: How to write from the male point of view? Friends. I am female, and have recently decided that my first book's titular character is going to be a boy of an age between nineteen and twenty.

So, you want to write a male character. How do you go about that? I am an author myself, and I love putting a lot of effort into my characters. There are multiple directions you could go: you could develop the character as you go in the story, create the character ahead of time, or do a mix.

Some of my characters I create as I write the story, especially if I’m stuck on what to do. If you chose this route, it’s best to write down any new developments you give the character. Just a quick note, such as “He is easily irritated” or “He likes dogs” or “He hates his mother” or “He is afraid of snakes.” Keeping track of your character will help you to write them better and keep with the way you are developing them. Once you are done with the story, you can go through and change a couple things to fit the character more if you so desire.

The second route is to create them ahead of time. This path can be a little more difficult and may interfere with how you want a situation to turn out, but it can make writing the story easier, since you don’t have to worry about keeping track of your character so much. You’ll have to go through things, such as his sexuality, where he’s from, his fears, what he likes, what’s his favorite food, is he special in certain ways such as being double jointed, what’s his family, who raised him, does he have any pets, what’s his race, and more. You have to put a lot of effort in this way, and I myself tend to find the former route easier. But this can be more rewarding in some ways, giving you a character with richer detail.

The third is a mix. By that, I mean develop the character some ahead of time and develop the character as you go along. This is my favorite method, as you can get good details down while not restricting yourself when it comes to the development of the character himself. You can discover stuff, such as his sexuality, where he grew up, his family, but leave stuff like personality up for development. You should keep track of stuff, such as what you already know and what develops.

Now, when writing the character, you have to keep a couple things in mind. You have to research, stay consistent, look at your character’s point of view, and don’t do character abuse. The last is the most important, which I will tell you why in a little bit.

Research. Let’s say that your character is double-jointed. Do some research on double-jointed people! Find out information about the condition and take notes. Learn about what it’s like to be double jointed from people who are double-jointed. You can find stories online or in real life. Double-jointed people range in all types of double-jointed, from one joint to several, and can have problems involving their double-jointedness or not have problems involving it. I myself am double-jointed, but only in my left thumb. It’s pops into the double-jointed position smoothly and doesn’t pop without me wanting it to. You should also research different cultures, genders, sexualities, lifestyles, and more. You said that your character is emotionally abusive. Research why that happened. It could be because his mother was abusive to him (mothers are far more likely than fathers to be abusive to children, so that’s why I said mother), or that someone else what abusive to him. People who are abusive usually come from places of being abused.

Stay consistent. Take notes and keep with your character’s personality and background. Personalities may change, but where a character came from does not.

Look at your character’s point of view. What does he think and feel? What is he like and what got him there? Seeing as he is about the age of a teenager, you’ll need to look into how teenagers often think and act. Teenage brains do differ from adult brains considerably, so keep in mind that your point of view and his will be different! And seeing how he is about to get out of being a teenager, you need to learn how it changes during that period of time. Try to look and see things from his point of view. People tend to justify what their doing using their point of view, so keep in mind that his reasons for doing something will be different from yours. Also, study how men usually are. We differ immensely and are all different, but we do kind of differ from women in similar ways. We are usually afraid of showing weakness, and that fear can range. When writing male characters, look at it from a man’s point of view. Ask how your male friends would act during a situation and compare it to a female’s. You want to try to get him as realistic as possible, since it will help you to get your audience to connect with him better.

Don’t do character neglect. This is the most important, since this is the one that determines how good your character comes out the most. There are a couple rules to follow when making a character, all important in the aspect of character neglect. But first, what is character neglect? Character neglect is when you make a character in such a way that you are neglecting the actual character. Now, here are the rules: Give them flaws, give them limits, give them strengths, give them weaknesses, give them a background, give them a reason, and give them life. I will explain each down below.

Give them flaws. A character can’t seem real without having flaws. Everyone has flaws, and to make someone flawless is a flaw of the author. It also makes the character uninteresting. The best stories are usually the ones with a hero who has to become better personally and maybe also do something for others. If your character has no flaws, they have nothing to improve on. People like to see someone become better, not someone already perfect. People are always trying to perfect themselves, in different ways. They also want to see a character that they can connect with. If a male character is super girly, he’s not going to connect with much people. Some, yes, but not much. Just like how boys are going to connect with male characters better and girls are going to connect with girls better. You’re going to need to make your male character connect with boys and men more if you want it to sell. You’ll need to understand guys more, and by that, you have to understand our flaws more. It’s also important to remember that everyone is unique and have different flaws, but it’s important to remember that some are universal. Like the fact that us men are usually afraid of showing emotion and weakness.

Give them limits. By that, I mean physical, behavioral, and emotional limits. For example, women are extremely weaker physically, so it would make sense that women would not be able to do as much physical activity as a man would. But women’s brains are built so that there are more connections across the right and left sides of the brain, which makes it easier for women to multitask. Men have more connections within each side of the brain, which means that men tend to use only one side of the brain while doing a task, while a woman tends to use both. There are also more genius boys than genius girls, and more medically retarded boys than medically retarded girls. Double-jointed people are usually going to have a harder time than non-double-jointed people, but not always. People are going to be restricted physically, behaviorally, and emotionally. Men are going to have a harder time with emotions than a woman necessarily would. A woman is going to have a harder time with physicality than a man necessarily would. A person who has a harder time controlling their behavior, and an addict is going to have a harder time with behavior than a non-addict.

Give them strengths. They need strengths, and not necessarily physical strength. This is an area that Feminists and SJWs tend to have a hard time in. They tend to believe that in order to make a woman strong, she must be physically stronger than a man. But that’s not the way to go! A strong person is someone who can face their fears, be courageous, pull through, refuse to stop, or something else. A strong character has really almost nothing to do with physical strength. Afterall, you can be physically strong, but not strong enough to face your fears.

Give them weaknesses. In order to improve, they not only need flaws, but weaknesses too. A flaw and weakness are a little different, with a flaw being something such as anger issues while a weakness being something such as a fear. Give them fears, parts that they hate about themselves, etc. Somewhere they can easily be hit home with. An example would be: A father has to go rescue his children. The man could lose his children, which is a fear that keeps him driving but could also be used against him.

Give them a background. Even if your readers never learn the background, you need to make one, at least for yourself. They are important and could help you with creating a character a lot. And it doesn’t need to be big, either. You could literally just have a couple sentences. Example: Jennifer Smith was born on a secluded farm out in a quiet countryside. In order to escape her abusive mother, she joined the royal army as a messenger. This tells you a couple things. It tells you who the character is (Jennifer). It tells you where she was born and raised, which could affect how she sees the world and what talents and knowledge she has. It tells you where she is (royal army), how she got there (joined), and why she got there (to escape her abusive mother). With her being abused, she will probably end up abusing, being abused again, trying to stop that from happening to others, or other. A background can tell you so much about a character, making it a lot easier to design the character.

Give them a reason. The character needs a reason. Like the example in “Give them weaknesses,” the father’s reason was his children (to rescue them). In the example in “Give them a background,” Jennifer’s reason was her abusive mother. What is your character’s reason? What is he doing? Etc. You need to answer these questions in order to see what reason he has.

Give them life. What I mean is that you need to make the character seem real, or realistic. Like this character could be a real person. They need flaws, limits, strengths, weaknesses, a background, a reason, and to be realistic. Make sure your character also has emotions, behaviors, physical limits; basically, patterns. When you write him, make him seem real. Example: (What NOT to do:) “He looked over at her, glancing at her.” (What to do:) “He looked over at her, glancing at her, envious.” The first merely tells an action, not enough to know WHY. The second tells you that he’s envious, which gives him a reason to look her direction, as if he’s envious of her or something she has. The second one not only shows his action, it shows his emotion. What he’s thinking, what he’s feeling.

Thanks for listening. I see that I’m a little late to the question, but hopefully this can help anyone that sees it.

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As already said, it's true that we males cannot show weaknesses, or a big difference from our group of friend otherwise we will be in trouble ;

Also, we tend to be direct and brief in what we say and not very talkative. We like to talk and joke or course but after some sentences we need to change the topic or stop to talk.

In this topic, we value people who are able to do strong "punch lines" (a short and powerful sentence that impress and let the other speechless).

You can also take in account what is being manly.

Otherwise than that a few men are extremely manly, most tend to follow more or less a man behavior but some are more sensitive, shy...

This is you who decide the personality of this character, ultimately.

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Test publish some snippets to another community unrelated to any of your current circles; only, publish it under a male pseudonym.

If the criticism disappears, then you don't actually have a problem with your writing.

You might be surprised how often an author's perceived background affects views of their works.

For example, Isaac Asimov, a famous science fiction writer used to write under the name of Paul French, back when all things Russian-like was "a bad thing" in America, and France and America were allies.

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Nice to see this topic come up again. This answer may complement the existing ideas.

Answer: Write a character (as an exercise), for whom you do not know the gender. Write out a nicely-fleshed scene, maybe an entire day, with meals, chores, interactions, a job, a date, a call to a friend, to a parent. Always keep in mind during this exercise that you as the author do not know the gender of the character.

Keep a notebook (or second document) handy. Every time you write a thought or idea or interaction from this genderless character that 'feels' gendered to you, write it down.

It may work for you, or it may not. But I wrote a genderless character over the summer and found the exercise interesting because so many things in daily life do in fact feel gendered.

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I agree very much with hsmv, but I would also like to add that writing from a male perspective is actually pretty easy, regardless of whether you are male or female. The vast majority of media that we consume (books, movies, news etc.) is presented from a male perspective. We are all brought up to see the world from a male perspective and to empathize with men. Unless you've had a strange upbringing where you do not read books/watch movies with male protagonists or talk with boys or men, you should not find it hard at all to write from a male perspective.

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I'm going to go out on a limb and say just write the character and let the chips fall where they may. There's a lot going on in the brain and we don't understand this. Although I appreciate some ideas about genetic determinism (aka the need as an animal for basic necessity of life), the fact is that with our brain capacity a large amount of it is, in my own opinion, bunk. That whole google document thing that was written a while back, assuming the basic premise that genetics of male and female determine evolutionary predisposition to STEM fields, it neglects the fact that we didn't evolve to sit in a cube farm for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I'm in the reverse situation, a male writing a female protagonist. I took up the whole project as a challenge because I didn't think I could write convincing women. Low and behold, she's one of my favorite characters I've ever thunk up... and most of her personality is inspired by agender personality traits I admire in various real life and fictional characters (and some flaws because no one's perfect). It's no different than what I would do if I was making a male character. The hardest part... and I mean this truly... is this is the first time I have to understand how dress sizes work... but then, I barely understand men's beyond "I must wear them in public settings". But hey, half the fun of writing for me is learning about new things so I get it right... even if it's fashion... shutters (Ironically, the biggest fashion conscious character in this story is her straight best guy friend.).

Anyway, back on track, if you are considering writing a male protaganist, its' probably going to be for books for guys. If that's the case, the best piece of advice I can give you is not how to write your character, but how to write your own name... use your first and middle initials and last name.

In dating myself a little bit, when I was a kid, the three biggest authors of books kids my age read the hell out of were by R.L. Stine (I personally wasn't a fan, but all my friends were), K.A. Applegate (huge fan!), and J.K. Rowling. All three wrote books that appealed to a male audience more than a female one and are listed in reverse order of number of books sold. The only male author is of course R.L. Stine and for much of the 90s and 00s, the books boys wanted to buy were authored by women and were largely from a male perspective (exclusively in Rowling's case... K.A. Applegate had a 2:1 male female perspective character ratio.).

As a kid, because of the names not betraying the author, I picked them up and read them religiously and thought they were written by men... until I used masculine pronouns to refer to Applegate, and the librarian I was talking to informed me that he was actually a she... and I was like "Oh, that's cool... still like these characters, I'm going to read more." When it happened again with Rowling, my reaction was along the lines of "Got me again... well played."

And again, consider the reverse. Look at how many men absolutely love the latest My Little Pony show unironically. The burning question of many who don't understand why is answered when you stop watching it as a girls show and watch it as a television show that features girls as the core cast... they don't emphasize "Girl Power" or "Battle of the Sexes" and "Girls are just as good as guys". They emphasize positive characters who are more indicative of their personality than they are of their gender. There is not one of the core cast that could easily port that personality into a male character (Okay... Rarity, the Fashion Pony, is hard... but then, have you seen how meticulously obsessive some Star Wars 501st Legion fanboys are about getting their costumes just right?)

Write your character as you see him and don't worry about how masculine he seems. Write your story the way you want it, and don't worry if he seems overly emotional... because at the end of the day, guys might not show it... but we do get scared, we do have doubts... we do worry about things... we might like to pretend we don't but men are not without emotions.

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I will recommend you begin with a book, non-fiction popularized science, "Is There Anything Good About Men? [How cultures flourish by exploiting men]" by Roy F. Baumeister, the Eppes Eminent Professor of Psychology at Florida State University (at the time of writing he was).

I am speaking from memory of Baumeister's illuminating ideas. The premise is simple, that due to the biology of mating, men are expendable, disposable, and this disposability (whether the men themselves think so or not) is reflected in their psychology and our cultural norms.

He begins with an interesting observation found from studying genetics: How many of your ancestors were male, and how many female? Your first thought that it must be 50/50 is wrong. 2/3 of your ancestors were female, only 1/3 were male! Until recently modern times, only about 50% of men reproduced, while over 90% of females reproduced, because very strong or rich men had many wives and children. A single man can father a hundred children in a year, a single women can be the ancestor of, at best, triplets, and on average, ONE.

This makes men expendable. Suppose I have a village of 500 men and 500 women, 1000 people, and we go to war and lose 400 people in battle. Now I speak in generalities ignoring caveats like religion and personal choice. That said, if I lose 400 men, the remaining 100 men can easily father the next generations, and the village can have 500 children and thrive. If I lose 400 women, I have 500 men that have to compete for the 100 remaining women, and I will have 100 pregnancies: The village does not thrive, it shrinks.

The future of the village is best served by making all intentional sacrifices of life, male lives. That dynamic exists throughout the animal kingdom: For horses, most males do not reproduce, and they fight to the death for the right of it. All females reproduce, however.

In human society, Baumeister notes, we have literally hundreds of legends in dozens of languages and cultures about a group of men banding together and going to seek their fortune; building a ship, fighting battles, so they can come home with riches and get themselves wives. Virtually ZERO such legends about a group of women doing the same to attract husbands.

They don't need to do that, the vast majority of women can reproduce with some male if they want to; their instinctive competition is not to get a male interested in them because they (the woman) has power or wealth, their instinctive competition is for the better males, the ones with power, wealth, and the ability to both protect and provide for the woman and her children.

Male psychology, including the involuntary parts, springs from this dynamic.

It is why they are quick to fight, why they (IRL) commit most murders, why they see women as sexual objects: Historically the male involvement in a pregnancy could be just five minutes of intercourse and end of story: child produced! The rest of his involvement could be just in authorizing the expenditure of his resources to provide for his wife and children. Like a salmon, he could literally die in battle the next day and still end up with a child.

It is why they don't care much about their looks and can be seen as sexually attractive to women even when aged or distinctly unpretty: The power and resources of a King do not require an athletic body or pretty face. For women, however, appearances matter, because youth, health and symmetry are key indicators, for a male, of the reproductive potential they subconsciously seek, and are usually wired to become aroused by.

It is why women have long been considered the property of males: THEY are the precious resource, not males. For a father, it is his daughters that other men seek and will pay much for, not his sons. If he wants his sons to reproduce he has to give them land and wealth. For his daughters he will receive land and wealth, because a girl of reproductive age is a valuable asset in her own right, in much demand by men; in fact they will risk their lives to earn the price. It is why virginity is prized in women, but not men: Virginity in the marriage bed ensures the offspring of that mating is the progeny of the man, and there is always the fear of a man that a child is not his. No such fear exists for women, obviously, their kid is unquestionably theirs, and if she knows she has mated with only one man, she is certain of the father, too: His virginity or not just doesn't really matter. [with caveats for modern medicine, of course.]

I do suggest reading the book; it explains much and lets you see both male and female POV with greater clarity, and get into their subconscious psychology with greater ease.

I am not saying the modern woman (or even medieval woman) sees herself as a reproductive commodity. But their sexual and social attitudes differ greatly from males. The vast majority of 21 year old females, on any night of the week and with no fame or wealth, can walk into a bar and walk out with a willing sexual partner within the hour. Note that the 'vast majority' also means there is no necessity for extraordinary beauty or physical shape.

Yet only an extreme minority of 21 year old men could do that (repeat: with no fame or wealth or extraordinary looks or physical shape).

That difference, and many more such psychological differences, originates in this observation that men are disposable, reproductively, and women are not.

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I consider myself a relatively refined and sensitive male adult, but I was a complete mess at that age, and I think the same is true of the majority of guys (not all!). Arrogance, deep insecurity, impulsiveness, quick angers and resentments, a deeply conflicted love-hate relationship with the opposite gender that often manifests as misogyny, short-sightedness, selfishness and narcissism --sadly, they all go along with the territory.

My advice for a woman writing a male character of this age would be to dial the introspection way way down, and the desperately concealed insecurity way way up.

You might also read some Nick Hornby. About a Boy is practically a woman's guide to understanding the young male psyche.

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Detach

I think the best way to think like a male is to detach from yourself. I write about girls all the time, and in one of my stories, the main protagonist has been a girl.

What you've got to remember is that when you write, you are not you. You are the narrator. You are just the unbiased thing telling the story, you are not the characters, you are not like them in any way. You need to think like a narrator would. To write about a male, you don't necessarily have to dress up like a boy and pretend to be one, but you need to forget about the fact that you are a female. You are no longer a female. You are the genderless narrator.

It's very hard to describe. When I write with a chapter in the point of view of a girl, I can just feel it. I detach myself from these real-world thoughts that I am a little boy, and I become the girl. You've just got to embody the girl, you know? It sounds weird, and it is, but it works.

As the genderless narrator, you are able to insert yourself into any character. That's the great thing about who you are in the story. When you're writing about your male, just insert yourself into his soul, and control him.

Examine

This has been mentioned before, but examining the behavior of wild males can benefit you. What are they doing, how are they acting?

You should look for the type of male you want to write about. There's lot's of male-types. I'm slightly on the more soft, quiet side, but there are other hard lads who are really tough. It's about finding the one you want, I think. Imagine you're looking at animals in a zoo - it's dehumanising, but must be done.

This advice definitely applies:

Watch and learn.

Conclusion

I hope this helped you.

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Study Your Friends

You likely have male friends. When speaking with them, really think about their responses. Listen to their phrasing and try to remember exactly how they put things, then go back and compare them to how you would say something similar. Consider the cases where you wouldn't say something and they do, especially. What context was that? What could have been the impetus for them to speak up where you did not? Do the same with your female friends - you may be female, but you are only one female. Compare and contrast.

Ask Your Friends

Probably after you gather data from the previous exercise, explain to them that you're writing a novel from a male POV and need to understand the male psyche. Write an outline of your plot and the things that happen to your character. Ask your male friends how they would feel in the situation, and what their reaction would be. Once more, you can ask your female friends so that you can compare the data.

Study the Wild Male

This borders on rude, but such sacrifices we make for our art. Go someplace public where you're likely to find men who are similar to your character. A bar may work, but a variety of settings couldn't hurt. Take a journal and sit in a corner. Listen to the men around you similarly to how you did your friends in the first exercise. Pay particular attention to men interacting with other men, but make sure to analyze a variety of situations: Two close friends speaking, men interacting in a group of male friends, men interacting in a group that includes men and women, men interacting with male and female strangers. Do the same with women to compare yet again. Write down what you observe. (Like Henry Higgins!)

Remember that human nature doesn't change that much...

You're writing in a fantasy setting, but the presence of fantasy elements aren't likely to change human nature that much. (Unless the conceit of the setting is that the fantasy elements do, of course, but that may be a different discussion altogether.) For all of recorded history, humans mostly seem to be focused on making a living (whether that was through hunting and gathering or computer programming), figuring out where they fit in society, finding friends and romantic partners, and asserting that they are special and better than other people in some way. Men and women may approach these differently, but through your study perhaps you will find out if that is true.

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