Have I made a mistake...

by Paul Garside
3rd November 2014

I am at last at the end of my final draft and edit. I have written about a fourteen year old boy who is befriended by extra dimensional beings. The story takes him through time thinking he is saving the world, the only female characters are his mother and a so called "witch" from the fourteenth century. No other females, to be honest the story line I feel doesn't call for a "friend" for him till the next book. Have I made a mistake in not putting the female element in the first novel. I wrote it as it revealed itself to me if that doesn't sound like I'm a cracked-pot!

Any and all thoughts will be welcome.

Regards Paul.

Replies

I tend to agree with Antoinette and hope I'm right. I'm writing a story which does have women in it, but they're all killed in the first third and none appear thereafter. I suppose I could add females later, but they wouldn't add anything important to the story so I'm not going to.

Profile picture for user oldchesn_4270
Jonathan
Hopkins
6735 points
Practical publishing
Fiction
Historical
Adventure
The writing process
The publishing process
Self-Publishing
Jonathan Hopkins
03/11/2014

Thanks for your comment. This is a story I wrote in the early 90s and left it after the second draft till earlier this year when I had the time, the thought of a female companion didn't enter my head the whole time, then I finished and for some reason the question raised itself. I suppose after being immersed for so long in different stories within the novel it is easy to be blinkered. Think I will leave it though, after your comment. Thank you for taking the time.

Regards Paul.

Profile picture for user paul_garside
Paul
Garside
330 points
Ready to publish
Fiction
Comic
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Gothic and Horror
Middle Grade (Children's)
Picture Books (Children's)
Adventure
Speculative Fiction
Poetry
Short stories
Writing dialogue
Editing
Literary agents
Proof reading
Cover design
Publicity and Marketing
Preparing Your Portfolio
Identifying Your Audience
Literary
Synopsis
Voice
Paul Garside
03/11/2014

I think as long as your story works with the lack of females you should be fine. Without reading your story I'm going to say it's like The Maze Runner (Going off the film since I haven't read it yet). There is only two females that appear in that, and one isn't in it for long. But it still worked.

Profile picture for user antoinet_15393
A.L
Star
330 points
Practical publishing
Poetry
Short stories
Fiction
Speculative Fiction
Adventure
Autobiography, Biography and Memoir
A.L Star
03/11/2014