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Wed Feb 03, 2016 3:27 pm
allyoop says...



I am currently writing a realistic teen fiction novel called Subaquatic. The book deals with two main characters whose chapters are switched back and forth between their point of views. My first main character is Iris, the girl. I know plenty about how to write from her perspective because I am indeed a girl, but I find myself struggling to put myself in a boy's shoes and write about things how a boy would. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to do so?
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Wed Feb 03, 2016 4:27 pm
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Holysocks says...



Just write them like any other character. Males aren't that different from females- they are, but it all starts with the same things. Something that's helped me write male characters (I'm female and I tend to prefer writing males now for whatever reason I don't know) is simply by writing the character. Don't write what you think a guy would do, write what your character would do. If you feel like you don't really know your character, maybe try writing up a character sheet and answering some questions about them, I've found that helps me feel like I know my character enough to write about them- but don't concentrate on the sheet too much! Let it get lost in your desk and just write from memory. What I find happens is you'll still keep a lot of the things you've written down, but you'll also change a lot of it without realizing, and that's okay.

If that doesn't help, the other thing I do is picture my male friends. What kind of things do they get excited for? How do they react to a disaster scenario? Just remember that everyone reacts differently and have their own views on the world and everything.

It also might help to read a couple books with males as MCs first. I do that with other things like tenses when I want to get out of a certain way of writing for awhile. Don't think about it too much and just go for it! c:
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Wed Feb 03, 2016 4:37 pm
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ScarlettFire says...



Hi there. I write from male POVs all the time and frequently switch between writing that and female POVs. It's not really that hard. Just write them as a person. Gender doesn't really matter when you're trying to figure out how to write in a character's point of view.

Holy gave really good advice! I second it.

Also, I once experimented with writing from a male POV in first person. For a while, my proof reader had no idea what gender they were, and when she realised, she found it didn't really matter. She didn't even question this character's sexuality. Apparently, it felt very natural. So don't overthink the gender thing. Just write the character. I know I'm repeating myself and Holy here, but that's probably the best advice we can give you. Think of the character as a person first, and their gender second. You might be surprised. ;)

I hope we helped! And don't forget to have fun!
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Wed Feb 03, 2016 7:14 pm
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Blues says...



Going to agree with @ScarlettFire and @Holysocks - we're not that different from girls :P

That's not to say that there aren't differences, but the character's personality is much more important and it shapes the way that they and others around them respond to those 'differences'.

An example:
Spoiler! :
On emotions because that's a simple 'difference': guys are meant to be 'stoic' and 'tough' - but obviously more emotional guys exist (I'm going to assume that stereotypes and gender roles are similar to the ones today in the West). So when it comes to your character, does he suppress his feelings? How was brought up - to talk about his problems or to ignore them? Does think about his problems rationally or does he let his feelings influence his decisions? Is he aware of his own biases? Does he let them sway his decisions? A character might be somewhat unemotional, even though he'll always go for the option which sits well with his views on something. Equally, he might view his feelings as something that gets in the way of his decision making and thus ignores them, despite acknowledging them.


You can look at a character's history and see how traditional gender roles shaped their personality - but that's the key. Their gender identity is only one part of their identity (and personality and whatnot). Personality makes the person, not their gender.
  





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Thu Feb 04, 2016 7:11 am
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Lightsong says...



I think that others have covered a large amount of input about writing in male's perspective, but I'm still going to put in my two cents here.

I am a male writer who likes to write in female's perspective. As such, I'm aware there should be a distinct features for females and males. These features can be affected by the surrounding. It goes back to how society perceives male and female in general. Although it's true that we should write a male character as a person, we shouldn't dismiss the possibility of society influencing his behaviour and thoughts. A way to resist this influence is by having him unmindful of the society's evaluation. By doing that, you can have him exhibit behaviour not typically associated with a male.

Besides that, if you read this, you can find that males are less perceptive of emotions than females are (this might be why boys are said unable to understand girls while it is contrary vice versa). In addition, their control over their emotions is inferior than females. These two aspects do not need to be the features of your character, although they can be subtle enough to convey that males are better in certain parts than females, and thus complement each other in general. That being said, the brain can be nurtured to neutralize these differences. Other tidbits about how male's brain works can be found by the link above, in which you can find parts where males are better in doing.

At the end, what you have to avoid is to make these differences as the reason to put a gender above the other. Males and females are, in their core, humans. While they have some differences, their similarities outweigh those. Some attitudes are univeral to both genders, and treating them as equal to each other without neglecting their distinct differences are key to handle a character.
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Fri Feb 05, 2016 8:36 am
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Pompadour says...



I haven't got anything much to add to this, but I'm going to drop a quick reminder about how gender identity exists as a societal construct. As in, the society your novel is set in will largely determine how your characters act (in accordance with how they've been socialised in said society).

For example, males in traditional Indian/Pakistani families might act differently/have different motives and/or 'responsibilities' as opposed to males in, say, the US, or Bangladesh, and so on and so forth. There's this conception of 'masculinity' that people tend to adhere to more strongly in some societies than others, where the differences in gender roles are less distinct and may overlap.

It isn't necessary for your characters to conform to the 'traditional' gender roles of their society, of course, but it's good to take a look at your character's ethnicity, class, and familial background when you're trying to find a voice to write them in. Characters are complex things, and writing only conveys this complexity to a certain degree.

Basically! I'll echo what everyone's already mentioned. It's important to develop your character as a person--but their background + its effects on their personality is something that shouldn't be overlooked, and it's something that I think is truly more important than adhering to the universal conceptions of what masculinity or femininity are.
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Sat Feb 06, 2016 8:44 pm
TimmyJake says...



It's far simpler than you think. Instead of writing a male or female protagonist, you need to write from the perspective of that character. A mistake many writers make when, erm, writing their characters is trying to follow the strict guidelines for gender and making sure their characters are either "masculine" or "feminine". That's ridiculous and a waste of time, as they're only going to be stereotypes and boring.

Instead, write from their unique perspective. Write them as an unique person - not a man or woman that follows the rigid guidelines of their sex. Guys can be emotional, they can be soft, they can be vain - they can be whatever your imagination allows. If you have trouble writing a male character, you can also not use their name until it becomes more comfortable and you've stopped thinking of them as a male, but just as a person. I found it helpful because using their name reminded me that the character (in my case, a girl) was female, and it made it more difficult to create her as a realistic character until I put that part of her aside. After that, it was just as any other.

You can do it! When you've written a chapter of your book, link it to my wall. I'd be more than happy to review it for you and let you know what my thoughts are. :)
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Tue Feb 09, 2016 4:42 am
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zsmith says...



What everyone else has said here is true; you should first and foremost write from the character's personal perspective according to their unique personality which you should figure out through brain-storming and writing up a character profile of their likes and dislikes, etc. Like everyone else said, their gender is secondary to their personality, every one is unique and there is no one correct way to write from a boy's perspective.

But to add to this, some observations I've noticed when reading books written by men, is that there is less thoughts, emotions and colourful descriptions in the narrative, they tend to describe only *facts* - this may sound stereotypical "girls are emotional, boys are logical", but in actual fact, its how our brains are hardwired differently. E.g girls tend to be like "I'M SO ANGRY AND I WANT TO VENT ABOUT THE BAD DAY I HAD" whereas boys tend to be like "I had a problem, I solved the problem. Meh." Facts, you see?

Something good to do to understand how you should write differently for a boy's perspective is to just read books that were written by guys - even if the main character is female, you'll still notice the difference in the way things are described.

Something that I personally like to do when I'm writing from a guy's perspective is to add the little details that boys would notice that girl's don't tend to notice because we're not looking for them. For example, if a girl is wearing skinny jeans, a guy might notice it makes her butt look good, so I like to describe that.

I also like to reduce the number of words a guy says when he's getting all emotional and talking about his feelings, because while it is a stereotype, it is still often true that guys talk about their feelings less than girls. I don't cut out their talking about their feelings all together, I usually write like five sentences but then shorten it to two.

But basically the best thing to do is read some 'boy' books to get yourself into the mindset.

Hope this helped :)
  








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