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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   2086 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 11, 2026

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Buried in the culture war thread, there has been some discussion about differences between male and female writers, and how one might recognize the gender of a writer without knowing from the name.

Rowling supposedly writes all her male characters like they are girls. Draco is a bully in a mean girl fashion, while Harry falls in and out of love in a manner more similar to women than men. Another pointed out that male stories tend to converge on one point, whereas those written by women tend to move in many different directions. The "men writing women" tropes are also often telltale sign of author's gender.

I figured it would be fun to ask the rest here: Do you see different trends in how men and women write, and do you believe you can reliably tell the gender of a writer from their works alone?

I read a lot of web serials, which I would estimate are >95% male written (the Royal Road kind, not the fanfic or gay romance kind).

One thing I can say for certain is that if there is a female protagonist, she will always be a lesbian, or "bisexual" but basically all romance is with other women. I assume this is because it's icky to imagine a man hitting on your character, but it does get a bit ridiculous.

I don't know if this applies to professionally published works, I would assume not.

One thing I can say for certain is that if there is a female protagonist

What about "medium-sized breasts"? I've heard it mocked as the most reliable sign of male writing.

So How Not to Write a Novel made a bigger impression on you than you let on, then!

In general, male writers describing female characters put much more emphasis on the characters' secondary sexual characteristics than female writers do. Even if the character doesn't have a real set of badonkers, her medium-sized (or even small) breasts will be mentioned more prominently than they would be had the writer been female. Female writers generally only describe a female characters' breasts, legs, arse etc. if it's relevant to the story in some way.

Well, I am free to disregard this advice anyway, because I am writing smut.

In that case, carry on.

I it applies even harder in smut. When describing body parts for titillation, be more evocative than a bland descriptor like medium-sized.

I'd figure a character-driven description of another character would be more relevant than the third person. Or maybe I just appreciate characters who would describe a certain movement as "breasted boobily".

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