From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   On Wednesday, November 19, 2014 9:06:56 PM UTC-5, John F. Eldredge wrote:   
   > On Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:28:43 -0800, David E. Siegel (siegel@acm.org)   
   > wrote:   
   >    
   > > On Saturday, October 25, 2014 11:16:04 PM UTC-4, William Vetter wrote:   
   > >> On Sunday, October 5, 2014 8:53:55 PM UTC-4, J.Pascal wrote:   
   > >> > On Sunday, October 5, 2014 5:45:42 PM UTC-6, William Vetter wrote:   
   > >> > > On Sunday, October 5, 2014 3:18:46 PM UTC-4, J.Pascal wrote:   
   > >> > >    
   > >> > (...)   
   > >> > >    
   > >> > > > Saying "You can't use weather to indicate mood" is like saying   
   > >> > > > "no more using short words and sentences to heighten a sense of   
   > >> > > > urgency."   
   > >> > >    
   > >> > >    
   > >> > > >    
   > >> > > There is another one they say universally...the character can't   
   > >> > > look in a mirror and describe herself.   
   > >> > >    
   > >> > > The other day I was thinking about that, that there used to be a TV   
   > >> > > show named "Quantum Leap" involving Scott Bakula, where he looked   
   > >> > > in the mirror at the beginning of every episode.   
   > >> >    
   > >> >    
   > >> > Of course that worked really well in "Quantum Leap" where Bakula ran   
   > >> > around looking just like Bakula but for the story was actually in   
   > >> > other people's bodies so we got to see in a reflection what he looked   
   > >> > like to everyone else.  Sort of like if there are vampires there's at   
   > >> > least one instance of non-reflection required. :)   
   > >> >    
   > >> > But anyhow, the mirror description thing....   
   > >> >    
   > >> > Honest, I think that was a solution to a non-existent problem.    
   > >> > Someone or other decided that a "good" writer in a single POV 3rd   
   > >> > person narrative or 1st person never let anything on the page that   
   > >> > their POV character wouldn't actually think.  So since I already know   
   > >> > that I have blond hair and blue eyes and am 5 feet tall I would never   
   > >> > think about my blond hair and blue eyes.  I might think about my   
   > >> > height if the author asked me to get a bowl from a high shelf but in   
   > >> > order to think about my *hair* I need to be looking in a mirror   
   > >> > fixing it.   
   > >>    
   > >> I dunno.  Women say, "I hate my hair" all the time.  It's pretty much   
   > >> universal.  And black women have an even bigger thing about the hair   
   > >> relaxer.   
   > >> >    
   > >> > Other solutions could be to have someone else say something like...   
   > >> > "Julie, I sure do envy your beautiful blond hair... it flows like   
   > >> > sunshine..."  *Gak*  And besides, this has to happen at the beginning   
   > >> > of the story, and giving me a love-sick stalker just to describe my   
   > >> > looks is even sillier than having me walk past a mirror.   
   > >>    
   > >> A stalker needs to appear frequently in the manuscript, be almost   
   > >> inescapable, or the stalker is not a stalker, just an annoyance.   
   > >> >    
   > >> > And I imagine that people started to notice that "the mirror trick"   
   > >> > seemed forced, too, and frequently applied...   
   > >> >    
   > >> > ...to a wholly made-up problem.  Just describe your POV character and   
   > >> > get it over with.  If a mirror is *appropriate* then use a mirror.    
   > >> > If a love-lorn stalker is *appropriate* use a love-lorn stalker.  If   
   > >> > it doesn't really matter what your POV character looks like, or what   
   > >> > specie they are, or sex... then leave it out.   
   > >>    
   > >> I think you really need to let reader know if the POV character is an   
   > >> alien quickly.  And probably the gender.  If they think the author is   
   > >> playing games with them, like intentionally hiding that the POV   
   > >> character is a female physician or a male nurse to prove the reader is   
   > >> a sexist, they'll feel their intelligence is being insulted.   
   > >    
   > > If it is too blatant yes. But it can work. I recently reread _Alien   
   > > Island_   
   > >  (1970) by T. L. Sherred, and it is not until page 55 that the gender of   
   > >  the PoV character is clearly stated to be female, a point which soon   
   > >  becomes important. The character has two often but not invariably male   
   > >  occupations: bartender (as a cover) and intelligence agent   
   > >  (subordinate). There may have been a few cues, but they were too subtle   
   > >  for me to pick up on, and I suspect for most readers. I think it worked   
   > >  well in this particular case, and can work if it is well done. Of   
   > >  course default gender assumptions were perhaps even stronger in 1970   
   > >  than they are now.   
   > >    
   > > -DES   
   >    
   > Melissa Scott's novel _The Kindly Ones_ never does reveal the gender of    
   > the protagonist, Trey Maturin, and does so skillfully enough that I    
   > didn't realize that I didn't know his or her gender until the second time    
   > I read the novel.  Maturin is always addressed by name, by title, or in    
   > the second person.  This is the only novel in which Melissa Scott has    
   > done this.   
      
      
   I have never seen this done by professional writers.  What I meant when I   
   originally mentioned this was that, at times, I have seen it in workshop   
   manuscripts that represent perhaps the level of the 75th percentile of the   
   slushpile where some young or    
   inexperienced author has concealed the gender of a POV character in a piece of   
   short fiction, or written almost entirely in character dialog with the purpose   
   of concealing a gender of a physician, so that the physician can be revealed   
   to be a woman in    
   the final paragraph as a sort of twist ending.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)