writing in two perspectives

I'm writing a novel for school and the assignment i have is to write a historical fiction novel. I decided that i was going to write in two perspectives. One: Rich girl. Two: poor boy.
Now, the problem?
Making them sound completely different.
I have a tendencey to make the boy sound a heck of a lot like the girl and that is deffinitly not a good thing. Any tips?

Think about their personalities, backgrounds, likes, dislikes. What makes them feel the way they do about things? How would they react to different situations?

Basically, get into their heads. You'll find out they are probably very different people with lots of different quirks.

Think about their interests, and what bothers them. I suggest putting them both in the same situation and figuring out how each would react to it.

Think about the level of education they'll both have, the upper classes tend to have a wider, more refined vocabulary.

Also think about the words you're using for each. Males tend to use a lot less emotional speech. Also generally tend to focus more on themselves and how other people effect them, rather than the other way around. Of course if you're feeding into the spoilt little rich girl troupe - which I hate I hasten to add - you'd probably want to reverse the gender typical behaviour and give them both gender atypical behaviour.

I'd be happy to review this when you post it to give you so more solid advice, just pm me.

There's a group for writing characters of the opposite gender. Don't let the name scare you off:

Gender Benders



You'll get some good contrast for writing from the male/female perspective there.

Joining the Gender Bender group might be a good idea indeed.

Sketch out one character's entire biography. Most of the details you put down won't end up in the novel, but the author has to know these things to justify a plot decision or why a certain character behaves in a certain way.

Now do the same for the other protagonist, but make sure you refer to the first profile you wrote up, so you can look for contrasts. Remember that word! Contrast = conflict = drama. Without this dramatic conflict, a clash of some kind or other, your plot will fail.

I would also think that the rich girl would have more things than the poor boy and that would influence the differences between the two.

Think... What makes a boy, a boy? Girls and boys think in completely different ways. In my experience, girls are more likely to feel more than one emotion at a time, while a boy may only focus on one at a time. A common example with this is if a boyfriend and girlfriend split up. The boy would be real sad. The girl would be sad, mad at whatever stupid reason they broke up for, embarassed at how they reacted to the situation, happy because they are now single again... etc etc (You get my point)

Poor boy:
If he's a a poor boy, he thinks differently to a normal one. When he sees some apple, he won't think: eww, apples. He'll probably think: FOOD! He'd accept anything offered and won't be picky about what it is. Also, he'll have a completely different perspective on the world we see. A poor boy is more likely to be appreciative of something they have because they are used to loss. A normal boy is more likely to be greedy, not look after what they have etc etc

Rich girl:
When it comes to a rich girl, you basically have to do the opposite of what you did with the poor kid. She's more likely to be bratty and snotty. When SHE sees an apple she's going to go: My dad imports those from abroad. She's not going to be as appreciative of the things she has because unlike the poor boy, she is not used to loss of any kind probably.

PM me with any questions you may have
xxmimixx

Hey! I'm doing that right now. I do it a lot actually... It can definetly be hard a times because I'm a girl, I don't know for sure how a guy thinks. However, I've asked some of my cousins and guy friends how guys think. After they got over the... "Why the heck is she asking that," part they told me that they don't really show their emotions and hate to seem vulnerable. Join the Gender Benders group. I'm planning on joining it. You probably know how a girl thinks...hopefully...