23in13 update

I have been working on a novel in progress. Over the last two weeks, I’ve put in about 3k words.

A few days ago I decided I needed a break so I switched to a short story that has been languishing for almost a year. I’ve been making some good progress on it and I expect it to be finished in a few days. Certainly before the week is out.

I’m going to call that two of the 23. With this post, that brings me up to five. Or is it six?

Oh well, I’ll count later.

Bechdel Test – fail

Over the weekend, I saw a reference to the Bechdel Test (one of many links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test), which, for anyone unfamiliar, is a test of gender bias. Passing the test is supposed to indicated three-dimensional female characters.

The explanation goes like this, your movie (or novel) must have two named, female characters that have a conversation about something other than a man. It can be any subject, even something that is cliched, like shoes or shopping. If not, then you fail the test.

It was originally conceived for movies, but I decided to apply it to my first novel to see … more