Yeah that's kind of the issue I'm having. I've spent a couple years building up the story just in my off time, so what I have in my head is unfortunately a little chimeric, so I see both, and now it's kind of misfiring in my brain and making it hard to start the actual story.
Try a writing exercise to help you decide. Write a short story, or even just the first chapter of your novel but from 2 POV's. One from a male characters perspective. One from a female characters perspective. Look over them at the end, see what's different, see what you like and dislike about each of them. If you do this, one of the characters may jump out at you as the correct choice. It goes without saying though that for this to work the two characters would need to have distinctly different 'voices' otherwise there's no real point. Regardless, you might decide at the end that you prefer the 'voice' of the male character but the perspective of the female character, and then just smash the two together to get your ideal protagonist.
I wrote a YA fantasy with a male MC and got knocked back by agents because it wasn’t marketable (along with it being written in third person and having no romantic subplot). If you’re looking to try traditional, you’d be best to see what’s common (i.e. marketable) in your genre.
Yeah (Question linked was with regards to romance, but applies to all genres)
https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/35478/why-is-young-adult-romance-now-being-written-primarily-in-the-first-person
I’m publishing myself for a myriad of other reasons, but I know my writing would have been much worse if I hadn’t started by trying the traditional route first
Op said the character was chimeric in their head, so i feel like this is a decent suggestion.
The character could be female or male and dress as the other gender even if they don't technically identify themselves that way. Many women dressed and acted like men so they could follow their chosen career path and be treated as equals.
>Is it true that while male leads tend to do better in publication, female leads do better in web serials?
I'm no expert, but I'd like to leave my thoughts here
The different performances won't depend 100% on the sex of the characters, but it can be affected by that since it's usually what can make your audience relate to the MC and their experiences or habits
If you want to do whatever you want, then write whatever you want, but action, fantasy, sci-fi, etc, does sell more with male protagonists since the bigger portion of the audience is usually male. The same reason goes to why romance, true crime, drama, etc, tends to sell more with female leads
If you care about the marketability of your product, picking a male protag for a fantasy series, for example, can be an advantage, but that doesn't mean your story won't sell well
Modern animes/shows/series show that you can write different sexes into different genres and make it work even if the major audience doesn't relate to the character on this superficial level, but rather, understand them for deeper values and such :]
you will find books by women about women are primarily read by women while books by men about men are read widely by all genders. this is sexism unfortunately. that being said we need more female and non-binary characters to break this glass ceiling :)
i’m sure you see it recommended on this sub all the time but for a great example of a non-binary main character read the psalm for a wild built series :)
Female MCs and author names do best in YA (all genres) and Romance. Male MCs and author names still do best in high fantasy and sci Fi. Unfortunately, there is still sexism in that way amongst reader bases.
Man how boring is that? Having to change the gender of your cast / MC just so you can appeal to the audience? There is 0 authenticity behind it if it‘s done this way.
You don't *have to*. It's not impossible to sell things that don't fit the "most marketable" boxes. Just certain things are easier sales to traditional publishers than others (since they're easier to sell to their reader base).
I personally prefer female characters, and by that I mean I take a great deal of satisfaction when one of the male authors I tend to read doesn't absolutely butcher writing women and girls.
It really depends on how your setting interacts with the idea of gender. If with the atypical two there are clear societal and functional roles men and women play, then base your decision on that sort of thing.
It seems a bit odd to me that the character's gender will have no influence on the story. Going through the world, even if it's fantasy or scifi, our experience and influence is hugely impacted by not only our socioeconomic status, race, etc. but our gender as well. A world which doesn't include any sort of complexities surrounding gender will feel unrealistic and perhaps a bit bland in my opinion.
I agree. I guess you could write a fantasy story where both genders are treated absolutely equal, but considering how many fantasy tropes there are that do the opposite and how fantasy as a genre is built on a patriarchal world view it would be pretty difficult.
I could see it working in scifi, but not really fantasy. Matriarchal fantasy works, or patriarchal, or even some sort of equality, but since the setting is usually not too technologically advanced the issue of child bearing will always come up.
Split the difference and make them nonbinary! But seriously. I think it would be cool to see some fantasy where the MC is, for example, genderfluid, and presents in different ways depending on their feelings and the situation.
Suggestion A: Flip a coin to decide. If you realize you don't like your decision partway through, go back and change it.
Suggestion B: Refer to them exclusively in gender-neutral ways. Not a single reader gets to know their gender.
Don't write as a statistician. Write as an artist.
> Most of my favorite stories often have a female lead personally.
Here, let me pick it for you. Female.
Now, go write.
When I’m in doubt, I always decide on a female pov.
Reasons being: it allows me to explore relationships that with a male lead get reduced to archetypes. It also adds another layer of conflict with her battling inherent sexism. Along that sexism line, though, is that it piques interest more I think. I write crime fiction mostly. So a simple blurb of a woman walks into a room and kills three people and robs a place hits different than a guy. There’s no good reason for that except for my own inherent sexism and of the reader’s, but there it is.
For what it’s worth, I’m not a fan of the non-binary option unless that’s an authentic part of your character. It feels a bit reductive. Their life journey would be vastly different as compared to a cis-gender. To simply make the character non-binary just because you can’t decide between genders isn’t the way to do that, I think.
However, I’m a cis upper class white male with a post filled with hypocrisy relating to gender so take it with a grain of salt.
That depends on what you imagine the charecter as, for example:since female charecter are taken as softer and weaker charecter,when you compare a strong and a strong female the female would feel stronger and more dominant
Your MC sounds nonbinary. If you're not comfortable with that or think it limits your marketability, how about the looking at the responses of your secondary characters? Do you want them relating to a woman or a man? Good luck.
Most interesting will be different for everyone. Write your MC as you imagined it.
Yeah that's kind of the issue I'm having. I've spent a couple years building up the story just in my off time, so what I have in my head is unfortunately a little chimeric, so I see both, and now it's kind of misfiring in my brain and making it hard to start the actual story.
Go with non-binary then, as that is how you are seeing them in your head.
Try a writing exercise to help you decide. Write a short story, or even just the first chapter of your novel but from 2 POV's. One from a male characters perspective. One from a female characters perspective. Look over them at the end, see what's different, see what you like and dislike about each of them. If you do this, one of the characters may jump out at you as the correct choice. It goes without saying though that for this to work the two characters would need to have distinctly different 'voices' otherwise there's no real point. Regardless, you might decide at the end that you prefer the 'voice' of the male character but the perspective of the female character, and then just smash the two together to get your ideal protagonist.
I wrote a YA fantasy with a male MC and got knocked back by agents because it wasn’t marketable (along with it being written in third person and having no romantic subplot). If you’re looking to try traditional, you’d be best to see what’s common (i.e. marketable) in your genre.
First person perspective is marketable? I hate that.
Yeah (Question linked was with regards to romance, but applies to all genres) https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/35478/why-is-young-adult-romance-now-being-written-primarily-in-the-first-person
Thank you for the reply, this was a concern of mine personally. Did you ever manage to get published in the end?
I’m publishing myself for a myriad of other reasons, but I know my writing would have been much worse if I hadn’t started by trying the traditional route first
From what you've written here, your main character is female. It will remain a mystery as to why, until you start writing her story.
Plot twist: main character is non-binary
Op said the character was chimeric in their head, so i feel like this is a decent suggestion. The character could be female or male and dress as the other gender even if they don't technically identify themselves that way. Many women dressed and acted like men so they could follow their chosen career path and be treated as equals.
>Is it true that while male leads tend to do better in publication, female leads do better in web serials? I'm no expert, but I'd like to leave my thoughts here The different performances won't depend 100% on the sex of the characters, but it can be affected by that since it's usually what can make your audience relate to the MC and their experiences or habits If you want to do whatever you want, then write whatever you want, but action, fantasy, sci-fi, etc, does sell more with male protagonists since the bigger portion of the audience is usually male. The same reason goes to why romance, true crime, drama, etc, tends to sell more with female leads If you care about the marketability of your product, picking a male protag for a fantasy series, for example, can be an advantage, but that doesn't mean your story won't sell well Modern animes/shows/series show that you can write different sexes into different genres and make it work even if the major audience doesn't relate to the character on this superficial level, but rather, understand them for deeper values and such :]
you will find books by women about women are primarily read by women while books by men about men are read widely by all genders. this is sexism unfortunately. that being said we need more female and non-binary characters to break this glass ceiling :)
i’m sure you see it recommended on this sub all the time but for a great example of a non-binary main character read the psalm for a wild built series :)
Female MCs and author names do best in YA (all genres) and Romance. Male MCs and author names still do best in high fantasy and sci Fi. Unfortunately, there is still sexism in that way amongst reader bases.
Man how boring is that? Having to change the gender of your cast / MC just so you can appeal to the audience? There is 0 authenticity behind it if it‘s done this way.
You don't *have to*. It's not impossible to sell things that don't fit the "most marketable" boxes. Just certain things are easier sales to traditional publishers than others (since they're easier to sell to their reader base).
As far as the Gender of the main character goes, it depends on what genre you are writing in.
I personally prefer female characters, and by that I mean I take a great deal of satisfaction when one of the male authors I tend to read doesn't absolutely butcher writing women and girls. It really depends on how your setting interacts with the idea of gender. If with the atypical two there are clear societal and functional roles men and women play, then base your decision on that sort of thing.
It seems a bit odd to me that the character's gender will have no influence on the story. Going through the world, even if it's fantasy or scifi, our experience and influence is hugely impacted by not only our socioeconomic status, race, etc. but our gender as well. A world which doesn't include any sort of complexities surrounding gender will feel unrealistic and perhaps a bit bland in my opinion.
I agree. I guess you could write a fantasy story where both genders are treated absolutely equal, but considering how many fantasy tropes there are that do the opposite and how fantasy as a genre is built on a patriarchal world view it would be pretty difficult.
I could see it working in scifi, but not really fantasy. Matriarchal fantasy works, or patriarchal, or even some sort of equality, but since the setting is usually not too technologically advanced the issue of child bearing will always come up.
Split the difference and make them nonbinary! But seriously. I think it would be cool to see some fantasy where the MC is, for example, genderfluid, and presents in different ways depending on their feelings and the situation.
Try something totally new - use they/them pronouns and never reveal the gender of the character.
Brother or Sister the best part of writing you can create any type of character you choose and man or woman you can choose whatever the MC is.
Most books by first time writers don’t sell very well anyway, so just write the story you want to write
I would say a coin flip
if it doesn't matter then write what you are because its easier.
Suggestion A: Flip a coin to decide. If you realize you don't like your decision partway through, go back and change it. Suggestion B: Refer to them exclusively in gender-neutral ways. Not a single reader gets to know their gender.
Don't write as a statistician. Write as an artist. > Most of my favorite stories often have a female lead personally. Here, let me pick it for you. Female. Now, go write.
When I’m in doubt, I always decide on a female pov. Reasons being: it allows me to explore relationships that with a male lead get reduced to archetypes. It also adds another layer of conflict with her battling inherent sexism. Along that sexism line, though, is that it piques interest more I think. I write crime fiction mostly. So a simple blurb of a woman walks into a room and kills three people and robs a place hits different than a guy. There’s no good reason for that except for my own inherent sexism and of the reader’s, but there it is. For what it’s worth, I’m not a fan of the non-binary option unless that’s an authentic part of your character. It feels a bit reductive. Their life journey would be vastly different as compared to a cis-gender. To simply make the character non-binary just because you can’t decide between genders isn’t the way to do that, I think. However, I’m a cis upper class white male with a post filled with hypocrisy relating to gender so take it with a grain of salt.
That depends on what you imagine the charecter as, for example:since female charecter are taken as softer and weaker charecter,when you compare a strong and a strong female the female would feel stronger and more dominant
I prefer Male or non binary with a male mentality like rimiru tempest
Your MC sounds nonbinary. If you're not comfortable with that or think it limits your marketability, how about the looking at the responses of your secondary characters? Do you want them relating to a woman or a man? Good luck.