?

Male or Female Protagonist

  1. Male

    37.5%
  2. Female

    62.5%
  1. TheFalseHankMoody

    TheFalseHankMoody New Member

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    Male or Female Protagonist?

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by TheFalseHankMoody, Dec 18, 2018.

    As I find myself writing, I tend to lean towards a female protagonist. People who have read any of my writings (Friends), always ask me why a female. It's a simple answer for me, I just tend to write a female lead more so than a male, maybe it's because my household had four females in the house to the two males, myself included.

    So when you're writing something fictional, do you tend to write a female character or a male?
     
  2. Kalisto

    Kalisto Senior Member

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    You're not alone. Comic writer Chuck Dixon liked to write female leads because of how women perceive the world. Men are all about "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do" while females are constantly trying to connect the dots to everything.

    Both can be extremely effective. There are some stories I write where it's got to be that laser focused, mission oriented male protagonist. And then there's some where the narrative needs to be a little more introspective. Both can be equally as compelling.
     
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  3. DK3654

    DK3654 Almost a Productive Member of Society Contributor

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    In the past, I basically defaulted to a male lead that's broadly similar to myself. I also didn't worry much about what they were like, especially physically. I was more focused on the rest of the story.
    But with my WIP has also come a shift in my habits. I've found I've been spending more time on what my mains are like, including detailed visualisation of their appearance. Now I also have a female lead with my MC Sarah, and one of other leading characters, Jade, is also female.
    I think to some extent that I developed female characters because I started with more of a sense of a group of individual main characters with this story. rather than just writing a generic singular lead to fill in. I had more of a sense from early on of the leads as personalities and envisioned them more as people rather than a combination of self insert and role play to fit the story. I knew from the beginning I wanted a group of main characters, with both women and men.
    And then, I also found that because I had women, it was easier to make them more developed characters, because I could easily separate myself from them.

    You could easily choose either male or female for your lead.
    Writing the opposite gender can be more difficult to get right, but it could, as I described above, actually help you write an interesting character and the learning more about other people's experiences in order to write well is far from a waste of time.
    Writing your own gender provides obvious relatability for you, but it could also make it easier to slip into the generic and the self insert (not that those things are entirely bad though).
    If you feel comfortable writing female characters, feel like you have a good understanding of female perspective (not that it's radically different) and find it appealing in whatever way, I would say go with that inclination of yours.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2019
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  4. TheFalseHankMoody

    TheFalseHankMoody New Member

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    Thank you both for the replies. I have multiple works in progress of different gendered leads. As you both stated, a different gendered main just gets different points across. It's interesting to see how other people interpret their characters in the stories/books. I appreciate the feedback.
     
  5. J. J. Wilding

    J. J. Wilding Member

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    Usually male, because the concept of the strong female character, for me, often manifests as a cast of supporting characters who anchor the world and the story down. Without those my lead wouldn't have anything to work with. It also comes from a point of growing up male in a house with strong women. They are the supports to my main story and I enjoy that dynamic when telling stories. Female protagonists, when written from a place of sincerity at least, can be very interesting. I don't have the references necessary to pull it off convincingly, so I stick to what I know. You sound like you have the necessary insight, so I wouldn't worry about it. If it reads well, reads from a place of sincerity, then it's a success in my book.
     
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  6. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Male, female, machine, I don't really have a problem with
    writing any of those as the MC(s) in stories.
    I find that your MCs kinda pick themselves for a given story,
    so I just go with the flow. Though outside of my WIP that has
    2M 1F MCs, I try to balance out other shorter works with one
    of each.
     
  7. TheFalseHankMoody

    TheFalseHankMoody New Member

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    I appreciate the feedback and I agree with it all. If the flow fits, then the story writes the main character itself. Thank you all for the kind words and your input. I've enjoyed reading the responses.
     
  8. LoaDyron

    LoaDyron Contributor Contributor

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    As long a character has interesting personality traits, and a good backstory: it doesn't matter their gender. A male or a female can be great leaders. It is how do you expose them to the situations. It is true that men will react differently to women in certain circumstances, but that doesn't have to be the majority.
     
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  9. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    This is an interesting question. I've spent most of my life making up stories, and I have to say I never favoured one gender over another for my POV characters. Ditto stories I've read and have become favourites. Some have male POV characters, and others are female.

    I think I have a slightly easier time writing female characters, as I am one myself. I have to put myself in the shoes of my characters, and sometimes it's hard to make a jump between a gender I am, and a gender I'm not. But I believe that people are people, and—hormones, body parts and social conventions aside—genders are more alike than they are different from one another. I start from that premise, and trust my powers of observation and research will bridge any gaps.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2018
  10. TheFalseHankMoody

    TheFalseHankMoody New Member

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    LoaDyron, I hope that my question wasn't one sided in the fact that that it may have sounded as though I just write one gender as a main character, that wasn't my intention and if that came out as though, I apologize. I write both genders but simply find myself being able to write the female gender slightly easier.

    Jannert, I love where you took your explanation and it makes so much sense. Thank you for putting such great insight throughout the night/day. I appreciate it.
     
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  11. Artifacs

    Artifacs Senior Member

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    Maybe I'm saying something obvious (I apologize if this is the case), but I think the gender selection could be another surprise factor. Breaking character gender sterotypes of some particular literary genre may reinforce the character credibility and state that some unexpected situations are always possible during reading. It could improve the reading experience and, at the same time, challenge ourselves to be original and trying new approaches.
    Of course, as with many other writing strategies, this one seems easier to say it than actually doing it. This is one of the reasons why I find the writing activity so fascinating.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2018
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  12. TheFalseHankMoody

    TheFalseHankMoody New Member

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    Again, all I can say is that I love that perspective. I think, at least with me, a good book and a great book differ from the element of surprise. Thank you for your insight, Artifacs. Also no need to apologize at all!
     
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  13. Rzero

    Rzero Reluctant voice of his generation Contributor

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    I enjoy inventing female characters, especially in action. I noticed at a young age, mostly in film, that writers and audiences alike seem more comfortable with a wider range of emotions from female characters. The carbonite scene in The Empire Strikes Back says it all. "I love you." "I know." It's a freaking cool line and a powerful scene, but it also illustrates my point. Leia is the original bad-ass female action hero (sorry, Ripley). She shoots better than the boys, she thinks faster in a crisis and she mouths off to both Tarkin and Vader face to face. She's practically fearless. She also has less problem expressing emotion. She's the antithesis of the princess archetype, a bold feminist statement for any era, but after holding her own and trading quips for two whole films without a "girly" moment throughout, she's still vulnerable in a way that Han isn't brave enough to be. I love that, and I can identify with it more easily than I can Solo, even if he is my favorite character.

    Forty years later, with literary and cinematic fields closer than they've ever been to gender-neutral ground, I still find it true. Men are rarely allowed to cry. Somebody better be dead. The same has never been true of female leads. I'm an emotionally expressive person myself, and while I have zero gender identity issues, it still feels like a more feminine trait. Call it conditioning. It's certainly traditionally considered so, and I'm okay with that. I try to defy stereotypes in my writing as well as in my life, but there's just something about a true heroine I will always love whether I'm reading her or writing her.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2018
  14. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    I would come back with my own question: why not a female? People never ask why a man.

    Although, for myself, my MCs are always men because I think a part of me just wanna spend more time indulging when it's a man, being that I'm heterosexual :p they're more "interesting" in that sense. But it seems my female characters are stronger.
     
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  15. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    I answered "female"

    In my Doctor Who fanfic, the ensemble cast didn't have a clear hierarchy of which protagonists were The Leads in terms of controlling the action, but there was a clear hierarchy in terms of who got the most POV screentime:
    1. Woman (20,000 words)
    2. Man (15,000 words)
    3. Woman (12,500 words)
    4. Man (8,000 words)
    5. Man (7,500 words)
    And in my Urban Fantasy WIP, the POV was dominated by a single male narrator, but there was instead a very clear hierarchy in terms of which protagonists held the most dominance in controlling the action:
    1. Woman
    2. Man (narrator)
    3. Woman
    4. Man

    But I also just felt compelled to create a response thread with a second poll, this one with one axis for protagonist gender and a second for author gender :)
     
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  16. Veltman

    Veltman Active Member

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    Let me go against everyone else here and say that I never ever made a gender choice for a protagonist of my stories. When I am thinking up a story I am going to write, I think up the characters and what happens in a fluid and seamless way and then just start writing the thing, not paying attention to these details that surface naturally. I don't see my character creation process as the sort of thing you do in a RPG video game's character creator, where you choose a gender, race, backstory, etc, like filling out a form. I find that when characters spring to life in my mind, they are already "complete", and I never find myself changing their names, hair color, or anything else at all. The same thing goes for the character roles. Allowing the story room to breathe did wonders for me. My current WIP is a story based around this: "A lawyer is invited by his best friend, a famous actor, to go spend his vacations on a secluded resort that is being restored and used as a filming site for his latest project. He wants to wind down and get away from everything, so he accepts the invite. As time goes on, the two hit a breaking point after their friendship is tested by the lawyer's envy of the actor and the strange events that are happening in the resort and setting back the filming. These events are being caused by something hidden in the resort for a long time." I don't have it set in stone who the protagonist of the story is, the lawyer, the actor, or a character that will show up later on, that is key to unlock the mistery. The protagonist will be whoever the story demands it to be as it naturally unfolds.

    I hope after this wall of text and shamelessly promoting my work, I managed to get the point across.
     
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  17. LadyErica

    LadyErica Active Member

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    To me, the story always comes first, unless it's part of a series. I've been thinking about a war story that starts out really goofy, with humans fighting aliens on an alien world. I was even going to call the book Carl of Duty, after the meme's. (Carl from Die Hard in Call of Duty), as everyone jokes that he doesn't take things serious. The whole story starts out mostly as a joke. But as the story goes on, he'll start to learn the true horrors of war, and he'll even start to question his own sanity. In this case, it has to be a male hero named Carl.

    But other than specific ideas like that, I always go with the story first. Some stories are better for men, some are better for women. I think a romance between two women is much easier to write than a romance between two men. I often prefer having an all male or all female cast, to avoid the "will they, won't they" romance issues, but having two women in love can still add some romance. But tasty romance, of course. Two girls together just for the shock factor or exploitation isn't for me. If I do have romance in the story, it doesn't matter if it's male/female, or female/female. I want to try male/male too, but honestly don't know how to do it right.

    So if I were you, I wouldn't worry about the gender of the MCs. I would focus on the story first, then worry about the MCs personalities, traits, skills and all that. The gender shouldn't really be an issue. I'm a huge fan of Indiana Jones, but if he was a she, it wouldn't matter to me at all. Same if we got a Jane Bond movie. James Bond is fun, but having a female lead wouldn't make much of a difference to me. I would object to making a "female James Bond", but a spin-off with a female agent would be fine. Kinda like the Ghostbuster reboot. I would have hated if they used the same characters and story as the original, only turned them female. But new Ghostbusters in a new story, and they happened to be female? No problem. We're even gettnig a new Men In Black soon, with a female lead. And so what? It's not the original agents, but two different ones. So no problem there. :)
     
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  18. seira

    seira Member

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    I tend to write both genders but I do default to female being one myself.
    Maybe as a female I can understand a females way of thinking better. They have a different way of looking at things most of the time. Also I write quite character driven stories and I find (for the most part) woman have more emotions than men. My Mum is very complex and a deep thinker. My step-dad is very basic and simple (lol) he just accepts life, goes with the flow and never gets his pants in a twist over anything. My Dad was exactly the same in the 26 years I knew him I never once saw him shed a tear. My Grandfather was also this way.
    My aunts and sister - like my Mum. Emotions, thinking, planning.
    Best friend Rosie. Emotions, showing them, talking about them. Planning things: her future, her day. Christmas Day in that house has been planned and organised by Rosie.
    Her boyfriend Luke. Doesn't show emotions or talk about them. He's quite happy to sit back and let her take control and just chill out. He doesn't get choked up about life like she does.
    At work: the woman gossip, discuss family and personal life, make plans, have temper fits.
    The men just talk about football, and general stuff. Not arguments, no bitching, no emotions.
    Maybe that's just my experience of males and females in my life. I find women more interesting and difficult.

    Maybe I'm wrong but woman seem more complicated and complex to me. I don't understand them and that makes me more interested in them. I have more of a man's laid back personality with a touch of organisational skills. I don't know why I default to female leads. I just find them more complex.
     
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  19. jannert

    jannert Retired Mod Supporter Contributor

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    OMG. Exactly what I admired about Leia, and also admired about George Lucas. He gave us a female character who held her own without making a big deal about it. She was right nearly all the time, and didn't suffer comeuppance as a result. Han was my favourite character as well, but yeah. Leia broke cinematic ground for me.
     
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  20. Spirit of seasons

    Spirit of seasons Active Member

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    In most cases the characters come to me fully formed. More so their appearance as apposed to their personality. I’ve written stories with rather gender.

    For Rose I lost based her off of red riding hood. The only thing knew for sure when I was writing the first chapter was her black hair and dark green eyes.

    Vessa was actually a recycled character from a story that didn’t make it off the ground. Her hight and name were the only things that changed. The original character had ivory skin, long ash gray hair and bright yellow eyes.

    Freya happened about half way through the second draft of Evergreen. I already knew who her parents were and what they looked like so her appearance wasn’t to hard to figure out. I wanted her to resemble her father as Rose recognized her as related to J durning the story when they meet.
     
  21. LoaDyron

    LoaDyron Contributor Contributor

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    I appreciate your kindness, my friend. Don't worry I am not mad, I am just gave my opinion of your post :superwink:
     
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  22. TheFalseHankMoody

    TheFalseHankMoody New Member

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    I love reading everyone’s input and it’s great to see how different and or similar we create our MC’s. Everyone has great insight on how the write and create a character.

    I asked the question to see what people tend to create because, at least in my eyes, a character is based upon our minds perception of the world. People answered with what they grew up experiencing and what the find more comfortable for themselves.

    I love the two characters or more WIP’s, and as that gives the readers and the writer/authors, if collaboratoring, more description and keeps their interest more so than trying to pound a character in someone’s mind.
     
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  23. TheFalseHankMoody

    TheFalseHankMoody New Member

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    Your opinion is all I can ask for, I appreciate yours and everyone else’s.
     
  24. Carly Berg

    Carly Berg Active Member

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    Both.
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2019
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  25. TheFalseHankMoody

    TheFalseHankMoody New Member

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    I’ve also done both, it’s just whether you tend to gravitate towards a female or male protagonist. I should have put a both option though, sorry Carly Berg.
     

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