Handedness of your characters

phantom000

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As I was writing today i realized that a lot of my characters are right handed. No big deal, i guess, but it probably comes from the fact that I am right handed.

Is this the same for other people?
 

Rina Evans

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I don't really think about it much, but... I guess they're all right-handed? If they're reaching for something, typing, or writing, I imagine them doing it with their right hand.
 

Parametric

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I make all my sneaky, sinister characters left-handed. It's a kind of stealth pun. :D
 

BRDurkin

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I normally don't overtly mention which hand my characters use as their primary hand. Over the course of the story, it usually becomes evident they are either right-handed or left-handed.

I've consciously only ever made one character left-handed. At least, I think she's left-handed. When shooting, her firing hand is her left hand, so she wears her sidearm on her left hip. Beyond that, I haven't made any distinction.

Another of my characters used to be right-handed, but she lost the use of her right arm due to catastrophic injury, and she's had to learn to become left-handed. She's a tinkerer/inventor, so that's been a hard transition for her.
 

Maryn

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It's pretty rare for me to have any reason to mention handed-ness. I'm a leftie, but I don't think it's clear whether any of my characters is/are.

Maryn, whose plots never have that as a factor
 

Little Anonymous Me

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I don't really think of it, but my MMC is a leftie, and when I was world-building I decided to be nice to him exactly one time by making their writing system go from right to left. :tongue I don't think I've ever mentioned it though. Hmm.
 

Ona Mission

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I've made a real effort to make my MC as unlike me as possible. Turned out her sister has many of my characteristics instead. However, I haven't written their handedness in my story, but when I think of my MC writing, she's a lefty. I'm a lefty. Funny thing, her sister - who has more of my traits - is a righty. At least I think she is.

I guess I won't really know unless there's a reason to point it out someday. But that's how they've seemed for awhile.
 

Orianna2000

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I never even thought about it, to be honest. I'm right-handed, technically, but I do a lot of things left-handed. Sports, mostly. I bowl left-handed, I play golf left-handed. And I iron left-handed. It's bizarre. I never mention whether my characters use their right or left hands to do things.
 

Hyperminimalism

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Count me as one of the writer's who has never really given this much thought. I, too, am right-handed, but it has never really come up as a pertinent detail. The only reason I can really think about it being unique and important to the character/plot would be in a story involving a crime, perhaps. But maybe there are other explanations.
 

Brightdreamer

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It's pretty rare for me to have any reason to mention handed-ness. I'm a leftie, but I don't think it's clear whether any of my characters is/are.

Maryn, whose plots never have that as a factor

For some reason, this makes me think of the Magnum, PI episode with the woman who was convinced her identical twin sister was out to get her: "She's left-handed, I'm right." One of those classic endings. Handedness is, indeed, sometimes an integral factor in a plot...

As for my characters, I rarely mention it. They tend to be righties, I suppose, not just because I'm right-handed, but because, statistically, that's what most people are.
 

J.S.F.

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I don't think I've ever mentioned which hand my characters used unless it had something to do with holding a weapon or picking up one. I'm left-handed, but since only about seven percent of the world's population is left-handed (or so I read somewhere) I guess I usually default to the right-handed crew. It's never been an issue with me, but for those of you who write about inventors, gunfighters, martial arts experts, then it might be.

Interesting.
 

DKRisDKR

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Now you've gone and done it.

I've never given anything like a single thought to handedness (?) in a story, but now this is going to nag at me. I have amputees in the stories, one is a MC, but none that have lost a hand. That gives me pause...
 

Phoebs

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Wow I've never even thought about this before! Clearly haven't been giving my characters enough thought.

I'm ambidextrous in real life (although I write only with my left) so maybe that's why I haven't thought about it? I can't decide in real life so it makes sense that I wouldn't make a decision with my characters either.)

OH (just had a revelation)... I didn't specify handedness in my last story but one of the characters did blow out the knee on his dominant leg (the right). So I suppose I have given it *some* thought (although not much)..
 
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DragonHeart

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I try not to mention it in the writing but I pretty much assume all of my characters are left-handed because I am. If it's a relevant plot detail I do try to be more realistic, but in my mind right-handedness does not exist. :D
 

Parametric

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And I do the exact opposite when I need a red herring.. The stealth good guys wind up left handed, because I am... ;)

Don't get me wrong, my sneaky, sinister, left-handed characters are good guys. :D
 

Jett.

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Even if it never comes up in the story, I do plot the traits of all the characters. Stuff like eye/hair color, nationality, sexual orientation etc. One or two of the cool or skilled characters often end up being left handed - I guess, I find that irrationally exotic (I'm right handed).
 

Keythsea

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I never really thought about it. I see a majority of them using their right hands.

The twist? I'm left handed.
 

Myrealana

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I'm left-handed, but so far, all of my characters, in the few times where it has mattered, have been right handed.

Generally, it's not something that comes up, and I don't really think about it.
 

la-gamine

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I have a character who's a pickpocket and he's left handed. It helps him kind of throw people off, since you'd be more likely to watch what someone's doing with their right hand rather than their left. Other than that I haven't made the distinction for any other of my characters.
 

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I've never really given it much thought, but I suppose most of my characters are right-handed, only because my entire immediate family is right-handed & it's something I'm used to.
Although now that I think about it, a few characters from short-stories along the way might have been left-handed. Like this one girl, Emily Pierce? I imagine her as left-handed. Never came up in the writing, though.
 

ericalynn

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I've never had a reason to think about this, although, if I were hard-pressed to, I imagine that I automatically imagine my characters as right-handed, since that's what I am.
 

StarryEyes

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I don't really think about it that much, but when I do, I tend to make them right-handed. It's a way of making them as different from me as possible, I suppose (I'm left-handed).
 

Renee J

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I haven't added that to my story. It would be useful if they fought or used a weapon. But, the story doesn't include that.