On male protags, or females realy
Nov. 22nd, 2009 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithA year or two ago, I'd told ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cassiphone I'd write a post on why I tend to write male protagonists. At least I think it was her. It was so long ago I'm not sure. I put off writing it because, well, when I thought about it, it became complicated.
The simple reason, as I was growing up, I usually found female protags annoying, so why would to write one?
Second reason, when I write it's usually to explore a character in a situation and, well, I'm familiar with female attitudes/approaches/attitudes having put up with them all my life and I want something different when I write :)
The third reason is interesting, and I only noticed it recently. See, most of my stuff is fantasy set in a world based to some degree on some time in the past. That'll be the starting point for my world-building. Now every novel length story I've written like this has a male protag. As of this month, I've written two set in the present and both had a female protag. I also have two set in the future, on other planets. One has a female protag, the other because the nature of the story has male protags. But with both these worlds, there seems to be a genetic problem associated with the Y-chromosome because they both have more more female characters than males among the supporting and minor characters.
So I'm thinking this is a reflection of how I view these cultures. Past settings are usually male-dominated so less opportunities for females characters so I have less. I don't care for the FC who goes out and pretends to be a male. I like my FCs to, at least start off in, roles that appropriate to their society. Then they tend to be more real to me, and therefore more interesting. Whereas in the future, the appropriate roles are broader.
(Having said that, I do have a potential story set in 1830s VDL with a female MC that I'd hoped to do for Nano this year but although I had interesting characters and situation, they wouldn't give me a plot. Until the werewolf turned up last week and brought a plot with him. I can't see me maintaining interest in it for another 11 months though.)
cassiphone I'd write a post on why I tend to write male protagonists. At least I think it was her. It was so long ago I'm not sure. I put off writing it because, well, when I thought about it, it became complicated.The simple reason, as I was growing up, I usually found female protags annoying, so why would to write one?
Second reason, when I write it's usually to explore a character in a situation and, well, I'm familiar with female attitudes/approaches/attitudes having put up with them all my life and I want something different when I write :)
The third reason is interesting, and I only noticed it recently. See, most of my stuff is fantasy set in a world based to some degree on some time in the past. That'll be the starting point for my world-building. Now every novel length story I've written like this has a male protag. As of this month, I've written two set in the present and both had a female protag. I also have two set in the future, on other planets. One has a female protag, the other because the nature of the story has male protags. But with both these worlds, there seems to be a genetic problem associated with the Y-chromosome because they both have more more female characters than males among the supporting and minor characters.
So I'm thinking this is a reflection of how I view these cultures. Past settings are usually male-dominated so less opportunities for females characters so I have less. I don't care for the FC who goes out and pretends to be a male. I like my FCs to, at least start off in, roles that appropriate to their society. Then they tend to be more real to me, and therefore more interesting. Whereas in the future, the appropriate roles are broader.
(Having said that, I do have a potential story set in 1830s VDL with a female MC that I'd hoped to do for Nano this year but although I had interesting characters and situation, they wouldn't give me a plot. Until the werewolf turned up last week and brought a plot with him. I can't see me maintaining interest in it for another 11 months though.)
no subject
Date: 2009-11-22 08:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-22 08:37 am (UTC)Yeah. Mine probably aren't any better but I like to think they are :)
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Date: 2009-11-22 10:55 am (UTC)Thanks for this, it's always interesting to see why people make the writing choices they do.
oops
Date: 2009-11-23 05:41 am (UTC)Re: oops
Date: 2009-11-23 06:54 am (UTC)Huh Was fine when I posted it.
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Date: 2009-11-23 07:05 am (UTC)... And after reading it (sorry! X.x ) I was wondering what really makes you want to write. Is it exploration of the world that you'd create with characters that you would find interesting, or something else?
Just curiosity, really. Hope you don't mind. ;_;
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 07:24 am (UTC)That's a good question.
I guess it starts with me thinking what would happen if (this person) did (this thing) e.g. what if a typical fantasy master thief was caught and locked up for twenty years or a couple on holiday run into a ghost and think it's just come-on for tourists. The either the story unfolds on me or I spend a lot if time thinking about this character and the ones they interact with, and so I write it down to make it go away (you'd think I'd know better by now). Once I'm writing, then I start to explore the characters and their world, and get involved with them.