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Main Characters, poll
Main Character... male or female?
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Total Votes: 19
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emberfly
post Aug 14 2009, 04:21 PM
Post #1


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Usually when I am assigned to write stories for creative writing or English, I always make the main character female. Why? I have no idea.

I have created a poll. Is your main character usually a male or female?

This can apply to regular sentences, too. In my school, instead of defining vocabulary or key terms, we sometimes have to use those words in a sentence. My sentences usually have a feminine subject.
 
brooklyneast05
post Aug 14 2009, 04:30 PM
Post #2


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my main character was a guy probably 98% of the time. if it wasn't a guy, it was usually a dog as the subject. even now when we make up sentences for my italian class my teacher routinely comments that i need to use women subjects so i can practice forming sentences in the feminine.
 
batman
post Aug 14 2009, 05:20 PM
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Oddly enough, whenever it's for school, my main character is a guy. Whenever I'm writing a story just for fun, though, it's always a girl.
 
schizo
post Aug 14 2009, 10:23 PM
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Mine's always a guy. I always feel like female leads have to have some sort of silly, irritating problems. That's why I can't watch TV shows revolving around a woman character, either. Maybe it's just because I haven't read enough books with tough broads as main characters to balance out the emotional ones...I don't know. shrug.gif
 
mipadi
post Aug 15 2009, 01:18 PM
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I never really thought about it, but most of my writing has male main characters. I think it's most due to a few reasons: (1) I'm a guy, and you should write what you know, and I don't know much about being a girl; (b) most of the situations that drove the plot were things that guys typically found themselves in; and (iii) a lot of my characters were loosely based on myself or other people around me that I knew well. That's not to say I've never had a female lead, but I guess it's rare.

But I think if I had a female lead, my writing would just ring hollow, because I don't know exactly what women think or feel about some situations, or what they worry about most of the time, etc.
 
Geheroe
post Oct 7 2009, 09:14 AM
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I'm a girl and normally have guy characters. Females just irritate me ._.
 
synapse
post Oct 7 2009, 02:45 PM
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QUOTE(mipadi @ Aug 15 2009, 02:18 PM) *
I never really thought about it, but most of my writing has male main characters. I think it's most due to a few reasons: (1) I'm a guy, and you should write what you know, and I don't know much about being a girl; (b) most of the situations that drove the plot were things that guys typically found themselves in; and (iii) a lot of my characters were loosely based on myself or other people around me that I knew well. That's not to say I've never had a female lead, but I guess it's rare.

But I think if I had a female lead, my writing would just ring hollow, because I don't know exactly what women think or feel about some situations, or what they worry about most of the time, etc.

Does this suggest you know some?
 
creole
post Oct 7 2009, 02:49 PM
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As retro as it sounds, my protagonist always turns out to be a male. Why? Maybe because I just think it's cliché for a heroine to be the lead role. I mean they're bad ass and all, but I have had enough heroine experiences in horror movies.
 
*Janette*
post Nov 6 2009, 04:38 AM
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Mine are always male. Not really sure why. lol
 
Gigi
post Nov 6 2009, 04:43 AM
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Pretty much always female. And I almost always wrote from personal experience (a lot of it was made up though, but based on true events), so it makes sense to do it from a girl's perspective. I always feel like I'm lying to someone when I write about a dude.
 
Butterface89
post Oct 1 2010, 10:44 AM
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QUOTE(Beenly @ Oct 7 2009, 02:49 PM) *
As retro as it sounds, my protagonist always turns out to be a male. Why? Maybe because I just think it's cliché for a heroine to be the lead role. I mean they're bad ass and all, but I have had enough heroine experiences in horror movies.



You know, what you said was interesting...about horror movies and female leads. I love horror myself but there's one thing that bothers me about them (and that is 'always' present in them), and that is the constant female nudity. So it's like when I think of female characters introduced into many movies, I think ...well, the film's producers need some nudity in this to sell more tickets (which is their prerogative; it's 'their' movie). That's not in 'all' films, but in a 'lot' of films....and...I'm rambling so let me get back on topic.

The female characters seem to be relegated to providing nude scenes or just waiting at home in the movie, wondering where the main male lead is- her husband or boyfriend- while he's off on his many adventures. It's boring. And it's always the same (with the exception of characters like Ripley from Aliens, and some other landmark characters, maybe).

But, instead of complaining, I just decided I'll write the kinds of characters I'd like to see.
 
Butterface89
post Oct 1 2010, 10:52 AM
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QUOTE(emberfly @ Aug 14 2009, 04:21 PM) *
Usually when I am assigned to write stories for creative writing or English, I always make the main character female. Why? I have no idea.

I have created a poll. Is your main character usually a male or female?

This can apply to regular sentences, too. In my school, instead of defining vocabulary or key terms, we sometimes have to use those words in a sentence. My sentences usually have a feminine subject.


Chuck Paluniuk, the author of Fight Club, said he had some struggles with writing a 'male' lead because he was told that mostly middle-aged women read, and what they read were those romance novels. I think 'Harlequin' or something? Idk. So he said something like he was a bit scared while creating these male leads for his story, and in essence, writing for men.
 

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