In one of my classes recently, a student asked my opinion of something. Could I think of any male author who writes really believable women, or any female author who writes really believable men?
I had an incredibly hard time coming up with anything.
So, (and this is in no way limited to genre fiction) - can you guys think of any in particular? Or to rephrase it, are there any writers out there who are really good at creating characters (and writing them) that are different from themselves?
If character age doesn’t matter, I feel that Kate DiCamillo did an excellent job within the mind of a pre-teen boy, Rob, dealing with the loss of a parent in her book The Tiger Rising. Granted, it does not have the nuances of the male perspective on romantic relationships and the like, but I was very pleased (for a youth fiction piece) with the character development and interpersonal components.
Perhaps Audrey Niffenegger deserves some credit for her work with Henry in The Time Traveler’s Wife, still in my top ten right now for fringe-sci-fi novels.
Two pennies, take 'em or leave 'em. =)
I think SE Hinton did a fine job of writing about boys/young men when she wrote the Outsiders, Tex, and such. She used her initials rather than her own name when writing these stories because it was felt a woman was incapable of writing such subject matter.
On a TVwriting note, Stephen Moffett wrote BBC’s Coupling and seemed to capture the female point of view quite well (both sexes actually) judging by the nods and “yeps” made by ladies watching the show.
As a thorough fan of the Brit Coupling series (“Oh, Jeffrey…”), I wondered…was Moffett the sole writer on the series, or was there a team at work? I may have to go back and re-watch, perhaps there are commentaries I missed.
Sole writer to the best of my knowledge. His wife was the producer.
My first thought was “YT” (from Snow Crash) for a well-written female, and “all of them” for well-written males. (Women have the advantage of having a lot of male authors to mine, while there were (until recently) far fewer female authors.)
But then, I’m a male. So I checked with The GF. Her responses were: “YT” for a well-written female, and “all of them” for a well-written male.
How about:
Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina
Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights
Charles De Lint writes exceptional and realistic women. He has a huge catalog, and I can’t think of a particular title example, but the character of Jilly Coppercorn stands out in my mind. All of his titles set in Newford are wonderful.
Wally Lamb - She’s Come Undone, it was like he was inside my head when he wrote it. It was often an uncomfortable read beause it hit so many nerves. Great book.
William Shakespeare. Nuff said.
Wally Lamb in his novel She’s Come Undone. If I didn’t know a man had written it, I never would have guessed it.
Great minds…whoa!!! Yeah, it was a book I’ve always wanted to re-read but because it was so uncomfortable to read at times, I’ve just never been able to do it.
I guess so. 
I’ve never felt a desire to reread it. But then I seldom reread books, I don’t have time to read them in the first place. I have literally over 500 books on the shelves next to my bed demanding to be read.
Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (yes, I am pushing your question to the limit with this recommendation)
Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair
Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres (brilliant retelling of King Lear)
Joss Whedon. (fill in the blanks)
…why do all my recommendations begin with J? :eek:
A friend of mine also thought Wally Lamb would be a writer that would fit into that category.
I thought J. K. Rowling did a great job with Ron Weasley. The ever clueless boy in high school who tries to say the right thing but so so often say the really wrong thing. Often completely clueless but often having his heart in the right place.
I think Stephen King did a really good job with the character of Odetta in his Dark Tower series.
Not a book but i think the writers of Friday Night Lights have both sexes down really well. But i think writing for TV/Plays/Movies is alot easier to write for the opposite sex because you have the actor that can put their twist on it. With a book or story you have to internalize all their thoughts and actions so the writer making a complete character whereas in other mediums they have alot of help.
We were just discussing this in another thread in reference to C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces.
For the flip-side, I haven’t finished it yet, but my dad was really impressed with how well Marilynne Robinson wrote from an old man’s perspective in Gilead.
Writing realistic characters of the opposite sex of the writer is one thing, but I would think writing from a member of the opposite sex’s first-person perspective would be even more difficult.