>

emilo:
This is a tough question for me to answer based on what little fanfic writing I've done so far.  The story Mare is reading in the challenge is obviously very female-centered, as the female lead is narrator. Of course, that's also my "self-indulgent" fic  ::) That being said, I generally like to strike a balance between the two.  I like a strong female lead if it's going to be a romance story or even have a romance subplot-- someone to compliment the male lead, but to also be her own person-- well developed as a character. I find the thought of writing a story that is purely BSB "bromance" pretty intimidating, and I think the biggest reason is that the "characters" are basically already who they are.  You can play with them by putting them in any number of situations and predict how you think, say, Howie Dorough, the Backstreet Boy, is going to react in said situation, but the thought of doing that for an entire, well-developed story is a little daunting for me.  I'm not sure I can characterize them as well as a lot of you do.  I like being able to write a major character who is an original character because I can make her anyone I want her to be (and I say "her" here because basically, it's a Mars vs. Venus thing-- men confuse me. lol, and I feel like I can just do a better job of characterizing a female than I can a male). But, when all is said and done, the BSB should still be central to the story, and not just play a small, supporting role.  Does that make sense?

RokofAges75:
That makes sense, Emily, and I feel the same way about the bromance thing.  I love reading bromance and enjoy writing it in small doses, like individual scenes, but I've never written a purely BSB bromance, either.  I have written stories about the group, in which there are no major original characters, but those tend to be more plot-driven than the character-driven type of bromance Mare is known for writing.  I have the guys bond over bus crashes and zombie uprisings and killer alien monkey invasions and stuff like that LOL.

I don't do pure bromance any more than I do pure romance; I think I'm just not that type of writer.  Stories that are just about the relationship between characters, whether it's a friendship or a romantic relationship, always sound so boring in my head, but in the right people's hands, they can be really fun to read.  I just don't know that I could do that kind of a story justice.

mare:
Maybe if I define what I think female centered means to me anyway, it might help to see where I'm coming from. You know a few years ago I used to hate all female leads etc... I have grown softer with the idea of girls taking an important part of the storytelling mainly because of these challenges and reading stories that have been able to pull this off. I get how sometimes reading all just the boys can grow kind of tedious and sometimes you do need that balance of a strong female character to help get through all the testosterone.

Since you are the two that answered this it works out perfectly because I read Curtain Call as last year's challenge story and I'm reading Forever for this years and I think one is female centered and one is male centered! lol

So I guess Mare's definition really is simply whether in the end it's about the boys or about the girl.

Curtain Call has Cary and Nick telling the story pretty equally but like you said, Julie , you can tell it's Cary's story but there was no doubt it was a Backstreet Boy story because Nick and his illness were the underlying plot point. They were ever present and the main stars. I told you when I was reading it, that I was happy you did the alternating points of view because as I had mentioned when reading I wasn't really all that into Cary (I'm sure the only person on the planet lol) and if it was told purely through her eyes, I most likely would have lost interest.

Forever in my mind is Emily's story and how she deals with circumstances surrounding her involvement in a girlband and the various boyband members she tends to form relationships with along the way.  The boys happen to be in it and play a major part but it's clear the main plot points deal with her more so than any of the boys. This story to me is a female centered fic. But here I really do like the female lead, Emily. She has a strong personality and can easily carry a story on her back. But if she was a weak character there would be no way the story would have held my interest.

The underlying thing both of these stories have in common is that they are incredibly well written so no matter which you prefer they were both worth reading. I don't think I could ever successfully pull off what either of you do. I have never been really good at giving a female lead enough depth to last through an entire story or to be able to call a story her own when it comes to BSB fanfic. My inner BSB always manages to take control of the situation so my comfort zone doesn't really allow for me to write female centered or female lead type fics.  LOL

My reading preference is male centered/male telling the story fics lol but that needs a 'well Duh' after it.  :D

RokofAges75:
Thanks for sharing your take on it, Mare!

My follow-up question for everyone who answers the first one would be, would you answer differently for original fiction?  Whether you write original fiction or just enjoy reading books, do you prefer female- or male-centered stories?

I honestly have not written enough original fiction to know if I have a preference, but just from writing fanfic, I do think it's easier to get into a girl's head than one of the guys.  Not that I don't try, because most of my stories are male-centered, but like with Curtain Call, Cary's POV was SO much easier to write than Nick's because I could relate to her, whereas it was a lot harder to relate to Nick.

Outside of fanfic, most of the books I read are female-centered, too, although the horror/thriller ones tend to be more male-centered.  Again, I don't know that I really have a preference; as long as I can relate to the main character, I'm good.  With the exception of children's literature, though, it seems like female authors usually write about female protagonists, while male authors tend to have male protagonists.  Do you think that's just because it's easier to write from your own gender's perspective?

FrickingKaos:
I usually prefer male centered stories even in original fic. I like reading the same stuff in original fic as I do in fanfic, but I tend to read more fanfic these days. The last book I read was The Hobbit after the movie came out....I plan on reading The Great Gatsby soon as I never got the chance to while I was in school.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page