Is anybody else writing their novel from the point of view of the opposite sex?

Hey, I'm doing that.

I've tried to study up on this, but primarily the thing is not to get to hamstrung with internal stuff, streamline it.

You may want to read stories from the point of view of a guy, as well. Some I can think of off the top of my head that are pretty good (all YA):
The Wednesday Wars ( by a bonafide guy, I believe ^_^)
King of Shadows (Susan Cooper: she does a lot from the male POV)
The View from Saturday (E. L. Konigsburg, who also does great POV, often male)

The last exchanges between five points of view with great style: three are young guys. And they all have their own voices that seem masculine through and through.

Also, I'm sure you've listened to guys talk? That usually is some clue to the way anyone thinks...

I'm writing mine in 1st person as a young guy (I'm a girl). I don't really know what I'm doing, and sometimes it seems too feelings-y, but I'm not worried about it at this point haha--I just want to get words on the page!

But it's kind of fun. My tendency is to have characters that are like alternative versions of myself, and that gets boring.

Good luck!

I'm doing a 3rd person POV from a guy in high school. It hasn't been too bad, but then again, I haven't really delved into deep guy thoughts. I suppose with some minor editing I could make my boy a girl and it would fit right in. I think it matters more on who your audience is and what you're trying to accomplish.

To add to the series list, the Harry Potter series was written by a girl but seen through the eyes of a boy MC.

My second book, finished at 83k words, was from a nineteen year old guy's POV. The best way I found to capture a legit voice from someone of the opposite sex is just hang around a bunch of them. I am always hanging out at my boyfriend's frat so it's been very easy to develop a guy's voice in my head. That's really the best advice I can give. If you can't hang around a bunch of guys, watch movies with characters in the age range of your own. There have been a lot of movies as of late that can provide really good chances to watch boys in their natural (but scripted) habitats XD haha Good luck!!

I'm writing mc guy viewpoint (me=female) who's also a lot younger than I am. Read about 20 years. The thing that helps me is having my oldest son who's in 6th grade read some parts every once in a while. It keeps my 'voice' style more at that age level and 'guy' tone.

I'm switching back and forth between my MMC and FMC's points of view, but being young myself helps. (Yeah, I'm 17. XP )

So I try not to think too much as my MMC. Then again, he's got self-esteem issues, sooo....

Not alone at all - my first-person POV character is a sixteen year-old girl. I'm a 21 year-old guy.

We'll see how this goes.

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~ Kai

Nano 2008: AWAKENING
http://thecityofdis.livejournal.com

I'm also in the "switching between POVs of MMC and FMC" boat and it's working pretty well so far. I'd say look at "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" (the book, not the movie), which is also written from the alternating viewpoints; not to mention, it's a good quick book

Me too. I'm a 19 yr girl doing a 1st POV on a 16 yr guy dealing with depression and gf's pregnancy. I think I can do gender neutral narration pretty well; it's just the little guy details that stump me. What do guys do for fun other than playing vid games and googling for porn? (sorry if I sound too stereotypical). Can anyone recommend me books that feature realistic teenage guys in 1st POV? There are very few good ones out there, as I noticed most YA are geared toward girls & have girls MC.

I'm doing the same. Writing from the perspective of both a FMC and a MMC. I don't think you want to worry so much about coming off as distinctly male as much as just getting out who your male character IS. Because guys are just like girls: we don't all think about the same stuff. There's not some universal thought process that connects us. Everyone's internal logic is different.

I second the suggestion to find and read some YA books written from a male POV. I've actually been going to my local library and intentionally picking up books written by male authors featuring male-character-first-person since I'm a chick and that's what I'm trying to write. I recommend the male authors (last two I read were Gordon Kormon who I LOVE and Barry Lyga) because although some women do a super excellent job at male POVs, others really don't, and if you're short on time it's a good way to guarantee some authenticity. Even if you just read a couple of chapters of said book, you're bound to pick up some hints.

To make my life easier I'm writing a male MC who is slightly gender-blurring who I'm sort of modeling after two guys I knew in high school. That way if he comes off as kind of feminine at times...well, he's supposed to ;)

Apart from reading books written in this style, you could also do some judgment based comparison with real, living males since they are the "real thing". You could also read guides. Though of course, the best thing to do is to let a male friend read through what you've written and reflect upon the actions of the characters. If he says he can connect with the character, chances are, you're getting along wonderfully.

Personally, I used these to help me judge my own MMCs when writing, though not every male acts the same, it's better than my own biased judgment.

http://www.learntowritefiction.com/ecourses/GenderDiff/Gender_Difference...

http://www.hodrw.com/hero.htm

Good luck with your NaNo! ;D
-Riviea

I'm writing partially from a male point of view, even though I'm a girl, but I really don't worry much about that. In my opinion, what goes on in a guy's head can't be that different from what goes on in a girl's, since both are human. In any case, he's also an American and 16 years old, neither of which I am, so if he's not believable it could just as well be because of that.

I'm writing from the point of view of a 13-year-old boy, even though I'm a 36-year-old woman. :) It helps me tremendously to imagine the boys I know well. Thus, originally, I had imagined this child as 10, but when I originally thought of this plot, my youngest child was 10. Now that I'm actually writing this book, my child has grown... so my main character has too. :)

Also, I've named this character after a boy I was friends with in high school, when we were both 15. That helps too. It helps me write this character as a *person*, and not just as a *boy*, if you know what I mean, if I base him on folks I actually know in various ways.

Onward! :-D

Lisa

I'm writing mine from the point of view of a 16 year old guy living in a mental institution. YAY!

I actually find it's easier for me to write as a member of the oppisite sex (I'm a girl) because I usually hang out with a lot of guys my age. But even then it's taken me a long time to get it so that my MC acts like a guy.

Two of my stories have young male POVs. One alternates between two boys and a girl narrating. That one poses a challenge because the characters aren't as developed as I'd like them to be. The other story, however, is strictly male 3rd-person POV. He's not a "typical" guy, which I suppose helps a little. I feel like the more I write, the more I realize that my writing can be tweaked to sound more like a teenaged boy's POV. =D

well i'm a 25 year old female writing about a seventeen year old boy. I keep thinking he reads a little older, but I'm hoping I can pull it off

You are not alone. I'm an only child and I'm writing about a 15-year-old boy... I guess it helps that I'm more or less the same age as him, but I'm seriously hoping he won't turn out like a girl wrote him (ie The Outsiders).

Yepper, I am. And I'm a little nervous that I'm not getting it right. I'm a teen girl writing from the POV of a teen guy, though it switches between first and third person. Mainly its from his POV, though, and I keep worrying as to whether I'm doing his mental processes and whatnot write. Thoughts, I mean.

He often glosses over deep emotional stuff, though I do have the more emotional stuff delved into in third person, since we're not actually inside his head listening to him narrate. that's how I get my feelings-y stuff in.

Ashe

I'm switching back and forth between the viewpoints of my main characters, one of whom is a girl. It might be easier though, because she's not especially feminine. (Not like a tomboy, mind you, more like so emotionally stunted that she hasn't developed a gender specific sense of self). Keep a guy, or more than one, from a similar background on hand for refference, and ask like "hey, ok, if this happened, how would you react?" ("or how would you have when you were that age?")

I'm a 20-year-old girl writing from the POV of an 11-year-old boy. The age is honestly harder for me than the gender.

Thank you guys so much!!
Good to know I'm not the only one!

My NaNo isn't from a guy's view point, but another novel I've been working on is. It's my only one, but I had to change it into his point of view, instead of the girl I originally had in. It seems to be working out a lot better that way.

This is my first time writing anything in a guy's point of view. It's interesting, having little experience around boys myself.

I'm writing from a girl's POV, and yeah it is pretty hard and probably a strike against me (I know that when I look for young adult books in the bookstore, if I find one with a female MC but written by a guy, i'm more inclined to write it off as probably bad). Oddly enough the other way around seems to be more acceptable (girl writing a guy) for some reason.

Luckily I have lots of female friends who are helping me in terms of editing/looking over, so I don't think I could mess up that badly.

It's nice to know I'm not the only who feels this way! I'm a 31-year-old woman (I'll be 32 in just nine days!) and nearly all of my characters - whose viewpoints I cycle through - are 10 and 11 years old. I'm having a much harder time having them sound like they are the age they're meant to be. I usually write from a male point of view, so that - for me at least - is the easy part.
___

Yep, I'm narrating most of the book from the point of view of my protagonist, Owen Belmont, who is, of course, a guy. There are a few scenes in which the action needed to be explained but he was passed out though, or it would be more dramatic with a different narrator (or both, like the scene in which the antagonist kills her sister and her sister's girlfriend and it's narrated by the antagonist's sister).

I'm in a 3rd person POV, but it's all about a girl. I am a guy. She is just like me, but she is sort of not a girly girl, so It's easy.

I think it's really about how you yourself think. I don't relate with girls as well as I do with guys. It might be weird to say that I think I do have, and prefer to have, the mentality of a boy. I can't stand writing as girls, any character I have that's female I end up hating. And usually I hate reading as them too. It might just be my dislike for women in general. But I think I'm entitled to say that I don't like them-- I've been one my whole life.

And chances are you're going to mess up along the way, but think about it like this: imagine all those published authors who have written as the opposite sex. Try to avoid doing things that you don't like THEM doing. J.K. Rowling wrote as one of the world's most famous boys and he was pretty damn angsty. How much different could it be? Unless you're going full on testerone which I think for anyone is just a bad idea -_-

Of course, lots of adults like to write as teenagers too. Some who haven't been teenagers for twenty or so years. They mess teens up too. It's all the in the art, give it a stab. If you don't like it don't do it, but you have to be comfortable with it in the end.