Opening our new 'Writing Exercises' Forum, Anna has asked me to set up the following task, for those who want to participate. Write a short piece of work of any kind. Then post it to me using WWMail (click here)

I will then post it under my user name in this forum and other members can discuss whether or not they consider it to be by a male or female author. The original author may reveal all, as and when they see fit, after a suitable amount of discussion.

Perhaps it would also be advisable to only have one piece under discussion at any one time, so if you have a piece to post, wait until the current piece has been fully discussed before posting.

define "short" piece of work.

500 words? 1000?

Short enough to easily read in one go. No precise figure.

I can announce that the first entry has arrived...

Passions thirst She wanted love she needed love her heart cried out each day. She sat there lonely, in her room to frightened too shy to say, hello, to the boy who lived next door, who was a shy as she. Would fate sort them out was their love, not mean to be? Her body ached, as she lay, wet, in her bed each night. Knowing his was two feet away, somehow it did not seem right, for her to say hello to him, until he spoke first. But her body ached for love to quench her passions thirst. So each night, as on her bed she dreamed of what they'd do and there just two feet away he had the same dreams too

Hmmmm.... I'm guessing this is a male writer, straight away. Hey- are we also going to try and guess who it is? as some people's styles may now be quite familiar.

But it's written as if from the female POV, so although I too think it's written by a bloke, it wasn't immediately obvious. Then again, on re-reading I'm not so sure... I'm not at all familiar with the poetry on this site, so I couldn't possibly guess at the identity of the author. Interesting idea this.

Anna - what leads you to that conclusion, do tell !

My feeling is that mention of 'her body ached' twice in the same poem gives away the fantasizing male behind this poem. I find it hard to imagine a woman writing
Her body ached, as she lay,
wet, in her bed each night

!!!

But then again, perhaps this is a woman trying to imitate a man's crude attempt at impersonating the female perspective, in which case, it's a masterpiece.

This is actually quite a scarey thing to have to do, because you open yourself up to saying something that turns out to be ridiculous.
a
x

I'd say it's written by a male. If only because it's the first entry in an exercise to guess the gender, and immediately comes across from a woman's perspective. Seems like a guy thinking about what he wished the girl next door thought of him.

When I first started reading this, I thought this sounds like a man's writing! It is interesting that it's in the third person. It does sound a bit like a guy imagining how a girl could be dreaming about him and the things they could do together. Perhaps the boy next door (who's just as shy) wants to believe that the only reason he's not really getting anywhere with this girl is because she's really shy too. A poor deluded soul.

But, then again, the writer could be someone fiendishly trying to put us off the scent.

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OK Let's leave that one there. It was a MAN, I'll leave him to comment here if he so choses. He said some interesting things to me in the email (after all the above posts) so I hope he does!

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Time for the next one:

Maria. Yes, that was her name. It started with a kiss. Yes. Kiss chase in the playground. She fell and grazed her knee before I got to her. I was really cruel the way I laughed, grabbed hold of her and said "gotcha!" And then she started to cry and I just had to apologise. Even at the age of eight, the idea of chivalry hadn't completely escaped me. Though I didn't know the word, I knew it would be bad to take advantage of a damsel in distress. So, I gave her my hanky and helped her up. I was in top heaven. And then I heard girls' voices from a distance, "errr, Maria's talking to Moron. Err, she didn't kiss him. Did she?" And the next thing I remember is my head buzzing with confusion from all the air I was floating on. Maria had turned, looked the girls straight in the eye, and then walked to me and kissed me softly on the lips. "Oy! He's not a moron. He's my boyfriend" What a girl. Maria. I still remember the smell of aniseed balls on her breath.

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This feels to me like a girl, writing from the experience of having been on the receiving end of a boy's crass behaviour.
Andrew

You're assuming it's a bluff so although written from a boy's POV it's a girl writing... Mmm, I'm not so sure. Although there are some mixed messages here - I think the expression 'I was in top heaven' is a more female expression, whereas 'Kiss Chase' is boys terminology. So, am I going to make a commitment? OK, I think it's a bloke writing.

Looks to me like a girl.

"I still remember the smell of aniseed balls on her breath"?

No self-respecting man remembers such details. Neither would any self-erspecting boy, or male infant.

If a bloke wrote this... tut tut. Letting the side down buddy