: Re: What gender do you think the narrator is? Once again, I traveled three hours only to eat sushi, alone. Cars passed by and people streamed along the sidewalk. Hanging in the air, I could

@Marchetta100

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I read a book on Creative Writing before that suggested that if you describe an acquaintance of the protagonist as beautiful, then they will (in the reader's mind) automatically become the protagonists love interest.

Discriminations aside, if the protagonist does certain things, or you describe certain things, it does give readers some preconceptions about the scene, in much the way that my example above does.

I think the cool breeze caressing the skin, the detailed description of the flowers and the 'faint scent of spring' in the first paragraph certainly gives me the impression of the female/feminine narrator. The second two paragraphs don't perpetuate this, but the question is: has the seed already been planted in the first paragraph?

These descriptions are quite feminine observations (again, discrimination aside), and too many of them in one go does give the reader a distinct impression about the narrator.

It's a lot to do with the characteristics of the reader as much as it is about the words you've written, and how they project their selves into what they read. All readers will try to identify with some aspects of what they're reading and subconsciously make decisions about whether or not the written words support them. As a male reader, I felt that the first paragraph paints the scene of a female narrator. Female readers (or readers of different personalities) may not feel the same way.

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