Saturday, May 12, 2007

The Value of Research

Ken Bruen and Jason Starr don't know women. Neither does their copyeditor. On page 53 of Bust they make an error on par with the old westerns where the hero fires 10 or 12 shots from his six-shooter before stopping to reload. They describe a woman's breasts as "46 triple-Ds" and then say she has a "bone-thin dancer's body."

Sorry, guys, but you blew it. A woman with a 46-inch chest does not have a "bone-thin dancer's body." Instead, she's more likely to be a small truck. I'm a 225-pound 6-footer myself, and I don't have a 46-inch chest.

So, here's my writing tip of the day for Ken and Jason and every other male writer who wants to write about women's physical attributes: Do your research. Talk to your wife/girlfriend/sister/mother and find out how bras are sized and how the size of of a woman's bra relates to the size of the woman.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, in BUST the character's breasts are IMPLANTS.

Michael Bracken said...

That's immaterial, anonymous. Implants will not change the size of a woman's ribcage, only the size of her breasts. There are two sizes on a bra: only the letter refers to the cup size, and the bigger the cup size the bigger the breast within. The number refers to the distance around the ribcage. The bigger the ribcage, the bigger the woman. A woman with a 46-inch chest, regardless of her cup size, could probably play defensive tackle; she certainly wouldn't have a "bone-thin dancer's body."

Anonymous said...

A woman with a bone-thin body and packing 46 double D's would spend all of her time picking herself up off the floor. :-))