Writing Male Main Characters Versus Female Main Characters

[redbrunja]

To get my bias clear: what I'm about to say is based mainly on anecdotal experience with fellow female writers both in fandom and without.

Off the top of my head, I can think of no one I know who professes to write men and women with equal ease. Some have an easier time with women because they are women, so it's easier to slip into that headspace, some have an easier time writing men precisely because they aren't men, and feel like they have a freedom that they don't when writing women (and I'm sure there are numerous other reasons for why writing one gender or the other is easier or harder).

That said.

I don't think there is anything inherently easier or harder about writing a man versus a woman, but I do think exclusively writing one or the other, at all times, is a sign of weakness in a writer. (You can certainly choose that all your stories have a protagonist of one gender or the other but I consider knowing how to write both* in the same category as knowing how to write both present and past tense.)

The most common reasons for NOT writing the opposite gender are some of the same ones used for not writing characters of different ethnicities than oneself and hold about as much water. (tl;dr: PEOPLE. MORE SIMILAR THAN THEY ARE DIFFERENT.)

Where it gets tricky is with historical fiction. We have sexism in our current culture and in a lot of times in the past, we had a fuckton more. Depending on how close an author is hewing to historical fact, most male characters would have a lot of sexist ideas about women and a lot of women were severally limited in what they could believably be doing and the amount of agency they had.

The modern sensibilities/historical accuracy balancing act strikes me as way harder than just writing from a man's pov.

But not impossible.


Just look at historical precedent: there have been badass ladies (and I'm going to assume, men who respected them - or am I being too optimistic?) throughout recorded history.


*I know that there are more than two options for gender but in the interests of not tripping over my words, I'm going to pretend for this post.

Comments

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

I do think exclusively writing one or the other, at all times, is a sign of weakness in a writer.

*nods* I have written at least one story that was 98% one gender (female), and it was one of the easier fics I've written. While I appreciate that, I don't see it as a sign of a good thing. In fact, I've seen an all-female longfic that practically screamed "Can't look outside of self when writing characters."

[plural-entity.livejournal.com]

I don't think there is anything inherently easier or harder about writing a man versus a woman, but I do think exclusively writing one or the other, at all times, is a sign of weakness in a writer.

I totally agree.

Given a short amount of leway time to get used to a character, I've felt it generally simply to switch between guys and girls. That may just be because as a roleplayer, when I started out writing, I was writing like Cats, and Wolves, and other type creatures that weren't human. So, as females came to me naturally from being female, I didn't want to only write female characters (because in the roleplay society, you'd generally start being refered to as a "despie"), I created male characters and graduated worked myself into being comfortable with it. (It's in this area where I've met quite a number of female roleplayers who admit they find it a lot more enjoyable to roleplay male characters, and while they will have the occasional female character, play males almost exlusively.)

That being said, I do find myself far more comfortable with writing females than males, at least in terms of a First Person tense. Third person isn't so hard with me, but there's something about being in a character's head that always feels weird for me when it's a guy.

[nimblnymph.livejournal.com]

I think the question I have now is this: is the APPROACH (your personal approach, or just a generalized response as to what you think others do) to writing a male character versus a female character different? Do female characters need to be written differently than male ones, and if so why?

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no idea why, but I definitely have an easier time writing male characters. That's not to say I can't write female characters or don't like them, but male characters just seem to come easier to me. Still, as a writer I try to make it a point to include strong females because I think they're important.

As for the second part of your post...I'm going to refer to something Nicole Galland (writer) said at one point, and that's that her historical fiction characters are, first and foremost, characters. She's said that there are a lot of good characters in historical fiction, but if you plucked them out of the time period they live in and put them in a diner in NY, they wouldn't be the same person. To her, you should be able to take any character out of their setting and they would still be the same basic person. (I understand that a lot of things can change about characters as per situation, but even without the magic, Harry Dresden would still be a snarky, stupidly brave man.)

One thing I liked about Galland's "Crossed" was how accessible it felt. I love history, but I HATE most historical fiction. I...honestly can't stand Phillipa Gregory because every character, every voice sounds the same to me. It seems like too many historical fiction writers get caught up in the idea of writing for the time period to the point where they forget. It feels like, in most historical fiction, the characters are created entirely to be glimpses into a stereotypical version of this old world setting.

To me? I don't mind if my characters have more modern speech patterns in an old English setting. Along that same train of thought, I don't mind having female characters exist outside of what people THINK women of that time were supposed to be like.

For instance, I'm writing a WWII original story right now, and the WWII mythology is one of the giant sausagefest and the occasional femme fatale (Inglorious Basterds) but I've made a point to include a wide variety of female characters; I have everyone from my silky, sexy doctor to the women who WERE SOLDIERS RIGHT ALONGSIDE THE MEN fighting in the trench dirt (which DID happen, mostly on the Eastern front). Sure, it's probably not LIKELY that they have the stations in life they have, but for the purposes of my story, they do.

So yeah, those are my two rules: write characters before century, and although it may be unlikely, she is here doing this at this time.

[systemaurora.livejournal.com]

I find them equally easy to write. However, most of my characters end up being female for the sheer reason that I'm a female primarily attracted to females. :P So while I occasionally pull off a het romance or a random platonic male friend, my main (perspective) characters are almost always female.

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

I realized a while back I write a lot of my stories from the male perspective in the story, thought not exclusively. It depends who I'm writing. If in the LOST fandom I'm writing a Daniel/Charlotte fic, I'm more likely to write from Daniel's POV because his thoughts are more all over the place and Charlotte is a very concise, straightforward person. It goes to story voice. Whereas, if I'm writing any story with Juliet Burke in it, I'm more likely to use her voice than anyone else's because her train of thoughts makes the most sense to me and means I can spend more time on actual storytelling than the character, if that's the point of the story.

One advantage I noticed, from writing from the male perspective, is that it allows me to describe the women in the story without being romantic about it, necessarily. Maybe Daniel looks at Charlotte a certain way but doesn't verbalize it; that aids the story because you're in his head. Or maybe in Psych, Gus likes Abigail okay but doesn't feel romantic towards her. It's less suspenseful but also less confusing, and I try not to leave my readers confused unless I have to.

On the other hand, if I'm writing from the girl's perspective, it's most likely because I want to give her as much power as possible, if not in action then in thought, to your point about historical accuracy. Maybe she can't actually do anything herself - but she sure as hell wants to and will find some other way.

[ivy-chan.livejournal.com]

I find it equally easy to write from male or female point of view, but difficult to write from certain male or female points of view- there are some personalities I can't crack as easily as others. Zuko and Toph I found very, very easy to write, Mai and Ty Lee I find much more difficult.

However, I actively choose to write female-centric stories more because I often love them better, as well as an attempt to fill a perceived gap in lady-friendly fiction.

[despairinbeauty.livejournal.com]

:D Very nice post here. -doesn't have much time, yet will comment anyhows- XD

This is kinda why I would challenge myself to write for an equal number of males and females, though it depends on some of the circumstances (if it's a fighting sort of story or others, I try to balance with enough on both sides; if it is a situation where there really are more ladies or men, then I pretty much keep to that). As for historical fiction...I haven't quite lived up to that challenge as of yet, since I'm wary of what the details might be in those times--women's role expectations, etc. ^^; -is not the strongest writer out there...yet-

I don't think there is anything inherently easier or harder about writing a man versus a woman, but I do think exclusively writing one or the other, at all times, is a sign of weakness in a writer. (You can certainly choose that all your stories have a protagonist of one gender or the other but I consider knowing how to write both* in the same category as knowing how to write both present and past tense.)

The most common reasons for NOT writing the opposite gender are some of the same ones used for not writing characters of different ethnicities than oneself and hold about as much water. (tl;dr: PEOPLE. MORE SIMILAR THAN THEY ARE DIFFERENT.)

Exactly. :) The good news is that women and men are very varied in regards to their personalities and values. It also helps make the story with more variety and make the perspectives of the entire situation more complete.

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

...you know, it isn't until I read your post that I realized that the main characters in all but one of my (hopefully later) large story ideas were male. Each one has plenty of ideas for strong female characters (several who would be main characters), but yeah, not the main character.

I do recognize my need to diversify, though. I guess I get nervous about writing women because of the harsher light they get put under than men.

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

(tl;dr: PEOPLE. MORE SIMILAR THAN THEY ARE DIFFERENT.)


Exactly. After reading your post, I actually went back and checked (because, my memory is like a blackhole this evening, apperently) how many fics I wrote with POV as one gender versus the other. Not quite half- and half, and a fair portion I switched within the story too. Its just who's head- due to the story I want to tell- makes the most sense or the character I feel I understand better, sometimes. Both seem equally easy (or rather hard) to write, but now makes me wonder if I am putting enough though into how a person's gender would effect their POV in stories....

You do hit upon one of my biggest pet peeves in reading though- that balance between historical accuracy and women/modern views. I HATE it when it is a woman with 21st century sensiblities in a histoical setting.

Depending on how close an author is hewing to historical fact, most male characters would have a lot of sexist ideas about women and a lot of women were severally limited in what they could believably be doing and the amount of agency they had. This is true, but at the same time its only half the story. I think there are women from every age and walk of life that defied convention, in some way, and led lives that are admirable to us now. But it is also unfair if authors (well, or readers too I suppose...) ignore the fact that every society has social constructs, ideas or forms, or what it means to be a woman or a man, deeply ingrained things. A person might break these constructs in some ways, but all ways? No. And it is unnerving and rings untrue when a character in a historical novels ignores all social constructs of the setting of the story, and instead is a modern personage. Its less creative too- after all, our culture shaped us as surely as other cultures shaped people of the past. We may have valued different things and isn't part of the interest in looking at what could or couldn't remain the same?

Interesting and though provoking post!