I’ve been getting reviews back from Beta readers as mentioned in the previous couple of posts and I was pretty excited to get my first review back from a boy!! ; p
The review made my eyebrows shoot up. Almost everything he questioned was different to the previous reviews. So I thought I’d write up my own wildly unscientific theory on it all *grin* Here are my thoughts.
Boys like blueprints. The first monster description according to my male reviewer needs to be more detailed.
This reminded me of how my father loves the Jean Auel’s Earth Children series. The intense descriptions completely enthrall him. Unlike the sex scenes which he flicks through *hee* actually me, mum and dad love this series and you can tell when we hit the x-rated scenes. The pages get flipped. It’s what makes me so hesitant about sex scenes… Eeek lost my train of thought – back to the differences.
Boys like blueprints and the more detailed the exciting and weird stuff the better! Girls are quite happy to have a series of ‘descriptive’ words to create their own images, even if it means everyone has a different view of a monster. Boys however want to be able to practically build the creature/item and argue over the minute details. A good example of this is the reviews on books 8 & 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse series were the male reviewers are positively vicious about mistakes in certain names. Apparently Charlene Harris doesn’t use an editor (I really hadn’t noticed.. but then I’m not a boy ; p) and these reviewers weren’t impressed..
Boys like new and exciting creatures. I had a complaint about using Centaurs cause they are too common. This one made me blink (and I don’t care I love’em ; p). But then if I think to the reviews of Avatar I guess I should have seen this coming. Here in NZ there were more than a few snide comments about the creatures on Avatar. For their lack of originality. I was dumbfounded by it cause I think the creatures are WOW but more than one boy was exceptionally unimpressed by the six legged horses.. On the bright side I have lotsa freaky creatures appearing in Book 2 & 3 – book 1 is just The Arrival people!! Give the girls a chance to see the world *lol*.
I am thrilled no one complained about the names I created. Course I probably shouldn’t have said that (touching wood! Touching wood! – and NO not that kinda wood! Ugh such disgusting minds ; p)
I’m hoping to find a couple more male reviewers out there (any offers?) so as to compare some more of my ‘scientific’ thoughts *grin*
I'd be interested to find out if the detail description thing carries across the board to most men. I tend to skip over detailed descriptions, so that surprises me…maybe it's a genre thing? Being fantasy, a little more description is wanted to get in touch with the world?
Any commonalities to your feedback so far?
i'm with Vicki, i skip detailed descriptions, like your history section (sorry!). But that is interesting.
I did have difficulty with the fire breathing dragon's name – how DO you say his name??! *giggle*
My husband read a LOT of nautical, historical fiction. He talks about how much description there is, he kind of likes the refreshing lack of description that I use. I like the idea that people will have very different views of what my characters are like – though I'm not building new creatures…
Actually you are right men and women think differently and why shouldn't that go into writing as well? and way, great ideas here, I hope you find another male reviewer.
Hi Vicki – a couple but most of his were totally different 🙂
Hi K – lazy ass ;p and it's easy to say Nn-elg , neh-elg 🙂
Hi Jolene – I like using my imagination too – i only need blueprints when building stuff, like the castle. I actually have drawn up basic blue prints to the castle so I could describe it accurately ;p was one heck of a task!
Hi Summer – glad you agree 🙂 I think it may also be why people tend to prefer books by the same sex 🙂
heh-I didn't care for the creatures on Avatar either, and I won't read Charlaine Harris (not my bag)
BUT
Absolutely write your book your way! If your muse says centaurs, use centaurs.
Maybe boys also like new and shiny things too? It was a boy that directed most of Avatar after all. (male, whateva!)
Two of my favorite authors are actually guys, and I'm not quite sure, but their descriptions don't really go into that much detail (granted I probably fit into your theory because I don't tend to really focus that hard on the mega details).
Hmm…I was always taught that writing a ton of description was taboo. Well! This is an interesting theory to think about! 🙂 I hope you get more subjects to test it on in the form of eager male beta readers!
I like that your readers are so specific. I have no idea what the creatures are that you mentioned but they sound interesting. Well, I think that you should keep the creatures you like in your book or you won't be satisfied with the finished product. However, you know your genre better than I do.
CD