Recently I was reading over A Reluctant Assassin (more on why later) and I found myself wondering what it is that some of my reviewers don’t enjoy about the story. I mean, I had to pull myself out of it to search for the specifics I had opened it looking for (again… more on that later… promise!). That’s exciting for me because that is what makes a story great for me: pulling me in and not letting go.
This morning, I opened up Facebook and saw an article I had shared some time ago – and the title intrigued me (though I did not remember reading it at first), so I read it again.
And, let me tell you, there are some sobering truths in its depths, things I would not have thought could possibly be true of our society.
Also, only one year later, when I read the same article again, I’m finding things I’m certain I didn’t see before – and, with my debut novel fresh in my mind, I’m seeing parallels that surprise and astound me.
What are the chances that some readers did not enjoy my story because possibly… they perceived it as weak writing due to the statistics from said article which state that because my male to female ratio is far above the average 80 to 20 percent, the story feels overfull of female presence?
And could the explanation for at least some of the readers who did enjoy the story be that they read between the lines and realized that Auralius is very much a male-dominated society and, while Kayden is obviously surrounded by men (guards, advisors, members of the Order, etc…), I chose to focus my narrative on the most important characters and leave the rest up to the readers’ imagination?
Either way, it brings up some very important topics about females in fiction… and in reality!
At the very least, it’s a conversation that needs to be had with our sons and daughters.
For anyone who didn’t see it above, here is the article link: http://lauravanarendonkbaugh.com/writing-women/
©JCMorrows 2018
JC Morrows 