What’s it like to be a girl?
By Guest | June 19, 2011 |
Therese here. Please welcome today’s guest, author Bill Loehfelm. Bill’s third crime novel, The Devil She Knows, which released this past May to rave reviews–including starred review with Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and a great review in The Wall Street Journal–has been called a breakout book. The story, about a waitress who stumbles upon a murder scene and unfortunately for her may know something about it, promises to be a fascinating character study as the petite protagonist’s life takes a sharp turn out of Boring and heads toward Dangerous.
I’m pleased Bill is with us today to talk about something that’s been a source of fascination for readers: How did he capture the female protagonist so well? How well? From Booklist’s review: “Even Staten Island, which Loehfelm brilliantly sketched in Bloodroot, becomes a character in this one: seedy, brooding, and sometimes deadly. But, finally, it’s still Maureen, as compelling a character as this reviewer expects to see this year, who makes The Devil She Knows a must for crime-fiction lovers.” From People Magazine: “Loehfelm…elevates this rousing tale with riveting characters—especially Maureen, who brandishes a knife as convincingly as she worries about becoming a cat lady.”
Enjoy!
What’s it like to be a girl?
Fresh off the tour for my new novel, THE DEVIL SHE KNOWS, the hero of which is a twenty-nine-year old waitress named Maureen Coughlin, I can safely say that’s the question I’ve been hearing the most. Okay, maybe not that exact question, but since publicity for the novel began, the lead question in every interview and the one that’s gotten everyone leaning forward in their chairs at readings is: How do you, being a man, write a female point of view?
The implied addendum to the question is the word “well,” since people are rarely curious about someone else’s ability to write poorly. Fortunately, at least to date, no one has asked in a “who do you think you are/what were you thinking?” tone of voice. Fortunately, also, the reviews have been good and have mostly centered on Maureen’s strength as a character. That gives me some defense against the raised eyebrows in the room. It also helps my credibility that my editor is Sarah Crichton, a woman in charge of her own imprint at FSG, and someone not known to let crap writing slide, no matter who it’s by or about — though, interestingly, most of my work with her focused on punching up the male characters. Not complicated enough, at least in the early drafts. I wonder what my old shrink would make of that.
Anyway, despite being asked this question about writing a woman so often, I have failed to concoct a suitably entertaining and witty answer. The one time I alluded to the infamous quote from the film AS GOOD AS IT GETS (“I think of a man,” Jack Nicholson’s novelist character says, “then I take away reason and accountability”), which had been quoted back to me several times, the interviewer had no idea what quote, movie, or character I meant – which makes me think as I write this that maybe I’m just dating myself. I’ve thought of giving the answer a New Orleans twist. I do live in a city where people costume for half-marathons as well as Halloween. A man in a dress here fails to raise eyebrows, whether it’s Fat Tuesday or a random Wednesday in June. So, for a New Orleanian, literary cross-dressing shouldn’t be that difficult. Except for the fact that literary cross-dressing would constitute failure. Even the greatest female impersonators are still, under their disguises, men – and that was the exact situation I wanted to avoid with Maureen. I didn’t want to write a man in a skirt. Everyone would see through the disguise and see me underneath. I’m not a fan of that kind of writing – the kind that draws your attention to the strings. If I’m doing my job well, you should forget about me, and yourself, too, and be absorbed by the story.
The mistake, I decided early on, would be to focus on the woman part of Maureen’s character. I didn’t think “What would a woman do/think/feel/want/fear” in any given situation. I focused instead on creating a complete character, a complete person, and asked myself what would Maureen do? What would this one unique person, based on the way her life has been and is now, choose or think or feel? She had to be real all the way through, under the make-up, under the skirt and stockings, right down to the bone.
For me, a story succeeds or fails according to the strength of its characters. I held my own novel to the same standard. Only think of Maureen, only worry about Maureen, I thought, and let the rest take care of itself. To me, character is what makes a story believable. It’s my belief that an audience will follow a great character anywhere, from the dark alleys of Gotham City to the top of the Empire State Building and even, if I do my job right, through the seedy bars and abandoned train stations of Staten Island, NYC, and beyond.
Readers, are you writing a protagonist whose gender is not your own? How would you answer the question posed to Bill so often–how do you do it?
You can learn more about Bill and his novel, The Devil She Knows, by visiting his website, and by following him on Facebook and Twitter.
Would you like to win a copy of The Devil She Knows? Leave a comment, and we’ll choose a winner at random later in the week. Write on!
Many thanks to today’s guest.
You can read more WU guest posts by visiting this link.
The protagonist in each of my medical suspense novels is female. Why? Perhaps because of the four unpublished novels on my hard drive, each one with a male protagonist. I mean, you can teach a white mouse in three times.
How do I do it? My wife is my first reader, and she’s quick (yet gentle) to tell me such things as “A woman would do this,” and “A woman wouldn’t say that.” I’m not sure there’s a right and wrong way to create a character of the opposite gender, but that’s my own particular approach, and it’s worked so far.
Your book sounds like fun, and I’d love to read it. Thanks for sharing.
“The mistake, I decided early on, would be to focus on the woman part of Maureen’s character. I didn’t think “What would a woman do/think/feel/want/fear” in any given situation. I focused instead on creating a complete character, a complete person, and asked myself what would Maureen do? What would this one unique person, based on the way her life has been and is now, choose or think or feel?”
Yes! Exactly! Because (surprise!) women are people too. Sure there are differences between the sexes, but fewer than some people might expect, especially at the core.
Great post, and congrats on your new book and its shiny starred reviews!
This reminds me of the riddle from the Canterbury Tales, about what a woman wants most. (The answer, for those who haven’t slogged that far into Chaucer: Whatever a man wants.) Seems like Mr. Loehfelm has solved the riddle :-) I look forward to reading his book.
Great post.
My books so far have been female protagonists. My new series is a male protagonist. I take the same approach. A character is a character.
I find when people talk about writing the opposite gender the tend to look for stereotypes.
I’m a girl (okay maybe a bit old for girl) but when I write my female characters I have to dig a bit deeper because I’m not a girly girl and I don’t want my characters to be me.
I have been informed by college students that more men cook than women, because the women don’t want to be cast into gender-roles. Girls climb trees, cliffs, and mountains, and can still wear a fluttery dress to party in. Men can cook a gourmet meal, grow flowers, knit, and still play football.
I’ve read several bog posts recently insisting that you can’t say this, or you must do that if you’re writing a male, or female character.
Perpetuating gender stereotypes is wrong. What else are women fighting so hard against – glass ceilings, lower pay, fewer promotions, sexual harassment, rape. It’s pervasive – just read blogs and news.
Let us, as writers, show people who can be both strong and tender, irrational and reasonable, creative and stubborn, and not buy into gender stereotypes.
This applies to racial and cultural biases as well.
And maybe through our example, we can help make the world a bit better for all concerned.
Great post. All people (characters) are different. The writer’s job is to create believable characters, so it doesn’t matter what sex the writer or character is as long as the reader believes and enjoys. I am not a 15 year old ghost but my next book is about one.
I’ve written short stories from a man’s pov, but not a novel. Although the MC of my work in progress is just about as unlike me as a man from a woman. When writing it wasn’t uncommon to have to stop myself and think, “wait, that’s what YOU would do, but what would Mattie do?”
Great post!
I am SO glad that you addressed this issue. Many female authors have written male characters successfully and it is far less questioned than a man writing a female character. But there really isn’t a good reason that should be so. I’m a woman, yes, but I have a husband and three sons and while sometimes I feel like I’ve landed on an alien planet, it’s your job as a writer to get inside other people’s heads–no matter the gender.
Congratulations on writing a great book with great characters!
Great post and topic! I agree that the key is thinking about the character as a whole, not as their individual parts (gender, marital status, age, etc.). It’s so simple, but the concept of looking at a WHOLE person is foreign to a lot of people. Many female writers create main male characters, but the reverse is often met with hesitation. This shows a lot about how relevant stereotypes and assumptions are in today’s world.
Congrats to you for creating a solid character that people relate to.
To think of a character as a whole person rather than just focusing on the gender is what makes that person great. And like you said “an audience will follow a great character anywhere”. That really is the perfect answer to the question of how you can write from the opposite gender’s point of view. Great advice. Thanks for posting.
I love writing from the POV of a teenage boy. I feel like I can focus on the action in the story without getting bogged down in intense romance. My mc can express emotion without getting melodramatic; conversely, my mc can control his emotion and not be callous. Also, since it’s not as “autobiographical” I feel freer to make my character do outrageous things.
I agree (and don’t have much more to add) with Joelle and everyone else on this blog, “To think of a character as a whole person rather than just focusing on the gender is what makes that person great.” My third novel is a male POV and I never even thought twice that I shouldn’t have done it because hey, I’m a female! I just wrote the character as I saw him and thought what HE would say, not I, and I think I pulled it off. As someone else noted, I’ve been on this planet, uh, several years now, and have a husband and a son. I think I have some clue as to what a dude might say and do.
Patti
Great advice! I’m in the reverse situation (woman writing a male POV), and while I’m going to have to check during revisions to make sure he’s not a woman in guy’s dressing, I’ve been trying to focus on writing him as a person first and foremost. I have a feeling I’ll be looking back at this post once I start overanalyzing his every thought, word, and action.
A big YES to thinking what the character/person would do. My main protagonist in “Finding Magic” is a woman, and I just “lived” in her head during her scenes and reacted the way that person would. Women readers have so far not raised any “a woman wouldn’t” issues at all.
Since I don’t want all my characters to be me, I have to know lots of different characters. I’ve written from a male point-of-view…I think well. But if you can write about any one person honestly, you can write any character you want.
Does JK Rowling get asked very often about writing from a boy wizard’s pov? Funny how people are so often surprised that a man can see things from a woman’s perspective, but not so surprised the other way around.
Thanks for an interesting post.
I’ve always wondered how Alexander McCall Smith writes Precious Ramotswe so brilliantly. Some authors seem to have a tremendous gift for empathy with people vastly different from themselves. Glad to hear there are other men who can pull this off, writing in different genres.
And Marta, perhaps JK Rowling got a pass on the questions regarding Harry, because when we meet Harry, he is still a little kid.
Men are from Mars and women from Venus, but they both breathe oxygen, seek to procreate (or have fun in the attempt), and have hairy legs. I’m not saying it is easily to inhabit the mental space of another person, but that’s exactly the point of writing. :)
I hope some day you and people like Keith Cronin won’t hear this kind of question.
When psychological differences between men and women are statistically analyzed, the vast majority of individuals fall into the overlap. It’s much more important to make a woman or a man believable as an individual than as a woman or man.