I've written stories outside of Lush (still waiting on my proof-reader to complete their work on one) - writing from the other perspective is an exercise, one that can be challenging. Takes patience and research - after 20 years of writing off-and-on, I'm still not comfortable enough with it to publish cross-gender stories
I just finished writing a female first person story for an e-publisher in the States, and it was hard as shit.
I love that point of view more than any other, but I'll be damned if I can do it. I was guessing the whole way through. I didn't know what she was thinking, feeling, or wanted to do. My mind in her body just didn't fit.
I'm reminded of Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. When asked how he wrote women so well, he said, "I think of a man, then take away all accountability and reason." I wasn't quite that much of an ass, but I did include a lot more rumination in her internal dialogue than I otherwise would have for a male character.
Practice makes perfect, I suppose.
My latest story is a racy little piece about what happens when someone cute from work invites you over to watch Netflix and Chill. When I write, I find myself being drawn into the characters, be they male, female or anything else. Some stories need a male first person POV, some a female POV. Third-person narration provides the greatest flexibility to the author, so if you're telling a complicated story it's often best to go into what I think of as 'god-mode' where you know and can see everything.
I will write from both POV. I'd always written from a female perspective, but then one day, I imagined a man watching his partner, what he might be thinking and feeling and I ended up writing my first male POV story. I didn't really think about which point of view I was writing it from until I was halfway though.
I've done a few since then but like Abi says, it's just more about the character you're writing...
I dis one story from the man's POV. [Memories of Greece] I think everybody has said I did a very good job.
I've written a couple stories from the female perspective and they seemed to do pretty good. I didn't really have a whole lot of trouble in writing them. It took a bit of thought but they turned out all right I guess. People seemed to like them. I say give it a go - the readers here are pretty good folks!
I'm equally good at writing from both perspectives. It just comes with who I am. (Those of you who know me will understand this)
I've done it, I rather like writing from both sides. It's fun.
I'm attempting that now - though I'm asking questions of M'Lady and a couple other friends
I have read a few stories written by a guy written from the women's point of view, I think he did a great job because when I checked the profile of the author, I was surprised to discover he was a guy....I don't think its odd at all, I applaud writers who can put themselves into the shoes of another gender. I have never tried it myself, but I am sure that I could probably do it too....though I might hurt myself with the effort....lol!
I have and do and will continue to.
Edited:I thought more about this. It really is about the story and the characters. I have a lot of male friends, close to men in my family so it helps me feel comfortable doing it. My proofreaders are male so they would tell me if I was off.
I am dying to write a gay male story but I don't think I am ready for that.
I also am bisexual so appreciating sexual experiences with women are natural for me.
When I first started writing, I wrote mostly lesbian stories, and while I doubt I have the female POV down, I handled it by looking through my female characters' eyes in a different way. Often I had a character who was in a straight relationship, hiding her bisexual side, viewing her boyfriend as too traditional. Or I would explore a relationship between two female characters that begins in another way, like two best friends, a teacher and student, two cellmates, etc. That way, even if I don't quite have the female POV down, I can at least compensate for it by having the relationship angle.
I have quite a number of stories written and published here and at smashwords. All of them are from a female character's POV (I'm male).
The feedback I've gotten (from actual female human beings) is that I've done it well.
That's fine and all. But really I don't so much see the distinction. To me people are people. There are seven billion of them right now, roughly divided evenly between blues and pinks. And I think men and women are, at their core, largely the same. Men and women both want companionship, to be loved and express love, to be respected, and a whole host of other values that are common to both genders.
When someone tells me 'Well, a woman (or man) wouldn't do that' my view is that only means that the person speaking would not do that. People are immensely diverse. Some have a highly charged sexual motor, and some are asexual. Some are masochistic, and some are sadistic. Some are submissive, and some are dominant. And on and on to a thousand different characteristics. You can find somewhere a real woman who would think/believe/say/do anything. And you can find a real man somewhere who will think/believe/say/do anything.
All that being the case, the real issue is whether the character you've written would think/believe/say/do whatever it is you have that character thinking/believing/saying/doing. Your task as a writer is to make sure that whatever your character (male or female) thinks/believes/says/does is believable and credible and genuine for that character. Out in the real world there is a man or a woman who will think/believe/say/do whatever it is you have that character doing. And there will be many men and women who would not think/believe/say/do that thing. Some of those people will understand fiction well enough (that is, suspend their disbelief) to accept that the character you've presented to them would be like that.
I think there really can be differences in some cases in perceptions - how a man or woman might tend to react to some things within gender norms. For example, I wrote a story now on smashwords in which the first person female character narrator views a video of a hetero couple who are into watersports/pee play. Are there real people into that? Absolutely. Although certainly it is only a small subset of homo sapiens who are into that fetish. She watches on the video as the couple have sex. They are on a bed, her on top of him. She pulls up so he is only halfway into her and she lets go, and her pee is coursing down his dick. This is very exciting for both of them. She pulls up farther so that his dick is out of her pointing straight up at her vulva and her pee is raining down as his cum is shooting up. Now, the perception part. In my view a man seeing that scene or reading about it would be more likely to say either 'Wow, that's hot!' or 'Yuck!' depending on his personal tastes. But the female narrator (echoing what I would think of perhaps a more female reaction) says (speaking in first person to the reader) 'Now, I know what you're thinking, and I thought the same thing. They make plastic mattress covers in king size?' A male might react first within his personal set of sexual preferences. A female (to me) seems more likely to go immediately to 'Holy shit! Their mattress must stink to high heaven.' (and then proceed to the mattress cover solution). But, again, I suppose you could find men who react like I think the woman would and women who would react like I think a man would.
I've done it more times than not from a woman's perspective. It's a lot more enlightening when its done from the opposite gender as it lets you see things differently.
