EmilyMiller
Good men did nothing
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2022
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- 11,602
Agency as a Writer's Tool
- Thread starter TheRedChamber
- Start date
EroticCupcake
Just Tryin' to Write
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2022
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- 182
Reading this thread made me consider a few things.
I think of the male gaze as 80% visual and 20% everything else. I think of the female gaze as the opposite. Who knows if this is true, but it's my model. Writing is not a visual medium. Whether our target is men or women, we should be aiming to make it 80% non-visual, because that is the strength of the medium. My default is that everyone should be writing "for women" as a target because it plays to the strength of the medium.
My other thought was about protagonist as a model for agency, as described earlier in this thread. I have a hypothetical story I may or may not write. The idea is simple
Main character gets beat up trying to do the right thing.
Potential romantic partner takes care of main character. Some transient romance occurs.
In the spirit of the Orchid contest, I could make the main character female and the romantic partner male, but this doesn't feel quite right either, or feels like a cheat.
The key is to make the romantic partner also have desires and goals, have their actions have a separate, but complementary direction. I wouldn't drag this specific fight in to the Orchid Contest, just trying to observe my own behavior and improve my writing.
I think of the male gaze as 80% visual and 20% everything else. I think of the female gaze as the opposite. Who knows if this is true, but it's my model. Writing is not a visual medium. Whether our target is men or women, we should be aiming to make it 80% non-visual, because that is the strength of the medium. My default is that everyone should be writing "for women" as a target because it plays to the strength of the medium.
My other thought was about protagonist as a model for agency, as described earlier in this thread. I have a hypothetical story I may or may not write. The idea is simple
Main character gets beat up trying to do the right thing.
Potential romantic partner takes care of main character. Some transient romance occurs.
In the spirit of the Orchid contest, I could make the main character female and the romantic partner male, but this doesn't feel quite right either, or feels like a cheat.
The key is to make the romantic partner also have desires and goals, have their actions have a separate, but complementary direction. I wouldn't drag this specific fight in to the Orchid Contest, just trying to observe my own behavior and improve my writing.
ArdentHemingway
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2016
- Posts
- 185
Oh, don't get me started on the C-word...
EmilyMiller
Good men did nothing
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2022
- Posts
- 11,602
Don’t particularly like it (I have one or two uses across 40+ stories), but too hard to resist in this context.
Em
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