I am really a woman!
Yes, that's me. Spending five minutes communing with nature in Vita Sackville-West's garden at Sissinghurst. I've posted it because somebody thinks I'm a bloke!
An anonymous poster insists that (a) I'm a man masquerading as a woman and (b) my writing proves it.
Sorry mate, I am, and always have been, female. The fact that I can write like a man is a measure of my skill, not my testosterone levels!
But it raises a wider point about gender and writing. I fairly consciously change my writing style when I'm using a male protagonist's viewpoint. I know some writers who just can't do this because it feels utterly alien to them to write frome the position of a gender not their own. I think this is something each writer must work out (or work on) for themselves and decide if they wish to attempt cross-gender writing. If you do go for it, then you need to have confidence to pull it off - and when you get it right, it's a joy, even if people accuse you of being a fraud because of it!
5 comments:
Love Sissinghurst, the white garden particularly. I've always fancied a study in a tower, too.
Kay, everybody knows that you are a fat blonde bird, don't they?
Well, to whoever this anonymous poster is: I have met Kay and she is absolutely definitely a woman and a mighty attractive one at that.
An absolute tribute to your writerly skill, Kay!
A fair portion of my fiction is from female points-of-view. I hope it works half as well as your male pov's, Kay.
Anyway, take the doubts as high compliment.
Kay - great pic! Funny all this talk about women writing as men etc etc. One writes as one writes.
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