Janice Erlbaum wrote a great piece here a couple weeks ago, and I was delighted to come across this recent essay that Janice wrote for “Persephone Speaks,” a blog maintained by small publisher Kore Press. She describes her experiences trying to “be” a man, and then, later, writing from a male point of view:
“It was terrific fun, writing as a guy. I felt at liberty to pontificate about everything, to stop the action and just blow hard about meaningless details, to unabashedly quote movies in the middle of scenes. My character never had to think about what he was doing; he just acted, often in a manner that was inconsistent with his goals. Through his eyes, I was merciless with my female characters – ‘We hate the girlfriend,’ said my (all-female) writers’ group, unanimously. ‘She’s so unlikeable.’
“'I know,’ I gloated. ‘She’s based on me.’”
