I’ve written fiction with highly intelligent female characters, thank you. Not published, but written, yes.
(And while we’re on the topic, I’ve written, though not finished, fiction in which the main character is female, the hyperintelligent characters are female, and female characters talk, to each other, about something other than a man, with no lesbian overtones whatsoever between any pair of them. Thank you.)
Does that make it harder to have them share your ideas? I suspect that irrelevant (to the story) similarities and differences between the characters and the author affect the process, even more than the relevant ones.
It could explain why you rejected the results of random selection. Her purpose was to see your ideas from the outside, and the relevant difference that she didn’t share them needed some irrelevant differences to prop it up.
My apologies if my comments seemed accusatory; it’s hard to bring up this kind of issue—which I think is fairly important—without sounding confrontational. I should mention that I found this story to be excellent, and I learned a new way of looking at things, that rarest of treats. I just noticed that Jeffreyssai, the ultra-badass Confessor, and the nameless hero were all male, and considered it sufficiently interesting to ask about.
Jeffreyssai and the Confessor are obtrusive, explicit rationalists—I’ve already written about that writing problem of mine, which is my own problem as a writer.
I’ve written fiction with highly intelligent female characters, thank you. Not published, but written, yes.
(And while we’re on the topic, I’ve written, though not finished, fiction in which the main character is female, the hyperintelligent characters are female, and female characters talk, to each other, about something other than a man, with no lesbian overtones whatsoever between any pair of them. Thank you.)
Does that make it harder to have them share your ideas? I suspect that irrelevant (to the story) similarities and differences between the characters and the author affect the process, even more than the relevant ones.
It could explain why you rejected the results of random selection. Her purpose was to see your ideas from the outside, and the relevant difference that she didn’t share them needed some irrelevant differences to prop it up.
My apologies if my comments seemed accusatory; it’s hard to bring up this kind of issue—which I think is fairly important—without sounding confrontational. I should mention that I found this story to be excellent, and I learned a new way of looking at things, that rarest of treats. I just noticed that Jeffreyssai, the ultra-badass Confessor, and the nameless hero were all male, and considered it sufficiently interesting to ask about.
Jeffreyssai and the Confessor are obtrusive, explicit rationalists—I’ve already written about that writing problem of mine, which is my own problem as a writer.