Are your MC the same sex as you?

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sheadakota

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Just curious. I am female but I seem to always write Male leads. I don't know why, but I don't like to write female leads and not real crazy about reading stories with female leads either (sorry!) Just wondering what your prefrences are.
 
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I always write female leads. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. I greatly admire people who write cross-gender.

Although having said that, a few weeks back I read a very interesting vignette from a male point of view, written by a woman. :e2brows:
 

thethinker42

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It depends on what I'm writing. I generally write from a female POV, but I have been known to take a male POV...which can certainly be challenging. Especially for...um...certain varieties of literature.
 

Alpha Echo

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I always write female leads (I am female). But I'm always impressed with a male author who writes female leads or vice versa - if it's done well, that is.
 

Inkspill

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I tend to write female leads for my novels, but I had a switching-point-of-view novel that was one female and one male.
 

DeleyanLee

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My heroes tend to be guys. Having a heroine as the main POV is extremely challenging for me. I guess I haven't spent as much time studying my own gender as I have men.
 

Clair Dickson

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I always right strong, kick-butt, extra-rational female leads. But I have a hard time reading female leads-- most of them, to me, seem so flaky and incompetent and so emotional that it gets in the way of the plot. That's even before the books devolve into relationship drama.
 

Soccer Mom

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I have written plenty of male MCs, but few of them in first person. My first person MCs are almost always women.
 

maestrowork

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I write from both. My first novel has a male POV, and my WIP has both male and female. My short stories also have male and female, even first person.
 

Darzian

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My main character is male, but I'm offering POVs from the female character too. I don't know if I'm doing it right, though.

Some authors totally screw up. I know one such, who shall remain anonymous. Incidentally, he is quite famous and everyone I've met agrees that female POVs were very unrealistic in his story.
 

Stew21

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Depends on what I'm writing. I have a couple of male MCs and a couple of female MCs. I find writing in male POV easier than female. I can't explain why.
 

Claudia Gray

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I go back and forth, and it feels entirely natural to me to write for both. That said, I have been leaning toward female MCs lately, as they tend to be more desired by editors in the genres I am writing.
 

Maryn

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I'm a switch. I write first person, usually, and am pretty comfortable with both male and female MCs. There are certainly male characters I couldn't write--but there are women I couldn't write, too.

Maryn, semi-versatile
 

tehuti88

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My MCs are usually male, but some years ago I started a serial where the primary MC is female, and I adore her to bits. I had plans to phase her out of the story but now I can't, I love writing her too much. Which is rather odd, since before her, I didn't care for many of my female characters.

Oh. I'm female.
 

vfury

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Lately, it's been female MCs. I haven't tried a male POV in a while, but I admire authors who can switch between the two.
 

scheherazade

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Just curious. I am female but I seem to always write Male leads. I don't know why, but I don't like to write female leads and not real crazy about reading stories with female leads either (sorry!) Just wondering what your prefrences are.

Same here. I tend to prefer male writers and my favorite stylists are definitely male. If my writing has a voice it's probably what you'd call a male voice: sort of this post-Hemingway style you see in magazines and online - short, blunt, sarcastic, few adjectives and fewer adverbs.

Writing the opposite gender is sometimes a way to ensure that your character isn't entirely autobiographical. Sometimes that's a crutch - you can say "No, this definitely isn't about me, cuz I'm not a guy!" But on the other hand, it does challenge you to think outside your own experience when writing, so maybe that does ensure that even mostly autobiographical material has some distance. If I want to write about a situation that happened to me in real life, I always have to consider how a male might approach that situation differently - for example, with anger instead of tears, or with sexual assertion rather than shy flirtation.

Sometimes I write female leads just to mix it up. I definitely prefer males, though. I think the thing is that with a male character I feel more comfortable letting my natural voice shine through. With females I tend to pick characters with personalities much different than my own (maybe as another crutch to create that psychic distance?). I've been accused of creating female leads who are less sympathetic than my males, though...
 

Diana W.

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I haven't been writing for very long. I started late compared to some of you guys....and gals. :D
So far my MC's have been all male. To be honest it's not something I thought about. If I came up with a story that better suited having a female lead I would probably attempt it I'd be worried if it was authentic enough though.
 

October

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I'm with some other people here: it depends. I usually write from a male perspective though, even though I'm a girl. Guys can be easier to write from because they have psychological diferences from girls. But really, I just write who best fits in the story. Sometimes it's male, or female, and one time it was a hermaphrodite. So, yeah.
 

mrockwell

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I write both -- it really depends on the story I'm trying to tell. But I'd say I favor female MCs -- probably 75% of my stories have female leads. Just easier to get into their heads, I guess.

-- Marcy
 
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