Yes, I do actually read books and notice when there are few or no women. This started in grad school, when a prof announced, "In the whole of The Canterbury Tales, there isn't a single scene where two women speak to each other in direct discourse." I went holy frack--how could I not have noticed? I'd first read the CT as as sophomore in college! I'd have to modify her statement a little, actually; in the Franklin's Tale, Canacee has a long conversation with a female bird, using a magic ring to communicate with the bird. But two human women? Nope. Never happens. (Women do talk to each other in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, but there's almost no direct discourse between them again!)
So I notice these things. I think I've done okay in my own fic, but I have also found myself very reluctant to create female OC's because, as you say, I don't want to write a Mary Sue, and I don't want to write a non-Mary Sue who gets mistaken for one! I think my original female characters have been rather poorly fleshed out because I shy away from them a bit. Of course, my male OCs aren't any great shakes either.
I find it easiest to write for the characters I've gotten from the show. I do like to write Sam, and occasionally Janet, but I have trouble with SGA: I'm not exactly sure what to do with Teyla or Elizabeth! I've written Kate Heightmeyer in two stories, and I thought I got her pretty well, but a couple of my commenters have told me they like my version much better than the one on the show! Um, but I thought I was writing the one on the show! (I also got one of those comments about Gwen in my one Torchwood story: "I wish the show writers wrote her like this." Okayyyy.)
I guess this is long-winded agreement that the show doesn't give us the same depth of characterization with female characters, and I think we as women and writers want to do better than that but are afraid of messing it up.
But sometimes, a story comes to you that's just a guy story. You can write--what? Not a girl story, certainly not a chick story--some female equivalent later.
no subject
So I notice these things. I think I've done okay in my own fic, but I have also found myself very reluctant to create female OC's because, as you say, I don't want to write a Mary Sue, and I don't want to write a non-Mary Sue who gets mistaken for one! I think my original female characters have been rather poorly fleshed out because I shy away from them a bit. Of course, my male OCs aren't any great shakes either.
I find it easiest to write for the characters I've gotten from the show. I do like to write Sam, and occasionally Janet, but I have trouble with SGA: I'm not exactly sure what to do with Teyla or Elizabeth! I've written Kate Heightmeyer in two stories, and I thought I got her pretty well, but a couple of my commenters have told me they like my version much better than the one on the show! Um, but I thought I was writing the one on the show! (I also got one of those comments about Gwen in my one Torchwood story: "I wish the show writers wrote her like this." Okayyyy.)
I guess this is long-winded agreement that the show doesn't give us the same depth of characterization with female characters, and I think we as women and writers want to do better than that but are afraid of messing it up.
But sometimes, a story comes to you that's just a guy story. You can write--what? Not a girl story, certainly not a chick story--some female equivalent later.