I may bend those gender lines successfully. I may not.
Story number seven for Story-a-Day jumps from the mind of the girl to the mind of the guy. The stories before that I spent a lot of time in the male character’s head.
Writers should be able to put themselves into any character, right? Put yourself in the mind (heart, soul) of someone not like you. What is the biggest leap? Different social class, race, religion, political party, gender, sexual orientation…
You could write a story where everyone shares the same social class, race, religion, politics, and sexual orientation. And you could write a story where everyone is the same gender. But gender seems to be the first difference. I mean, the others you may not even think about or care to approach, but having characters of the opposite is hard to avoid. Even stories that have only men in them have characters who at least spend a certain amount of time thinking about wives or girlfriends or the lack thereof.
So. How do you feel writing a character of the opposite sex? How often do you try to get into the opposite mind?
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
I enjoy writing guys. I actually think my guy characters are more diverse than my girls, because my girls are ultimately fed by my experience of being a girl, while the guys come from observation of many different kinds of men. With the ladies I try to make them different, and maybe they end up different enough, but I worry they aren’t.
But even if I’m not writing from the guy’s perspective, I still have to get in his head to make his actions and dialogue believable.
That is an excellent point. My female lead characters might be too much alike… sigh. I’m surprised (though probably shouldn’t be) that some writers can get into the minds of their characters who are different, but yet not show much empathy with their fellow real human beings.
From what I remember of what I read of your work (a few chapters), your characters were believable–male and female.
Thank you, Marta. That’s a relief. And I’m not just reciprocating when I say that yours are, too. I still think of Mercie and Zane as real people. Sometimes I browse the book you made me just to reacquaint myself with them. 🙂
Funny you should ask this. I’ve never had a male main character. Might be something worth trying soon.
You should try it. It is weird at first, but now some stories I feel must be written from the male point of view to work the way I want them to.
Sherri,
If (BIG IF!) that novel ever gets published and sells well and I become, you super famous and crazy, maybe your copy will be worth something (HAHAHAHAHA) because you’ll have an original draft before the major rewrites.
Oh, I crack myself up.
But my silliness aside that is nice to hear. Now if I can only get an agent to feel the same way…