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Is your protaganist male or female?

Do you have an equal balance of male or female characters in your novel? I have eight characters in my novel, which I believe is fine for historical fantasy. Four are male and four are female. The protaganist is male.

What influenced the sex of your characters?

Asked by: Adrian Sroka

Louise Hughes on August 3, 2012

I usually write female protagonists, as in my current novel. I do sometimes have male MCs, sometimes deliberately to make a change, but rarely. The ratio in my current novel is more difficult, because the whole point is that there aren't many male characters, its why the plot unfolds as it does. That said, there are exactly seven of each when I do a count. Some of them just aren't around for very long.
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Christopher Demetriou on August 3, 2012

In my stories so far the MC has always been male, but the only reason for that is that I feel I won't be able to properly write a story from a woman's point of view as I lack important insight (meaning I am not one. :p ) I have however, almost always, a female character in the stories that I guess she would be considered the 2nd most important character.

Also note that I started writing in the first person POV, which was why I used male MCs, but even though I have written stories in the third person since then, I still used only male MCs. I guess it would be a nice challenge and change to try and write with a female as the MC.

As for the total number of male vs male characters, I never thought about that. But thinking back to my stories, I think the males dominate my stories, completely unintentional. Maybe something I should look into and try to bring at least some more balance to the story.
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Adrian Sroka on August 3, 2012

You make a good point Christopher.

Charlotte Bronte wrote The Professor, from the male perspective. Many respected critics have commented that it was a mistake.

However, Jane Austen did not experiment, she wrote intelligently about what she knew. Austen wrote about women in women's company, and men in women's company.

Jane Austen was not familiar with the private conversations between men in her day, and so avoided the pitfalls.

The female dialogue in my novel will have to be thoroughly checked.

I remember John Cleese talking about when he and Connie Booth wrote the scripts for Fawlty Towers. When he suggested a line of women's dialogue, Connie remarked that a women would not say that.
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Anthony Scott Glenn on August 3, 2012

In my YA fantasy my MC is a 15 year old boy. I have female characters, but they are made up from observing the behavior of members of the opposite sex that I know, as well as drawing on my own experiences from when I was younger. So far I have not had any complaints about my portrayal of these characters. Though it is one area that I have asked my wife to pay close attention to.

In my adult sci fi I switch between first person 26 year old male and first person 21 year old female, a challenge, sure but I believe in both of my characters.

I haven't had a problem writing from a 21 year old female first person POV but then no one has read it yet, so although I think she is 'correct' I have yet to be told otherwise.

I think you can write both POV just have to draw on your life experiences in a different way.
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Phil Rogers on August 4, 2012

My MC is female. The story just worked that way. I don't think I've had any problems getting into her head, in fact I've found it easier to write for her than the other characters.
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