Writing Prompts: Gender Bender

I once finished a long story (which later became a novel) only to discover a serious problem with my characters. It struck me funny that, with so much writing already done, the issue hadn't jumped out at me sooner.

The problem: all the characters were guys.

It was a men's adventure kind of story, right? So what do you need women for?

As it turned out, the story was crying out for a "love interest," a female foil for the testosterone-driven action of the story. As I began to imagine how my story would change, I realized that it would become much richer, much deeper, with the addition of a female character. Subplots and primary plot complications started popping up in my imagination. I knew the whole thing would be completely transformed by that balancing female element.

Now I had a decision to make. Should I introduce a new character ... or transform an existing male character into a woman?

The answer to that question led to the following exercise, which will flex your flexibility muscles, get you thinking outside the box and help you understand how powerful and adaptive your imagination really is.

1. Take one of the characters in your current story and change their sex. Make a copy of your current draft, and draft changes in the copy, in case you don't like the result.

Ask yourself the following questions: - What would you change about the character besides their gender? Their first name? Eye color? Hair color? Social background? Occupation? What other changes rattle loose because of the gender shift? - Does your new character have the same set of values as before? If there is a value shift, is it directly related to their gender? - How does the shift in gender change the relationship between your characters?

2. Take a character from one of your favorite stories and change their sex. Would Buffy slay vampires any differently if she were a guy? Would Conan the Barbarian perhaps not be so inclined to chop first and ask questions later if he were female?

Remember, as I've said before, your resistance to a particular writing exercise is a measure of how much you need to do it. If you think it's so ridiculous you won't even consider it, you really need to do it. Why close your mind to any possibility? You're a writer. You can quite literally do anything in your fictional world.

So why do this? Simple: because you can. Remember, in a first draft, there are no rules. Do anything you want. Make your world happen in any way you choose. Be open to these kinds of changes. They may help you salvage stories that would have sunk otherwise.

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