Surely you’ve read those romance novels where the hero never swears and is just dying to talk about his feelings. Or how about thrillers where the heroine has no body issues and jumps right into emotion-free sex. While there’s a time and a place for wish-fulfillment-based characters in both genres, most readers like to read about somebody with a little more meat on their metaphorical bones. Which means that authors are stuck trying to get into the minds of characters of the opposite sex.

I wish I could provide male authors with a quick checklist on how to write female characters and vice versa…because then I’d be rich and famous. (Although, guys, please do check out the Bechdel test which recommends that two female characters must at some point in your book talk about something other than a man.) Instead, I’m going to offer something quite simple — rather than engaging in small talk this holiday season, why not delve deeper into the male/female mind at your next party or family get-together?

I took my own advice to heart this past month and begged men and women alike to tell me how many crushes they’d had in their lives. The rules were simple — I wouldn’t tell them the data I’d thus far collected until they tallied up their own number. And they could define “crush” in whatever manner worked for them. The results shocked me. (I’m going to wait to put them in the comments section in case you want to play along. Guess now, then scroll down!)

Questions like this helped me delve deep enough into the male mind that I finally felt confident writing a first-person point-of-view story from a guy’s perspective. The result — Bloodling Wolf — got so much praise that I turned it into a serial. And I have to admit that whether or not I nailed every characteristic, it was amazingly freeing to write like a guy. My protagonist swears, doesn’t mind describing sex scenes, and never takes the world too seriously. Sounds like a vacation to this emotionally-charged female brain!

I’d be curious to hear from other authors. What tricks do you use to get into character when writing as the opposite sex? When you read romance novels and thrillers, do you cringe at those wooden men and women (respectively)? And which books do you feel really hit the nail on the head despite following a protagonist whose gender didn’t match that of the author?

(Oh, and by the way, Happy New Year!)

How to make the most of our time…
Happy New Year, everyone!

Originally posted on my blog epicjason.com.

In 388 B.C. Plato urged the leaders of Athens to banish all storytellers because he saw them as some of the most dangerous people. Unlike politicians and philosophers who stood before the crowds and openly espoused their ideas, storytellers worked more subtly. Under the guise of an emotional narrative, they could shape and move their audiences without their listeners even realizing it.

Plato’s judgment of storytellers as dangerous is debatable, but his conclusion that stories are powerful is true.

We have all felt the power of stories.

I can recall countless times when stories have pushed me in the right direction. When my natural inclinations push me to despair and resignation, I remember the battle of Helm’s Deep in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers and I’m inspired to hope even when circumstances are grim. When I’m tempted to become bitter and unforgiving, I remember the gracious priest in Les Miserables who gave the convict Jean Val Jean a second chance at life.

Stories have power. I would argue that they are our greatest teachers. As story guru Robert McKee writes:

The world now consumes films, novels, theatre, and television in such quantities and with such ravenous hunger that the story arts have become humanity’s prime source of inspiration, as it seeks to order chaos and gain insight into life. Our appetite for story is a reflection of the profound human need to grasp the patterns of living, not merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal, emotional experience. In the words of playwright Jean Anouilh, ‘Fiction gives life its form.’

Since stories shape and reflect culture, I hope you can see the responsibility that storytellers bear. Our stories need to move our world towards something better.

But how can fantasy make the world better?

It is easy to see how nonfiction and realistic fiction writers can do this since the real world is where their stories take place. But how can fantasy authors (of which I’m one) make a difference in the real world? Is our genre nothing more than mere entertainment—an escape from what is real?

I posed this question to one of today’s fantasy greats, Brandon Sanderson, and he replied back, saying, “By removing distractions and creating something fresh, we can look at problems from a new angle. Fantasy books are about the real world seen through a different lens.”

Consider this portion of “The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll: Continue reading →