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I've been writing forever, kind of like Omega Vision, stared writing in elementary school, posted fanfics in high school/college - my stuff gets good reviews But recently I have started a long-term Original Fiction. It's "Autobiographical," the narrator is the teller. I wanted to make it as ambiguous as I could, so I still don't know the sex of the narrator. It will help me majorly if people could read this first bit, and tell me "What sex is the narrator?"

So here goes

I'm tired so I haven't read the whole thing yet, but from reading the first part I'm seeing something you may want to consider fixing: you don't start the story off in a scene.

A scene is what hooks the reader, once you hook the reader with the narrative action the reader will sit through your developing the protagonist's psyche as you seem to be trying here.

Sorry, I'll try and offer some more in depth feedback later when I have the time.

When i see the word beautiful used i instinctively imagine a female lol. Men can be compassionate and have deep meaningful thoughts, yet maybe being a man myself,that is the way it reads to me.

Thank you so much Starlock! I'll jot that down in my story. Thank you!

Lol, I guess I was so tired I didn't even read the first part.

Well anyway, this might sound harsh, but if you don't know the gender of your narrator when you write a story I have to wonder if you know anything about the character at all. If you don't know superficial things like gender how can you know the character's yearning?

*stops channeling Bob Butler*

I know the character, their longing and their frustration, I know their souls, how they think, what thing they fear most, and what desperation looks like to them. I also know their happier moments, I know their favorite food, I know where and how they grew up.

Of course their sex makes a difference in the details, but I haven't started those yet. I'm still on the wider picture, with a beginning and end in sight. The way I wrote this bit, the character is trying to be as anonymous as possible - for reasons that the first chapter reveals, in part.

I posted this because my bestie said it sounded like a man, and I found that interesting; I wanted to find some independent evaluation. So I came here. I'm not looking for critique yet - although I know that's coming. I just am curious, because something was brought up to me, and I wanted to find out more.

Originally posted by siriuswriter
I know the character, their longing and their frustration, I know their souls, how they think, what thing they fear most, and what desperation looks like to them. I also know their happier moments, I know their favorite food, I know where and how they grew up.

Of course their sex makes a difference in the details, but I haven't started those yet. I'm still on the wider picture, with a beginning and end in sight. The way I wrote this bit, the character is trying to be as anonymous as possible - for reasons that the first chapter reveals, in part.

I posted this because my bestie said it sounded like a man, and I found that interesting; I wanted to find some independent evaluation. So I came here. I'm not looking for critique yet - although I know that's coming. I just am curious, because something was brought up to me, and I wanted to find out more.
Ahh gotcha. My bad.

Originally posted by siriuswriter
I've been writing forever, kind of like Omega Vision, stared writing in elementary school, posted fanfics in high school/college - my stuff gets good reviews But recently I have started a long-term Original Fiction. It's "Autobiographical," the narrator is the teller. I wanted to make it as ambiguous as I could, so I still don't know the sex of the narrator. It will help me majorly if people could read this first bit, and tell me "What sex is the narrator?"

So here goes

I would say female, there's a passage where your character says:

'This came in the time of nicknames, where Elizabeth ceased to be Elizabeth and began to be Lizzy, Cassandra a Cassie, and Katherine a Katie'.

This instinctual and familiar use of feminine names could be a small sign that it's female. Or not, it all depends on perception but you have done well though to keep the rest of it neutral but that part stands out for me

Thank you so much, LSZ. Yeah, I think I'm going with a female. I'll probably be littering the manuscript with stuff like that unknowingly, probably because I'm a girl myself, and I like it, so it'd be hard to edit out all those places.

Thanks for everyone's help.

I may keep on putting up snatches of stuff, just to get an opinion on something, but I think this first bit is solved.