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Female Writers

Witchchild

Witchchild

New Member
I was wondering if there are any folks here who were just going along with their lives and for one reason or another realized that the vast majority of the books they read were authored by men.

It came as a suprise to me because I have always been pretty vocal about the greatest short-coming which almost every male author shares; they cannot write, create or sustain believable, real female characters. The women all seem cartoony, stilted and odd... I asked around and my women friends agreed with me. So I asked my men friends if they felt that their was a simillar problem when women tried to write men. They did not... almost to a man. Weird.

Anyway, I am on a quest to read more woman-authored books. I read mostly sci-i/fantasy, and I've found several women authors that I am quite enjoying. My current favorite is Fiona Patton. Would anyone else like to share their favorite female authors? What type of books does she write? How did you find her?

Thanks,
Witch
 
My favourite female authors of general or literary fiction would be Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. For sci-fi, I like Ursula K. Le Guin. She spins a great story. Another good "story-teller" is Amy Tan.

Munro is primarily a short story writer, but I find that no matter how quirky or strange the tale, she always writes women, where at some point, I say to myself, "I know someone just like that!" or "That's me!"

As for Atwood, she's not everyone's cup of tea, but she has a great eye and ear for the female voice. The older I get, the more I like her writing.

I've never heard of Fiona Patton, but now that you've mentioned her, I'll have to look her up.

Ell
 
You're right... It is hard to think of good female writers. Let's see what I can come up with.

For me, Atwood certainly took some getting used to, but it was worth it. I like J.K. Rowling's writing and imagination. Anne McCaffrey isn't bad either, but she's definitely not a favourite. Jean M. Auel and Joan Cline write well, but they're just not original enough for me (and if they were original, they aren't anymore -- to me at least). I read two books (historical novels) by Pauline Gedge which I really liked... And one by a woman called Carmen Elejabarrieta (or something along those lines) that didn't do that much for me, except for the epilogue.

It's weird. I know I must've read more books by women, but I can't think of any right now.

I'm gonna go home tonight, look at my list of books I've read, and I'm probably going to come up with some great books I've forgotten.
 
Oh very cool. Thanks for responding! Some of these are familliar to me and some are new. (yay!)

I am currently enjoying "Unicorn & Dragon" by Lynn Abbey. Thanks for all the new names and good ideas.

~Witch
 
Melanie Rawn, Katherine Neville, Kate Elliott, Jan Karon, Iris Johansen, and Jane Green come to mind.
 
Robin Hobb is a wonderful fantasy writer. when people ask for recommendations, i bring her up right away. her characterizations and story telling ability are a marvel. her stories are well paced and always make me want to jump ahead to see what happens next, but i find i can't do it just because i don't want to miss out on any of her wonderful character development. i recommend starting with the farseer trilogy if you have not already read it. she also writes as Megan Lindholm.

Ursula Le Guin, i believe has been mentioned already, but i also really enjoy her books from The Dispossessed, to the earthsea saga.
 
Originally posted by Witchchild
It came as a suprise to me because I have always been pretty vocal about the greatest short-coming which almost every male author shares; they cannot write, create or sustain believable, real female characters. The women all seem cartoony, stilted and odd... I asked around and my women friends agreed with me. So I asked my men friends if they felt that their was a simillar problem when women tried to write men. They did not... almost to a man. Weird.
Click to expand...

You are right, but its worse than that. Men who read female characters written by men WANT to see the characters that way--sad but true. Men who write female characters are writing them the way they they see them. Chalk it up to poor writing but some awful good male writers have committed the type of sin you're talking about on a lot of characters.
 
Hi Prolixic,

I don't think its bad writing, I really think its just that most men for whatever reason don't have much of a clue how women really think. I know from long discussions with my Sweet Vampyre that the way he thinks is very different. From my perspective, it seems that men see things in a more clear-cut straight-forward way. Hmmm... lets see if I can say that another way... Men seem to see things almost like equations; A+B=C, women seem to see things as an interconnected web; A affects B and C and D and E and F... so whatever I decide is going to have far reaching concequenses...

Yup, I am totally generalizing here! I am not saying one way of thinking is inherantly better or exclusively the domain of one gender.

I could be wrong, but as far as I've read, male writers don't seem to understand female's motivations or inner-workings.

~Witch
 
I could be wrong, but as far as I've read, male writers don't seem to understand female's motivations or inner-workings.
Click to expand...

I agree, but I would add that it stems from a fundamental inability to force themselves to think like a woman. A man might write a good female character by long association with women and knowing something about how women think, but its never going to satisfy the understanding that you're talking about.

On the flip side I've read a few of my wife's romance novels and a number of the main male characters do things a little differently than I'd expect a man to do them, to a certain extent. However, MOST of the time their actions are plausible and possible under the circumstances, so I can accept it. I've seen the same kind of thing when reading Anne McCaffery. She's got some great characters, but most of the men are pretty self-analytical and seem to dwell on their feelings a lot. (Insert shrug here)
 
Yes, i've seen some male characters written by women who were just a little off from what I'd expect. Do I understand you to be saying this is not as in-your-face and jarring as what I am describing w/ female characters and male authors? Its actually pretty interesting to look at how one gender writes the other. Is this how one gender wishes the other were? or what? Hard to say.

~Witch
 
Exactly. Its not as in-your-face. Its more of a...lets put it this way. (and please don't think I'm being sexist, I'm just trying to explain) Its very much like the difference between a confirmed bachelor and a quite-content married man. A man writes a bachelor--even if the character is married. A woman writes a married man--even if the character's not.

Does that make sense? This is as close an analogy as I can get and I don't think it really has as much to do with marital status as it does internal thought processes.
 
Yes, I see what you mean. That is a good analogy.

In the same vein... I'd say women write women and men write transvestites... nothing wrong with transvestites... just saying they are not women.

If that makes any sense.

~Witch
 
You mean like a man's thoughts in a woman's body?

Try Friday by Robert Heinlein. She's very female looking, but thinks like a man. Its a pretty good SF story too.
 
Yes, a man's thoughts in a woman's body. Thats pretty much what I meant. Friday? Sounds kind of familliar... I must have seen it but not read it. I'll look for it next time I go shopping.

~Witch
 
Bump

I remembered this old but and excellent thread and thought it would be interesting to see--since there seems to be more girls around these days--what new thoughts it would churn up.
 
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