Yup--I have started on the first chapter and the outline, then Life and Copyedits From Hell intervened.
My protag's a middle-aged woman. Again. No other woman in the work would occupy the same amount of page time, but that's because she's, well, the protag/POV.
Intimidating woman? That's a term that makes me grit my teeth. Part of me wants to tell the put-upon boys to get over themselves, but I guess it depends on the amount of kickass in the kickass. Because I like kickass, but it requires some leavening with things like consequences, the understanding that things were lost because the kickass got in the way. All of which falls under 'character development' and makes things interesting.
FWIW, I've run afoul of male readers who want All Kickass All The Time, and file any rumination or self-doubt under the header of "whining." The criticsm bugs me, but I push past it because I am trying to write Thinking Woman's Kickass, which allows for friends of both sexes, coffee breaks, and occasional indications of a sense of humor.
I should say that the UPF with which I have the most experience in the Anita Blake series. Loved the first seven or so, but stopped reading after Obsidian Butterfly. Haven't read any of the others, although I've tried. They lose me, for various reasons.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-04-25 05:03 pm (UTC)My protag's a middle-aged woman. Again. No other woman in the work would occupy the same amount of page time, but that's because she's, well, the protag/POV.
Intimidating woman? That's a term that makes me grit my teeth. Part of me wants to tell the put-upon boys to get over themselves, but I guess it depends on the amount of kickass in the kickass. Because I like kickass, but it requires some leavening with things like consequences, the understanding that things were lost because the kickass got in the way. All of which falls under 'character development' and makes things interesting.
FWIW, I've run afoul of male readers who want All Kickass All The Time, and file any rumination or self-doubt under the header of "whining." The criticsm bugs me, but I push past it because I am trying to write Thinking Woman's Kickass, which allows for friends of both sexes, coffee breaks, and occasional indications of a sense of humor.
I should say that the UPF with which I have the most experience in the Anita Blake series. Loved the first seven or so, but stopped reading after Obsidian Butterfly. Haven't read any of the others, although I've tried. They lose me, for various reasons.