Tell me about your male characters

Male or female, I just write their dialogue and hope that distinguishes them enough.

You know, thinking about it now, I realise I just write my characters as people rather than male or female. I think there's enough variety in the human race to be able to get away with saying, "This male character acts in such a way," or "That female character acts in that way."

It's not their genders which make them distinct but their speech, looks and backgrounds.

Unfortunately, in a novel you need the bad guy, and the good guy, the friend, the boss, the mother-- in a way they are all cliches because people expect certain things of them. Sine everyone basically feels the same emotions and so on, the role they play is more important. Most people think what they are doing is right, and so even the criminal or killer thinks he is in the right, so you treat them as though they are in the right. I have two 18 year lod males in my book. They are friends but also fierce competitors. One wants to play by the rules, the other one feels that bending the rules is okay. In a sence the good one is more uptight. He is the crybaby who goes and tells on his friend-- so he seems to be the bad one. The other one is easy going and a party boy. What makes the crybaby the MC is that he learns from his mistakes, while the party boy never does and never stops making them all the while moaning about how he is not to blame. That is totally realistic.

Its really more about personality. Each one needs their own personality, but might have similar goals and attitudes about a lot of things.

I tend to write all male characters for my MCs, so I might be able to help. The first thing I do is get a clear picture of my character in my head, both his physical traits and who he is as a person. Once that is done I try to avoid cliched personas by mixing up cliches a bit- for example- My strong silent type, also has a temper and a sensitive side- He is tough but the one thing no one knows about him is he is an artist- he is an effecient killer who would give his life for a total stranger in trouble, a loyal friend who has trust issues.

Then I have his brother who has a sarcastic sense of humor that hides his insecurity- the one uses silence as a weapon as much as the other uses sarcasm-

In other words have your characters have some aspect of their personalitly be unexpected

I would recommend thinking about your characters as reactions to one another than simply cliches in a vacuum. For example, rather than "the bad boy" and "the emo kid," start with your MC. Let's say he's a very physical guy who likes to express himself through sports, but when he's angry he can get out of hand.

Now let's give him a best friend. Since they're good buddies, this friend also likes sports, but not so much the physical aspect. He's into the strategy. He's slim rather than bulky and tends to slide right past people - both on the field and off. He's good at blending in and disappearing, a good counterpoint to our MC.

Okay, so now add a third boy. We'll say he's not interested in sports but likes to hang out with the guys at lunch. Maybe he likes the prestige of hanging out with them, so he's a bit of a suckup - telling people what they want to hear. He's also self-conscious and defensive.

Fourth? Let's try adding in a loner. He stops around sometimes and the guys like him, but he's detached. Instead of blowing up when he gets mad, like our MC, he just disappears for days at a time. He makes sketches and doodles during class but refuses to show them to anyone.

See how I'm adding them in? They each have their own personality; they're not "types," and yet they're easy to remember because each has a basic motivation for their behavior. They can be more or less complex depending on how much time they get on the page.

Come to think of it, the show Naruto is a good example of a story with a huuuuge cast of characters, most of them the same age. All of the characters manage to be distinct without being too cliched.

I think if you write characters who approximate to simple cliches that is a very bad thing. It might be a simple way of distinguishing between characters, but they are not really characters. They are cliches.

Subverting the cliche is a common, but effective, technique to make character. Make the jock a closet homosexual. Make the emo kid a raging misogynist. Make the head cheerleader a junkie, etc, etc. But don't go overboard, because then you have strayed from one cliche to another

Nah. I think of traits of different people I know, and blend them. They end up being their own people, just like the female characters. It helps that I use real people as a reference as opposed to abstract entities. The real people I've met are far more entertaining and fun than stereotypes.

In all honesty, I think it's fine if characters start as stereotypes, as long as they don't end there. So you have an idea for, say, a classic bad boy. Start writing. As you go, Bad Boy will eventually develop a good sense of humor, or an interest in cooking, or an unexpectedly complicated backstory: all the things that make a character an individual. Although sometimes characters do simply appear fully rounded, I've found that I simply have to write mine out and let them fill in the blanks.

The romance subforum of the nanowrimo message board, both this year's and previous years', has some good threads where people describe their male heroes, love interests, rivals, villains.

A personal technique of mine to keep characters different is this: make a chart with a character's name at the top of each column. Write down a major trait, opinion, or behavior for one character. Brainstorm opposites, or alternatives off at 90 degrees, and see if you can assign them to the other characters. Repeat as desired.

scarletpeaches said:

Male or female, I just write their dialogue and hope that distinguishes them enough.

You know, thinking about it now, I realise I just write my characters as people rather than male or female. I think there's enough variety in the human race to be able to get away with saying, "This male character acts in such a way," or "That female character acts in that way."

It's not their genders which make them distinct but their speech, looks and backgrounds.

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Correct as usual, King Friday.

Stop writing types, Ciera. Write characters.

-Jason

I’m with Peaches, at least part way. Begin with dialogue, rather than characters. From an author’s vantage, speech is really just thinking out loud, and, as the exchanges accumulate, the protagonist’s and antagonist’s physical and moral characteristics tend to take shape piecemeal. Dialogue is more fun anyway. Starting with a focus on stick figures is the first step to a wooden story.

It's not until the characters exchange dialogue that the story comes to life, yet alone the characters.

My sons had friends they brought to the house and they weren't all clones.

Each one was subtly different and a character in his own right, be it in their mannerisms, the way they dressed, spoke, walked, leaned against a chair or a wall or whatever, reacted to me and my wife etc., etc..

C.bronco said:

Nah. I think of traits of different people I know, and blend them. They end up being their own people, just like the female characters. It helps that I use real people as a reference as opposed to abstract entities. The real people I've met are far more entertaining and fun than stereotypes.

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Exactly. Take guys you know...and go from there. For example, my husband loves adventure - to be challenged, and he gets bored way too easily. My brother is 18 and knows he's hot. Our little brother who's 6 worships the ground he walks on, he's smart but pretends he doesn't care about his education, and despite his tough boy attitude, he has the sweetest heart and has been there for me at unexpected times of need. My father in law makes the corniest jokes. there's more, but I'm not willing to put all the males I know online.

My point is you can take things like this and twist them into your own style.

Hmmmm...perhaps I should take my own advice. My male characters need work.

Ok I have to ask- since I am like, you know, totally old, What the heck is the emo kid??

Sorry to derail the OP, but I need to know!

Dyed black hair, pretends to be depressed, cuts himself to be trendy, listens to Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance, fancies Jared Leto whether male or female...

Two of the above apply to me.

Characters who are the moving equivalent of scenery can be cliches. Indeed, it's hard to make them more than that without devoting too much 'screen-time' to them.

Less minor characters (those who appear more than once and/or have more than a single line) should probably have some hints of depths that are not captured by the surface impression (with the number of hints rising in proportion to the importance of the character). You can start with cliches, or you can build from people you know in real life, or construct them from lists of psychological traits, but the trick is to give them twists to indicate that they are real people with their own lives. Just imagine that they are main characters in their own story that just happens to temporarily intersect with the story you are telling.

If you are starting with cliches then you can try what I call "cliche+", where you add at least one other feature that isn't part and parcel of the cliche and hint at that feature 'on screen'. For example: perhaps the 'bad boy' likes doing origami and is very polite to non-authority figures (e.g. the janitorial staff); perhaps the 'emo kid' is jovial and teasing with one of his friends rather than wangsty; perhaps the 'the cold, mysterious warrior-type' has a thing for NASA and space; perhaps the 'perfect boyfriend' enjoys using multisyllabic latinate words because he's into etymology. There is no limit to the number of unique twists you can introduce to characters, and since those twists are what bring the characters to life then you should never have the problem of characters running together.

Think of them as real people with real motivation. You can't really go wrong then, and only worry about pigeon-holing them when you've finished your book and you've seen how they turn out.

Think of the men you know, and how they talk, what motivates them, how they react to situations.

Consider their speech patterns: Use of sarcasm, use of nicknames, language habits and overused phrases, big vocabulary vs limited vocabulary, use of idioms.

Is this character bookish-nerdy, a video gamer, movie buff, sports fan? Those will impact the way your character speaks, what references and allusions show up in his speech, and also how he dresses, how he addresses and greets others. Those things will also illustrate what motivates him - and the minute differences in how those characters react to a situation that keeps them from their goals.

What collective language do your characters have and what past experiences have created that collective language? Common experiences illustrate their character and shape their relationship and it also forms the basis for their language and interaction. their shared history and the parts they played in it are going to make the characters distinct. Even if they carry some of those same "cliche labels" they are different in small degrees to being unique characters.

males: have a pilgrim healer type, a cold ruthless emperor, a too-trusting wizard, a gentle gardener, a laconic arena trainer, a laid-back gladiator, a crude braggart, a conniving stable boy, and assorted bullies & asshats.

Females: a woman who has scales on 1/2 her body, a 5000 year old sorceress who looks 15, a Prime Assassin loner, a princess assassin, another princess who likes to see her mirror eat people, a third princess who is afraid of what might be inside, a vampire who also needs venom to survive, a woman out for revenge, a blind woman who sells herbs, a farmer, a fish-tailed woman wo weaves weapons from meteors and lava, an Empress possessed by a demon ruby, a physic who is an ex-gladiator, and more :}

Ciera_ said:

In short: How do you make sure that your characters remain distinct?

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Without reading the replies/updates:

It sounds really stupid and way too basic, but...I just put myself in my characters' shoes, in their heads...and they all become distinct. Even characters who are similar to each other. I treat them as individuals, so, even if they're both hardened warriors or little bratty kids or wise old women or whatever, they don't come across as clones of each other. Treat a character as an individual, they become an individual.

Do you have two friends who are much alike in real life? Two people whose personalities can both be summed up in much the same way--for example, emo kid? If so, take a look at them and see the ways that they're different, that YOU can tell them apart. Even if somebody fits under a stereotype or a label, they're still an individual on some level. One emo kid might secretly like knitting. The other might go to visit his mother's grave every year, and will beat up anybody who finds out. Similar on the outside, but still individuals.

I realize this isn't that helpful, but that's the only way I know to do it.

If you're man: Think of a male you would sleep with, even if you're not gay (Ian Fleming - James Bond).

If you're a woman: Think of a male you would want to be BFF with, even if you're straight (Jane Austen - Mr. Darcy).