Characters

[Jaeh]

which is harder, a female author pulling off a male protagonist, or a male author pulling off a female protagonist?

 I'm trying to write something here, and I'm using a male protagonist (I'm.. er, female) so... I just thought I'd ask.

[Nickeris86]

hmmm that's an interesting question.

honestly i don't think its harder for eaither gender too write about the other. i have known some people who have no trouble writing the oposit gender belivably as main charecters. me personally i never really put that much effort into creating female main charecters, the one time that i made the main charecter female i made her very much a tom boy.

its my opinion that it depends on the person writing and their own style and mind set. some people can think as a man or a women and do a descent job of it, most however can not because that's just not he way they think.

[emgirl]

Personally, I think that men or women simply take what they admire/dislike from the other and use that as a springboard...as in attitudes, mannerisms, speaking. For instance, men are much choppier speaking to other men then a women speaking to other women. Good luck!!!

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

which is harder, a female author pulling off a male protagonist, or a male author pulling off a female protagonist?

I don't think either are necessarily particularly hard.

Writing the opposite sex in contemporary society's specific gender roles is something a lot of writers mess up, but that's not necessarily the same thing.  In that, say, a man who is very much male-socialised may well mess up what female-socialised feels like from the inside and vice versa. Personally, I can't make head or tail of either strongly male-identified or strongly female-identified people in real life, so I just generally write characters who aren't that caught up in gender roles; no macho jocks, no Disney princesses.  Plenty of room left for geeks for ascetics and asexuals, angels, aliens, AIs, and that's only the start of the alphabet.

[Reil]

I've seen it butchered either way.  I tend to write from the female perspective often as not.  Could be because I grew up surrounded by women/girls, could be because I'm more motivated to understand the female psyche, could be I watched too many Joss Whedon stories, I dunno, but more than half of my PoV characters seem to have ovaries.

Edited because I spelled psyche "psychi"

[LizW65]

I think you just have to get inside the character's head and not worry too much about gender--as long as their motivations are realistic, the rest will follow.

A few surface things to bear in mind:  if you're a woman writing about a man, don't forget to have him shave once in a while.  If you're a man writing about a woman, remember that her feet are eventually gonna kill her in those five-inch spike heels.  There are apt to be physical differences--weight to height ratio, upper body strength, and so on.  The plumbing is different.  Men and women are apt to bitch/gripe about altogether different things when they come home from work...you get the idea.  And you can always hand your work off to someone of the opposite sex to get their take on it.

[meg_evonne]

you might check out the briggs-meyers personality trait sites.

I heard Michael A Stackpole say often in a workshop, "A guy wouldn't say that."  I think he's right, then again you sort of need dialog, right?  Yes, that was tongue in cheek.  Hugs to my male friends on the site!

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I heard Michael A Stackpole say often in a workshop, "A guy wouldn't say that." 

That neatly sums up my point.

"Guy" is not a biological man. "Guy" is a contemporary social construct of masculinity. 

A really gentle, caring, nurturing man, the type who makes a good single parent, is not going to react like a "guy".  And they do exist.

[LizW65]

A really gentle, caring, nurturing man, the type who makes a good single parent, is not going to react like a "guy". 

Um...I happen to live with somebody who is both.  Just sayin'.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Um...I happen to live with somebody who is both.  Just sayin'.

OK. Add a "necessarily" in the appropriate point in my last statement.

[meg_evonne]

That neatly sums up my point.

"Guy" is not a biological man. "Guy" is a contemporary social construct of masculinity. 

A really gentle, caring, nurturing man, the type who makes a good single parent, is not going to react like a "guy".  And they do exist.

  *sigh* and difficult to find...

[svb1972]

Not really that hard to find actually.
But I will tell you, you're probably unlikely to find that kind of person at bars or nightclubs.

[meg_evonne]

actually I think I have to get out of the office and the home.  Never hit the bars or nightclubs.  I'm seeking the quiet guy.  We're both in our comfortable nests, I think.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

actually I think I have to get out of the office and the home.  Never hit the bars or nightclubs.  I'm seeking the quiet guy.  We're both in our comfortable nests, I think.

Hopefully both of those nests have internet access.

[Nickeris86]

you also have to take into context how a character acts around different people based on their gender. i know i act differently around my female friends than my male friends. and i act differently around my parents and others that i have been trained to recognize as authority figures.

but again it all depends on the type of character your trying to build.

a person that is really laid back and comfortable with themselves is not likely to be hanging out at a bar very often, and probably not a night club either. at leas in my experiences.