Main Character: Girl or boy?

SageFury · Jan 17, 2008

A: Which one do you find yourself using for you're current Prime MC

1:Youthful Boy
2:Youthful Girl
3:Adult Male
4:Adult Woman

B: Why do you think you have chosen *Blank* for the position.

A: Youthful Girl

B: In my fantasy adventure there are monsters, magic and science in unpredictable environment interactions of all kinds. I never really see female leads in such action packed adventures and I really think a girl perspective is a nice change. I'm a big anime buff and sometimes it bothers me that they use females as sex objects as their special abilities so I found my char to be smart, strong and yet average making her special talents hidden from those miss reading her image.

megan_d · Jan 17, 2008

My MC is a 16 year old boy. He's a boy and not a girl because I prefer writing boys. He's young instead old because, well, he had to be. An older MC would not fit with my plot.

Sage · Jan 17, 2008

My most recent MCs have been a 21-year-old guy in one, and a 2000-year-old gal (but I'd put her in mid-twenties in human terms) in the other.

The latter is that age because I was 26 when I wrote the first novel with her in it. The former's age was based on the age I made the other main character, which is 18 so she could be in her first year of college. He needed to be a little older than her, but since it's YA, I didn't want him to be too far out of the teen years.

Zelenka · Jan 17, 2008

All my MCs are adult males at the moment, mid twenties to late thirties.

I've no problem writing strong female characters, I just usually don't like writing them as the MC for some reason. Or POV character, rather.

ZannaPerry · Jan 17, 2008

A. In my current project my MC is a 27 year old woman with a fiesty, stubborn 10 year old daughter.

B. Because when my MC was 17 and pregnant, she was banished from her hometown by the father of her child (same age as she) and she ran away to never return until she receives a bloody letter (literally) from an unknown sender ten years later that brings her back to her hometown and the people there who once saw her nothing but as a scared, young woman.

HourglassMemory · Jan 17, 2008

20'ish male in one.
16'ish male in another.

Madison · Jan 17, 2008

All my characters are young - actually, they've all been the age I was at the time. First girl, fifteen, second girl, sixteen, next girl seventeen.

And I'm still seventeen, but the next WIP breaks the pattern: an eighteen year old male. He breaks the pattern in a lot of ways

~grace~ · Jan 17, 2008

A2, because...um...it fits? I wanna? It just happened, I don't really know why. Any of the other categories would have been treated differently by the other characters, thereby making it a different story.

Strange thing I just realized: In novels, I've never written any MC older than 18 or male. In short stories, I've rarely written any MC younger than 20 or female. I do not know why.

JoNightshade · Jan 17, 2008

Most of my primary characters are adult males, although sometimes they are young. In my novels, I've done males in the following ages: 20, 25, 35, and twice my MC has been 60.

I'm female, but I think like a male (if I can make that huge generalization - some of my friends and I discuss what percent male and female we are and everyone usually agrees I'm about 70% "male"). Since I could read I've always been drawn to adventure books and I always wished I could be the daring young man who fights the dragons, drives the spaceships, saves the girl, etc. You get the idea. I identified with them and I didn't even really like books about GIRLS acting boyish. Partly this is because my dad was the major figure in my life as I was growing up, and he treated me with the same attitude as he would have treated a son. (IE, grow a spine, stand up for yourself, make something of your life, do something useful...) So in my imaginary worlds, I'm usually a guy.

Stormhawk · Jan 17, 2008

My MC is 22.

Unfortunately, that's my age, so I worry about it a bit. The thing is, she always used to be older than me (I've been writing this character for 5 years now, I kind of caught up to her).

...

Wow...maybe I had to wait and catch up to her so I could write her properly? I don't even want to think about the Psych 101 that could come out of that.

I digress...

She's that age, because I tend to write characters about that age. I didn't want her being a teenager, I wanted someone slightly past that "wonder" age when all the special stuff is supposed to happen (see Buffy, Smallville and half of the anime in existence).

Unintentionally, it was also a good move, because it let her slide into an age bracket that allows for a bit more ambiguity in the relationship with her boss. Any younger and any (fan)shipping that happens would be slightly squicky, any older and it'd seem like she's too old to learn anything. (Dunno if that makes sense, probably doesn't, room is spinning again).

Also, with her age and lack of social interaction, it's still fine for her to break off into conversations with herself, or randomly cheer if someone good happens, or make geekish references that wouldn't work as well on someone ten years older.

KatieNorth · Jan 17, 2008

My MC is a 13 year old girl. Girls (or young women) are my default because -- well, for various reasons they just are; the big age difference is essential for me as it prevents me over-identifying with her and writing my reactions instead of hers, plus the coming-of-age story is behind everything I write so it's a good age for that.

Shweta · Jan 17, 2008

Stormhawk said:
Also, with her age and lack of social interaction, it's still fine for her to break off into conversations with herself, or randomly cheer if someone good happens, or make geekish references that wouldn't work as well on someone ten years older.

You might be overestimating geeks in their (our) thirties

Mine in the WIP I really want to work on is female, adult. And uh, she's early twenties by human standards, but she's a ghetto elf, so probably more like 60s. Need to figure out a timeline to see how late she could possibly have been born. This is still in early stages.

MCs in the last few short stories have been young female; male from boy till old age; male mid-twenties; and female, hundreds of years old, and mechanical.

Paichka · Jan 17, 2008

In my current WIP, my MCs are all teenaged girls (16-ish).

I'm not sure why, but I find myself writing a lot of strong female characters. In my short stories, my characters are usually female as well. I have a lot of male secondary characters, and they're not weak by any means, but I don't get into their heads as well. I'm not sure why.

Zoombie · Jan 17, 2008

A: Young girl (Quantum Leonite)

B: Well, who else could save the human race from almost total annihilation than the plucky youngest daughter of James Leonite and Pixel A-3? Like parents like child, I say. And I didn't feel like having a second book with a young boy starring.

Though, to be fair, Jimmy got help from a genetically engineered gun runner, a history professor and a giant lizard. But Quant only gets help from a handsome archaeologist (who's named Indiana and is frustratingly gay), a traumatized ex-special forces woman and an ancient computer called Mississippi Queen.

But then again, Jimmy had to deal with an assassin. Quant has to face up to an army of bio-engineered killing machines unleashed by pushing the wrong button!

eyeblink · Jan 17, 2008

In the short story I've just finished in draft, the protag is male and mid-twenties (with a flashback to mid-teens). The one before that, female - age unspecified but late teens or maybe early twenties. The three before that, female, twenties (a year out of University); female, forties; male, forties with again flashbacks to teenage years.

Of the two novels I'm working on one has several viewpoint characters, but the primary ones are all female, three in late teens, one in thirties. The other one is in first person from the POV of a seventeen-year-old girl. An earlier novel has six POV characters but the two main ones are a father and a daughter (early forties and 18/19 respectively) and the one who is given most space in the novel is the daughter.

I seem to write a lot about characters in their later teens or early twenties - not sure why, as I'm 43! I must have unfinished business in those ages...but I feel if that's what I'm drawn to write about, then so be it. Another reason may be that, for better or worse, my 17/18-year old self seems to be at the beginning of a line of development which has reached me at the age I am now. My 16-and-younger self seems quite alien to me now.

Zoombie · Jan 17, 2008

In a completely different story...

A) Adult male (Alexander of Tervarthen)

b) Is 21 adult? I think so. Well, cause, girls stay at home and cook and a boy doesn't go to war, so that left an adult male. Not that Alex wanted to go to war, mind you. He just wanted to paint, but his older brother died on his quest for Knighthood, so Alex had to face up to the challenge.

Oddsocks · Jan 17, 2008

Male, between youthful and adult. I don't have a definite age, but probably somewhere between 16 and 25 (the reason that's so general is probably to do with the story being fantasy, and so set in a fictional culture - I know where my MC stands (a step between child and adult, still having to respect elders but being attributed some responsibility), but I haven't actually worked out what age that is in that culture yet).

Why: I find male characters easiest to write/relate to, for some reason.

Stormhawk · Jan 18, 2008

Shweta said:
You might be overestimating geeks in their (our) thirties

Didn't mean for it to come out like that.

Shweta · Jan 18, 2008

Stormhawk said:
Didn't mean for it to come out like that.

Aw, don't make the sadface! I was just noting that your 22-year-old does things I probably would, is all

Honey Nut Loop · Jan 18, 2008

Young Male

14

Because i hear voices in my head.

brokenfingers · Jan 18, 2008

My main character is a dog. He's out to save the world, despite the way he's sometimes been treated in the past. It's in his nature.

KTC · Jan 18, 2008

SageFury said:
A: Which one do you find yourself using for you're current Prime MC

1:Youthful Boy
2:Youthful Girl
3:Adult Male
4:Adult Woman

B: Why do you think you have chosen *Blank* for the position.

First, great questions! I find myself thinking about my forthcoming answers often.

A: My answer is 1:Youthful Boy

Why do I often choose youthful boy? I guess I love coming of age stories. I love reading them and I love writing them. They sometimes get a bad rap, but I'm a sucker for a youthful boy growing into some sort of self-realization epiphany. I think, although that was the worst time of my life, that growing up was the best time of my life. I loved becoming aware. I strive to show this awakening in my youthful male characters. I think I choose boys simply because of the write-what-you-know advice.

Again...wonderful questions. Thanks.

Stew21 · Jan 18, 2008

A. Adult male

B. I needed a character to have gone down the wrong path for a while so I could turn him around. that's why he's an adult. Men fit the story so well. Most of the characters are men. I wanted to draw on their connections. I wanted to take sex out of the picture in the relationships I was exploring. And I needed two of the characters to be army buddies from Viet Nam Era. We have a couple of friendships, father/son relationship, ghost/living relationships, and even some relationships with women - but those are secondary. It had to be men. It's the way the story was made to me.

Devil Ledbetter · Jan 18, 2008

Adult male, current WIP as well as my previous one.

I like to write about adults because I like adult-sized conflict.

KTC · Jan 18, 2008

Devil Ledbetter said:
Adult male, current WIP as well as my previous one.

I like to write about adults because I like adult-sized conflict.

See, I like to dump adult-sized conflict onto my young boys.

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