Gender- a societal norm attributed on the basis of sex; typically males are "guys, men, boys" females are "girls, women..." A character (or a person's for that matter) gender is not biologically tied to their sex, but social settings often give this appearance.
I made my presentation on "Radio Free Emerson" on Wednesday. It went very smoothly. I was a little nervous because our presentations didn't have specific guidelines. It really was up to the individual. I aced it though; it was clear and concise and had some good discussion points. We talked about the usual theme, character development. I noted some character inconsistancies. There's one character "Meryl" who's particularly weak in terms of penmanship. There does not seem to be motivation to her actions as anything more than a plot device. Come to think of it, most of the females were unrelatable and seemed more like plot-tools than well-rounded characters. Their actions really are there almost entirely to push the plot along but there is no deeper, or consistent, thought behind it. The author is a man. I think he's young too, I read something about him being in his mid-twenties. I think "Radio Free" was originally produced at his college. If he was in my writer's workshop I'd advise he work on how he writes his women. Mr. Miller actually has an excercise to help flesh out characters that are inhibited by gender. Just write your character as the gender you are most comfortable with and then make adjustments. Gender may affect thought process but it does not inhibit the ability to think.
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