: Re: Is it frustrating not to know the narrator's gender? I have written a 1st person piece and reading it I realize it's very difficult to tell if the narrator is male or female. There are one

@Murray831

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As a reader, I tend to assume a gender (often but not always the same as the author's). The only reason this would bother me is that it's jarring when I discover I'm wrong, as I have to reimagine the character.

As a writer I do try to clarify it early, and that's the advice I've heard from others as well. It's tricky in first person, especially if the piece begins with the narrator alone.

Mentioning their gender-typical clothing is a pretty simple way to do it. Another possible trick is to have the narrator think of him/herself like "not my mother's daughter," "one of the boys," "the smartest girl in class"--anything that drops a clue early.

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