More About Writing Women - for my own curiosity. :)

[ficwize]

So, my curiosity knows no bounds. I'm interested to see if my perception is skewed, admitting that my perception is based on a self-selected group of friends and communities on my flist.

So, if you don't mind answering this poll, I'd appreciate it. Also, if you want to pimp it to your flist, I'd be curious to see a large sample of answers.

Thanks!



ETA: Please assume that the "/" mark does not indicate sexual relationships unless otherwise indicated. So if you write a mixture of canon male and canon female characters, please check canon male/canon female. Thanks and sorry for any confusion!

[Poll #1249139]

Comments

[geonncannon.livejournal.com]

The "not femmeslash" question was tough, but I decided I wrote at least two or three that were about the women rather than sex. :D

[escritoireazul.livejournal.com]

Your poll doesn't have the options I would need in order to participate, so I'm answering the questions here instead.

My "main" fandom primarily consists of women characters.

I don't have a main fandom; in any fandom I write, there are female characters who are interesting and strong in different ways.

Of the fandoms I write most, ____ are primarily about women characters.

Few are strictly about female characters, unfortunately, but all have some female characters as I mentioned before.

I primarily write _________ characters.

Canon female characters, often paired with other canon female characters, crossover canon female characters, or canon male characters. Occasionally canon male paired with canon male as well.

I primarily read _______ characters.

Canon female characters, usually paired with canon female characters if they are paired with anyone.

In the past year, I have written ___ fics primarily about women (not femmeslash).

Even when I'm writing pairing fic, the story is primarily about the woman/one of the women. Not to mention, many of the stories are multiple things, relationships and gen in the background to self exploration.

Female/Male - 6
Gen - 5

In the past year, I have written ___ femmeslash fics.

15

[rocaw.livejournal.com]

I counted drabbles as fics cuz it's what I tend to write most lately.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I hope I got the point of your questions -- anyway. My main fandoms are mostly mixed gender or male oriented (Harry Potter, SGA) but even with all that, I tend to write mostly the female characters in those with a hefty dash of male characters too/around.

(edited to add a case in point -- I've recently started writing NCIS, and in spite of the very male cast and angle of the show, I have focused almost exclusively on the women - Jenny, Abby and Ziva)

The exceptions are Gilmore Girls and Buffy, which are very female oriented, obv.

(Also, I don't write sex, so that maybe should remove me from the last Q. But I answered anyway :)

Edited to add more as it occurs to me -- Being female, I think I find myself focusing more on women in these shows as I watch, so when I start ficcing, that's where my attention has lain.

See? Now you have given me thinky thoughts.

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting poll. I write canon males (Elladan, Elrohir, Legolas) and sometimes Elrohir/Legolas slash. There is also an OFC I'm rather fond of (Taniquel) who has a very close friendship with Elrohir. One day that will develop into something more!

When I write Celebrian she is usually there just as Elrond's wife, or the twins' mother.

[happymediocrity.livejournal.com]

Since I read and write primarily yaoi, and a lot of that is short one-shotish things, I write about women surprisingly little for being such a Girl Power! girl. The one exception seems to be my OC Zelda, for my book. And I haven't even written her POV a lot lately, mostly her gay best friend Pascal's...hmm. It's interesting how this poll is making me think of my own writing.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Would you mind if i steal this poll for my flist?

Since I think I originally brought up the point that i perceived my flist to be different from yours in this respect?

I'm not sure if I will post it or not, i just might want to.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I think I'm skewing your poll. I've only written Xmen fic this year, and they've been two Hank-focused stories, and one Jean/Wanda XFC.

Sadly, there are very few brainy women characters in the fandoms I follow for me to identify with.

[strangevisitor7.livejournal.com]

This was an interesting poll and really made me think about the stories I write. Since I write mostly SPN and Highlander - No real female characters to speak of it seems i stole Chloe from smallville and created my own OFC just to get some woman around. Add Mag7 (brought Chloe there too)and I am very testosterone heavy.

I never really thought about it until you started asking these questions. I think I've written exactly one story from those fandom that was truly about a female character and that was with Amanda from highlander.(Only Duncan appears briefly on the phone in the end)

Wait I just remembered most of my NCIS stuff is about Abby first - so not as bad as i thought but still that one character from one show. The rest are all guys first.

Interesting. This makes me what to write more girl power stuff!!

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Most of my fandoms aren't female-centric, but I do tend to write about the female characters, gen or femslash. Supernatural is a tricky one because the main characters are both male and so is more than half the supporting cast, but of my two fics there one was gen about male characters with a female OC, and one was het from a female perspective.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

I went back to have a look at what I'd written - there were more f/f and m/f than I expected. I've written very gen-ish Scott/Jean, and gen Eletktra & Mystique, which I was surprised at since I would have said that my OTPs in X-Men were Charles/Erik and Scott/Logan. But looking with a critical eye, most of the fics I've written with female characters have been written for prompts. Most of the fics I've written spontaneously have been male/male.

It's an interesting way to look at oneself - I know that when I'm dabbling in a new fandom, the pairings I see are slash, not het. And more m/m than f/f. Weird.

Thanks for such a thinky post!

[invicta-affect.livejournal.com]

Female fic is interesting. It's slightly easier to write - as I am female - but at the same time it can be more difficult.
It's not something I read often (but then criteria as to what I generally read are rather small), but when I do, it's often great stuff.

Can't say I'm one for femmeslash though. I have enough problems with slash :P