Ooh, sounds fun! I'm in! I love that you wrote a Mary Sue parody (I also love that she thought an avalanche was a weather condition announced on the news). I can see that going well actually, you write humour well. I don't, which made my past attempt at it lulzy (also, she was "made of sugar, spice, and all things nice"... I don't know why...)
As for writing women... I seem to gravitate towards writing male characters. I write genfic, so it shouldn't really matter, but I was wondering why. I think the real reason is that it's harder to write female characters. It's like there are two positions: cliche (girly, screams a lot etc.) or actively writing against a stereotype which then gets scrutinised as really being stereotypical or sexist in some way or another... I don't write as a statement, I write because I like to write. Writing men at least seems to avoid this particular trouble.
no subject
As for writing women... I seem to gravitate towards writing male characters. I write genfic, so it shouldn't really matter, but I was wondering why. I think the real reason is that it's harder to write female characters. It's like there are two positions: cliche (girly, screams a lot etc.) or actively writing against a stereotype which then gets scrutinised as really being stereotypical or sexist in some way or another... I don't write as a statement, I write because I like to write. Writing men at least seems to avoid this particular trouble.