Dani
asked
David Wong:
What made you decide to write from a female prospective? Also, is it more difficult or take longer to write from the prospective of the opposite sex.
David Wong
I get this question a lot, but you have to remember that almost every character I write is coming from a perspective that's totally different from mine. In each case you're trying to look at their circumstances and understand them, to find the humanity in them. So that goes the same if it's a man writing a woman or a woman writing a vampire.
In Zoey's case, I think she has more in common with me than I have with Molech, for instance. In both of those cases you're thinking of where they're from, how they see the world. That's most of what writing fiction is, trying to put yourself into the heads of people who aren't you. I mean, "David" is nothing like me - I don't drink, or use drugs, or struggle to keep a job, or react the way he does to a crisis. Those are all things I had to make myself understand about him.
None of this is to say that I'm great at it or anything, I don't win many awards.
In Zoey's case, I think she has more in common with me than I have with Molech, for instance. In both of those cases you're thinking of where they're from, how they see the world. That's most of what writing fiction is, trying to put yourself into the heads of people who aren't you. I mean, "David" is nothing like me - I don't drink, or use drugs, or struggle to keep a job, or react the way he does to a crisis. Those are all things I had to make myself understand about him.
None of this is to say that I'm great at it or anything, I don't win many awards.
More Answered Questions
Curtis Cupach
asked
David Wong:
Do you have any writing exercises you'd like to suggest? I try and write one thing a day, whether it be a book review or a sketched out interaction between different forms of my insanity. What I have trouble with the most is finding a starting point though. Once I get my foot on the ledge I can blather, I just need to find a better way than blindly kicking the rock face as I scramble in the dark.
Dan
asked
David Wong:
Having read JDatE, I have to ask: does the dialog come naturally, or do you have to think about "how would this guy talk to that guy?" I find when I write, I can produce some "natural" dialog, but I always seem to question my decisions, then rework or rephrase, and I rarely get a natural, "organic" flow. A lot of my conversations feel contrived. Just looking for some pointers from a success. Please and thank you.
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