Writing from the POV of the opposite gender?

I have a hard time from a girl's perspective, ironically enough. Probably because I think more like a guy than anything? Meh. Might be why people mistake me for a guy a lot. xD

Ironically, I've been told that my only female MC is probably one of my best characters. And she's kind of... a female dog. xD

Weird much? Yeah. Welcome to my life.

-Saint Razorblade
The Official YWS Pirate

I find it odd that in the poll more people said they write from the perspective of the opposite sex than their own. I guess it's related to the fact that more girls probably responded, since I think there are a lot more female writers who write exclusively from the male perspective than males who write exclusively from the female perspective (never heard of one of those actually).

Personally I write from both, doesn't really make a difference. I think it's way more difficult to write from the perspective of someone who is much older or much younger than you than it is to write from the perspective of the opposite sex. It might also be difficult to write from the perspective of someone smarter or wiser than you.

I have a question for those of you who sometimes or always write from the perspective of the opposite sex: Do you use first or third person? One thing I've noticed with published books is that, aside from S.E. Hinton, when the author is not the same gender as the main character, the book is almost always in the third person (even if the author sometimes uses first person when writing about someone of their gender). Not true for me, though.

I rarely will write in a guy's POV. They're so confusing as it is, how can I write about them?

~JFW1415

the POV of your opposite gender? Dangerous business, mate. Many a good book has been ruined by the fact that the author can't pull off a character of the opposite gender. It's hard to do. I'd play around with it and get very comfortable with writing such a character before doing something seriously.

Hm. I write both, actually. I tend to have more male protagonists than I have female protagonists, simply because that's what the story calls for and everything. When I write from a male point of view, however, I tend to write third person. I don't think I've ever written a story with a first-person male point of view. I should try it, though it might come out a bit stereotyped.

When I write from a female point of view, I tend to write both first and third person, though mostly first. I guess it's because my writing comes across better in first person when I'm portraying a female character. I can understand how a female character would think about, etc.

However, males--having hung around them for the majority of my life, what with my brother, my neighbors, my guy friends, my boyfriend --I tend to be better with action, their body languages, their dialogue, etc. not necessarily into their innermost thoughts or what makes them tick...

Hm. That's very interesting.

But yeah, I've seen writers who are male and have written from a female's perspective. Scott Westerfeld comes to mind at the top of my head--and I know there are others like him, I just can't think of them at the moment.

I have written from both and haven't had any difficulties, but then, I don't write from a romantic standpoint. I think that if I were to try and write a romance from the guy's POV, I would have a bit of trouble. I just am not completely sure how a man approaches love/like/whatever.

Right now in my fantasy novel, both of my main characters are male. I'm getting close to a romantic interest, so I'm going to have to play it by ear with the writing. *quivers in anticipation* I think it will be one of my first attempts at writing romance from a male's POV. I have blocked my last attempt from my head because I was about nine at the time and it didn't turn out so hot...

~GryphonFledgling

I just wrote few poems in girl's perspective; however, those are in SPANISH.
Maybe I will write in English a story with girl's perspective because is interesting.

Hmm.... I've never even tried to write from a boys point of view. HMM! That gives me an idea...
I imagine it would be hard though. How would a boy speak? I barely see any boys except my brother, so....

I usually have POV from one or several girls in stories. Girls are pretty much easy to get inside of their heads and pull off that good old circular logic that makes them be more random and interesting then a guy's straight arrow form of logic. Knowing the differences in how men and women think is what ultimately lead me on to use women more in stories, because they can backfire and flip-flop around and still be perfectly acceptable, while a guy is much more focused and easier to predict in many forms. Even when highly developed and complex, girls just become that much easier to have a POV from when you get that deep into a character.

Though POV from a guy comes natural to me as well, so it works on that aspect, I've just tried to do women more and it is basically even with me as a result. For example, I am a fan of Deedlit and would rush to do a story from her POV over someone like Parn or Ghim.