A recent story idea that flew through my brain
is about a guy
who is a soldier or something in some magical world. I don’t write soldiers. Well, I mean, I can, but I don’t make it complicated if I do.
Another story idea that flew through my brain was about a guy
who is a loner thief
with a big world purpose.
Why, that sounds familiar! Because it is. I wrote it already XD
Another idea I had was about a group of four people, all guys, with different backgrounds going on one of those quest things maybe for a dragon or something.
But nothing more came of those ideas (except for the one I already wrote), yet they all struck me. All of them are guy characters.
Idk why but many of my recent ideas that come out and go away are guy characters or male characters. Idk why my ideas rarely begin with female characters though I am a woman.
I dunno if you are trying to ask if it says something about you personally, if so, I am not commenting on that.
From writing perspective, I think it’s the best when the story comes with the protagonist to you. However, when you work on the idea, it’s always good to make sure that the story’s main is the only one who can tell this story and that they are the ones who need to live through this story the most from the cast.
Sometimes, trying the story on a different gender protagonist gives a better result. The Lone Werewolf’s idea had a female main at first, the ancient gal. When Nick said it was impossible for a modern person to connect to her, I immediately started thinking of a modern girl as a link (for the record, Nick thought it was a horrible idea either). But then, it became a modern guy, Volya, and he was the right choice.
I actually like writing dual POV for my romances, and have a few of those, with one male and one female telling the tale.
I question my wisdom of writing a romance novel with male main and in fact the only narrator in the Fireman’s Girl. But he is the only one who could tell the story, so I won’t do anything about it.
To me, on Wattpad, woman main characters do not lack representation, so the choice of protagonist, unless it’s trans, is not dictated by trying to feel under-serviced gender niche as should be
I’m a woman too, but I also have a strong preference for writing/reading male characters. Just do. Even in things like RPGs I prefer to play as male characters.
As far as my writing goes, it’s a habit I’m sort of trying to break but I’m not too bothered by it tbh.
Whatever comes to me, I write about the characters; whether it’s the lesbian sister of a gang leader, a mechanic who likes Cheetos, a Florida manchild or a nuggie cop.
I was about to say I relate to that, only to realize 4/7 of my completed books have female MCs. But to an extent I do still relate? Sometimes I just find the male POV to be easier to write, even though I’m a woman too, and usually my books are flooded with male side characters. Especially in my fantasy books.
I know for me, I tend to think of men first when I’m writing fantasy, which is probably very conditioned in me, if that makes sense. It used to be a very male and cringey genre (and still is sometimes). So subconsciously, I think I lean toward male characters because that’s what I was brought up with. I’ve mostly dealt with that issue by making sure to count my cast and adjust the story to even it out. Although, I wasn’t very successful in Steady Ground, which only had 3 women out of 11 characters, or in the one romance book I wrote which only had 1 woman out of 6 characters. But for my other books, it helped a lot.
(And even more unrepresented in my books are non-binary genders, of which I’ve only written one character total. I have much respect for people who write stories with non-binary characters because it can be challenging to distinguish the characters in 3rd person )
I’m fine on being commented on about that, but that’s okay if you don’t comment. I have no idea either I seem to be fascinated with how men’s minds work.
I’ve never been told that my MC should be different in terms of gender because people can’t connect. But that would be an interesting exercise. Flip it around to see what will happen.
That’s the thing. The one who tells the story the best is often a male character for me. And I was wondering why. It’s just kind of interesting to me Why is it that my best protags are male? Hmm
Right, exactly. Female mains don’t lack representation. I guess for me I find females not as inspirational because I am one? Idk, just speculating I like dissecting my unconscious decisions.
Do you think you often get inspiration from male characters? Or men out in the world? I’m not bothered by it either, but I do wonder. I remember writing female characters more when I first started writing. I guess something changed? Have you always written more male characters than female characters?
It doesn’t matter. I just like dissecting my unconscious decisions XD Like…why do I like this or that… I do that as a part of my self-understanding. And I hope that hearing the experience of others will strike something in me.
Hmm, sometimes I think I’ll write a female character. Then I think, nah, I want to write about a man and figure out how he will deal with his emotions. Maybe I find writing a female character to be bland because I am one and it’s too close to home? Idk. I definitely enjoy understanding how different minds work and I’m not that interested in female minds, I guess XD
I mean, when I look at my completed books…it’s about half and half I would say. And about what I was brought up with, opposite of you, perhaps. Strangely, many fantasy books I read growing up had female MCs yet somehow I still end up here XD
And the non-binary genders are indeed underrepresented in my stories as well especially in one of my worlds where they do exist. The society is modern enough and the Humans come from our advanced Earth. Still, very few make their appearance.
Humans can be boring…unless they are evil manipulators who command gangs of henchmen to try to steal some ancient artifacts to raise the god of death to become immortal while sacrificing hundreds of innocent people…
Max is fun to write.
)
Why is it that my best protags are male? Hmm