How To Write Male Characters

Yes! I am on time, pumping out this content for you guys, starting the new year right and I'm so proud of myself. Sleep is for the weak, right? *cries in exhaustion*

This week, I'll be touching on an issue I feel like gets overlooked a lot in the online writing community, especially because most of us are female, but it's getting out of hand and as a guy, I think it needs some addressing. That is, the inaccuracy of male characters in young adult literature. There always seems to be this binary of what a male character should be like: cold and mean/sarcastic or seeking affirmation and extroverted. On Wattpad for example, I feel like almost every male character is extremely unrealistic and birthed from some girl's perception of what she thinks guys think like and what we talk about. She's mostly wrong. Now, there are plenty jokes, especially on Twitter about male writers writing pretty sloppy female characters (they're horrendous-ly hilarious) but there are just as awful representations of men written poorly by female authors.

So, although I haven't spent a lot of time writing main male characters, considering my debut novel has a female protagonist, I've been a male my entire life so I feel like that qualifies me enough. In this blog post, I'll be giving all you females (and maybe even males) the truth behind us guys and share some useful tips that you'll need to create an actually realistic male character.

But right before we jump right in, if you're new to my blog, welcome! I do posts like this all the time and if you like what you read, feel free to subscribe so you can get notified every time I drop a new post! To my constant readers, you guys already know how much I love you! Oh, and don't forget to tap that little heart icon so I can feel extra special! Alright now that that's out of the way, this is: How To Write Male Characters.

Disclaimer: All guys are different and unique. The things I say are unrealistic could very well be the case for a guy in real life. It might just be very, very, very rare.

Rule #1

By far, the most important thing to remember when writing a male character is that we are...people. Shocking, I know.

But often times I see females making men without natural human characteristics like fears, dreams, regrets, insecurities, lack of self esteem etc. As I mentioned earlier, I think there's a constant binary between men in YA and it's either they feel nothing and come off cold and brooding or they feel everything and come off really nice and pleasing. That's just not the case in reality.

In addition to that, I need us to remember that someone's personality is not determined by their gender so when writing a male character remember that he's just a person and you cannot justify his personality by simply relying on the fact that he's male and 'all guys act like that'. For example, if your male character is usually very angry, he can't just be that way all the time and for no reason at all. He wasn't born angry, you need to give him a sensible reason/motivation for acting that way and also highlight the fact that he's still human by showing him being happy or surprised. No part of your male character's personality should be reliant on his gender. It's a pretty sexist idea to uphold and can enforce harmful gender stereotypes that we need to move past.

Locker Room Talk

A touchy subject but it is real and very much a thing, however it probably goes nothing like how you think it does. A thing to note about guys is that we are affected by societal norms just like females, but in an almost opposite way. So, if girls are being pulled back by societal norms guys are being pushed forward.

That simply means that, while females are frowned upon for talking about sex or losing their virginity, it's accepted, at worst, and praised at best, for guys to talk about it. But it's not the roses and rainbows you probably expect it to be. Because of this, guys are taught to have really huge egos, crave competition and objectify women. Plus, if you don't do this you're somehow less of a man.

So there's a lot of dynamics at play that you can't ignore. We might make it look entertaining and fun but that's because we were taught to make it look that way. That's how it's supposed to look. In reality, so many guys lie (all the time), they're uncomfortable, they're insecure they're judging or they're emulating their friends because of a pack mentality. Most of the times, it's all a facade. Most times.

Romance & Response to Females

Now, every guy is different and experiences things differently, but I don't know any that becomes changed by a female for the better in the snap of a finger. Like, there are many reasons why we should kill that trope and put it 6ft. under but the one I'll be addressing today is the fact that guys aren't the way we are because of lack of love. If you're an asshole, you're just an asshole. One girl cannot change a damaged guy. Bad habits are hard to kill and if that's you, that's just you. Let's stop making women psych wards.

But also, I am of the firm belief that in a relationship if the guy actually really likes the girl he is the softy. I said what I said. We love romance more than females a lot of the times and will go to lengths to make her happy. With that being said, we also tend to take break-ups a lot harder. These are just the facts.

Gender-Specific Issues To Consider

But, now that we've gone more into the not-to-do's, let's get into to-do's. When writing male characters, just like any other, you have to consider how they've been socialized, what they want and what is expected of them. I think that pretty much covers the base of how guys act. But what we're not going to do is perpetuate this idea of a prince charming who happens to know all the right things and still be liked by many-that guy doesn't exist (just like how that girl doesn't exist). I get that fiction should be, well, fictional but there's fictional and then there's just poor writing.

So, here are some great gender-specific ideas to keep in mind when writing your male characters.

• Toxic Masculinity

• Male Marginalization

• Gender Stereotypes

• Sexism Culture (especially in the east)

• Male Privilege

Without addressing these things you're leaving a huge gap in your character that will be glaringly obvious and a little awkward to read Not to mention, guys probably won't like it because of the poor representation so you're cutting yourself short of a potential audience. And by addressing it I don't mean literally telling the reader how your male character is affected by each. I mean acknowledge that your character must face/be affected by these problems and in crafting your character consider them carefully. It'll help to make your male character a lot more realistic and genuine.

Tip: If you don't know what one or all of those issues are, just do a quick google and light reading. You'll be a better writer and person for it. Promise.

Conclusion

And this bring us to the end of this week's blog post. Sorry if it came off a little rant-y but I don't see anyone else talking about it and it's just being swept under the rug. As usual, if you have any questions feel free to drop a comment below and I'll try my best to help. Also, if you want to learn some more ways on how you can make your characters more realistic check out my blog post What Your Characters Lack for more tips and great writing exercises.

Lastly, don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram where I occasionally rant, share music and discuss the pains of being a creative. Oh, also I share sneak peeks of my novel and new blog posts at times too, if you're interested in that.

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