In today's post, I want to talk about the sex...no wait, no. Don't start getting all nervous and stuff, thinking you're going to relive the nightmares of having "the talk." No, I merely just want to talk about if the sex or gender (for those who still cringe at the word) of your main character depend on if you yourself are a male or a female?Recently, I started writing a contemporary novel called Have Mercy. It's about a boy named Alden who has a lot of emotional/mental problems. He's a very raw character who pretends to have rough edges but on the inside he's smooth and just doesn't know who he's going to be in life or what he wants to do with his life, because his father is keeping him back.
I am a girl, in case you didn't notice. I have a lot of guy friends, but I don't have a lot of family members who are guys. So, really, I don't know how to get inside a guy's head. When I started writing this novel, all I had was a plot. I wasn't sure who I wanted the character to be. I didn't know if I wanted it to be a male or a female. I just started to write.
My first sentence is: My father had a gun.
You really can't tell what the sex of my character is, but you do know it's a boy, because I told you. Once I realized I wanted it to be a boy, I knew I had to put all that girly-girl stuff aside and find my inner male, so to speak.
A lot of writers tend to stick to their own gender when writing a book, because if it's a guy writing from a girl's perspective, they don't want her to come off as too manly or boyish, because she is a...girl. It's the same way for female writers.
To answer my own question, I'm going to say yes and no. Some people tend to stick to their own gender, others don't. I know that debut author Hannah Moskowitz prefers to write stories about boys. Famous authors like Scott Westerfeld and Stephenie Meyer gender bend as well. It's not a weird or strange thing. A lot of writers do it, but the question is, how?
How does a male find their inner girl? Hows a female find their inner boy?
For those of you who want to write a male MC in first person, but don't know how to go about doing it, I'm here to help. Okay, I'm not an expert because Alden is my first male MC. But I will share my little bit of knowledge about writing for the opposite sex.
1. Girls always say that they are smarter than boys. I will not say that because intelligence has nothing to do with your gender. But I will say that girls tend to look at details more than boys do. They describe things more elaborately, in a gentle, colorful, but strong way.
So when writing for boys you don't want them to go on and on at describing something. You should really never go on and on with describing something, but this rule holds true when you're writing from the perspective of a boy.
2. Write what you know. Study boys. Look at their mannerisms and pay attention to the way they handle certain situations. Okay, this might not work for a lot of people, to tell you truth. The boys at my school are nothing like Alden but he has a few of the qualities that high school boys tend to have. Like boys can be difficult. They try not to be too sympathetic or in other words, they act like nothing hurts them when deep down it does. They pretend to be hardened by past experiences, such as the death of a loved one or an abusive parent. Though there are a lot of smart responsible boys, a lot don't really like being in school and they just go to go. Maybe they have a mentor or something that they like to do. Music, sports.
You don't want to be cliche but you want to pay attention to boys, in a non-stalkerish kind of way. You want to try to visualize your character in them.
3. Know your male character. I mean, know him. Know what he looks like. What his favorite color is. If he likes books or not, and if so, what's his favorite book? What's his favorite movie, band? Does he have a girlfriend, is he gay? Does he have two parents? What kind of neighborhood does he live in? What's his personality?
There are a lot of character sheets on a web that you can check out to better understand your male character.
For example: Alden hates Indie Rock. He smokes every once in a while to calm his nerves. He likes being single and his favorite cuss word is "fuck"
4. They're people too. Boys, although they may seem like they come from Jupiter, they are human and humans feel. Figure out whether they're an outward emotional person or an inward one. In other words, when they're upset, angry, sad, do they keep it to themselves or do they go talk to somebody about how they feel.
5. Just have fun. Don't see writing from a boy's perspective as a hard thing. Sure it's challenging when you're a female, but he is a character like all the other characters and once you know him as well as the back of your own hand, just let everything fly. Boys are leaders. They like taking the steering wheel, so let him and before you know it you'll be enjoying the ride.
Figuring out what the gender of your character is, is hard. But don't be afraid to take risk and experiment. If your character is a boy he is a boy. If she is a girl she is a girl. Don't change it because you think you can't write from a boy's perspective or if you think you can't write from a girl's. It's just going to take a little bit more work to put that character on paper. Work that will be worth while once you get to know your character and develop their story.
I thank you for taking the time to read this. Please, feel free to leave a comment. I want to know what you think about gender bending. Do you do it yourself? Do you prefer reading books about girls or boys or both?
Love,
Raven
