As a writer of fiction you�re seriously handicapped if you can�t write convincingly about people unlike yourself. You should be able to assume the voice (or, at least, the point of view) of a child, an old person, a member of the opposite gender, or someone of another race. An accomplished writer assumes as many shapes, sizes, colors, etc., as the fictional occasions demand. This requires you to do what actors do when taking on a role: they not only imagine what it�s like to be another person, they transform themselves, they get inside their character�s skin.
Exercise
Write a page in the first person, assuming the voice of someone of the opposite gender. This can be a description, a narrative, or a segment of autobiography. The main point is to completely lose yourself and become another.
Objective
To learn how to draw convincing verbal portraits of characters different from yourself and to make them sympathetic, rounded, and complex even though you don�t especially �like� them or admire what they represent.
As usual, let go, and have fun with this exercise!
