Elen Tel'Ithil wrote:I thought about the Bechdel Test when I was writing mine, too. Mine doesn't pass, either. It gets really hard to pull off, though, if you're using first person and that person is male, so I decided not to sweat it too much.
Sometimes also the cast is too small or the setting too restrictive for a story to pass. We could also note that a story that passes the Bechdel Test may very well not pass a counter-Bechdel Test.
One reason for male writers writing about men is going to be that we feel more secure in our characters' likely behaviour. But this Forum has been very helpful to me before now when I've created female protagonists and specifically asked if females on the Forum would read for me and tell me where I've gone wrong. The story that made the James White long list was one of those.
Just another reason why the Forum is so good.
2,000 words can seem like a lot for one day but it's amazing what you can do once you get started. Also, 2,000 words is the maximum--it can certainly be less.
so I got carried away outlining characters, backstory and plot. I wrote about 700 words of actual story which I will probably scrap. I'm going to try again today for the 2,000 I need for the challenge. 
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