I read a post about this and it got me thinking. What works? How does it work? How to do it effectively? The only answer I can come up with is people watching.

Observation is a very necessary tool. How does a man/woman behave in a set circumstance? Part of this is observation of the different genders and another part is characterization. If a character is constructed correctly, then that pseudo person will run themselves if the writer can get into deep point of view.

What helps me is total immersion in the character. That pseudo person has to think, feel, hurt and have aspirations. If the character is of the opposite gender, this takes a lot more thinking through. Men do react to a situation differently to women, which is where the people watching comes into play. Just as an example, a man can almost be guaranteed never to read a set of instructions before he puts something together. A woman almost always will. It is the different wiring that is so fascinating.

BTW, this is not a dig at guys in their construction of DIY projects. Most women will tend to make themselves scarce when such is undertaken to allow the man to do what he thinks, turn the air blue with his thoughts on the thing not cooperating and then read the instructions when the woman is out of the way and can’t see him having to do this.