Male characters

[The Dark One]

I'll stick Name of the Wind right there for the most over-rated... And Anything Harry Potter, but at least I was way out of the target audience for Potter by the time those came out. NotW I had great hopes for, and despite trying to read it several times, I just can't. But! That's the beauty of personal opinions, they run the gamut. In fairness, I have tried to reread many books I read when young and loved (Sword of Shannara, cough cough) that do not hold up to my current standards. I actively resist going back to read most everything I loved in my teens and pre-English Lit days.

I read a lot (and fairly quickly) so I have no problem re-reading stuff I liked. It's interesting how much you pick up on a second or third pass that you missed the first time. Especially books with a decent twist or two - really interesting to re-read and analyse how the twists were set up when you know what's coming.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

It isn't story, it's the writing as much as anything. I can read the Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and The Name of the Rose over and over. Which is funny because some Umberto Eco will knock me into a nap faster than crap, heh heh. My trouble is that there isn't much I like enough for the time sink; when I have the time to read, I should be writing and editing. I already suck at sitting still, so my sitting still time is pretty much writing, LMAO.

I read a lot (and fairly quickly) so I have no problem re-reading stuff I liked. It's interesting how much you pick up on a second or third pass that you missed the first time. Especially books with a decent twist or two - really interesting to re-read and analyse how the twists were set up when you know what's coming.

 

[Super Fantasy]

Guards or innkeepers are often male in my writings.

 

[Vafnir]

Just like pmmg , I find myself struggling with making male characters interesting. My WIP has two female MCs (which even end up together down the road) and one male MC. I personally find the female ones pretty captivating with their multifaceted personalities, but the male seems rather bland. In general, I think I'm doing a goodo job with my female characters. And while I have endlessly endlessly many ideas for intriguing female (or even intersex and non-binary, which are also present in my story) characters, my male characters, most of the time, end up being the calm, rational and pragmatic type. I find it weird, because this is also the complete opposite of my personality, I'm rather loud and mostly emotion-driven, so at least I'm not writing myself into these characters too much.

 

[pmmg]

I should add. This is my experience writing them. Rewriting, i cant tell the difference in interest i had. When i am done. They will all still look good.

 

[LittleOwlbear]

I love seeing and creating male characters that are not stoic, masculine guy. There are some that I like at least, but when I think about male characters I love, then I think of expressive and emotional ones first, and aren't shying away from typical feminine traits either. Whether they are queer or not.

Of course they shouldn't be treated like the butt of the joke.
Media had done this a lot. IF there exists a male character in the cast, who's not 100 % gender-conforming and got more to say than two, three sentences, at all.
It's always good to see more feminine to androgynous guys, both in behavior and / or appearance, to be one of the main characters.
Doesn't mean that masculine traits are an inherent no-go, but it's the mix and how authors portray them.
Recently I loved a lot Gustave from Clair Obscure haha

I wouldn't even say only male authors run into these issues. The toxic alpha men written by women are poisoning the romance genre...
But it also refers to men written by male authors: I just can't stand that chauvinistic guy from Name of the Wind, couldn't get further and dropped it.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

A handy tip I learned from people here (and elsewhere)

Don't write them as men/women, specifically write them as "people" who also happen to be whatever gender.

I still struggle to write interesting (to me) males a bit but thinking about it that way has helped loads. I do think readers will like the male characters I come up with? It still kinda hard to get along with them though hehe.

Particularly when I don't use bits of myself or a page from TV Tropes as part of their DNA.
Weirdly I find female characters more engaging to write. They tend to have a lot more energy than my male characters naturally do. (though I do have a few energetic guys) I try my best with Male Protagonists and have a lot of fun with Male Villains

 

[LittleOwlbear]

A handy tip I learned from people here (and elsewhere)

Don't write them as men/women, specifically write them as "people" who also happen to be whatever gender.

I still struggle to write interesting (to me) males a bit but thinking about it that way has helped loads. I do think readers will like the male characters I come up with? It still kinda hard to get along with them though hehe.

That's one of the beautiful things in a fantasy world: if you don't have the same societal structures going on like you do in the real world, just writing people is easier.

There doesn't need to be "well, men are just like that, they never talk about feelings" to write men with emotional constipation, because people falsely believe there is a biological reason behind that.

In the real world tho, it does matter, unfortunately. Just about men: the more they stray away from the typical picture of masculinity, the more issues they get with other men. Even with women, who had been raised with a very patriarchal mindset.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

That's one of the beautiful things in a fantasy world: if you don't have the same societal structures going on like you do in the real world, just writing people is easier.

There doesn't need to be "well, men are just like that, they never talk about feelings" to write men with emotional constipation, because people falsely believe there is a biological reason behind that.

Nothing wrong with that if the plot demands it. Maybe the man in question has some sort of trauma he's not comfortable sharing, for example.
Though I agree people rely on that stereotype a lot for some reason. You might be singling that out because you dislike it though. We have a term in gaming (I forget the actual term though) where you only remember the negative things. I've seen tons of interesting males in the games I play. And a good amount of them don't rely on that trope.

I have both a personality disorder and a Physical disorder, it's hard for me to communicate about "personal" matters in certain cases, despite my vocabulary.

I'm currently writing a Male Protagonist who's quite fun. Not so much in the 'he's energetic and out going' way. But he's a 'stoic' who (surprisingly to me) is perfectly capable of sharing his thoughts/feelings, especially when pressed to do so by those close to him. He doesn't always say what I expect him to say, but a lot of the times he's still in character. Also it's fun to throw him into situations where he needs to be social, his reactions are genuinely funny (to me at least) sometimes. Sometimes if he's absolutely 'stuck' on something he'll actually ask those close to him for advise, which, not normally something a Stoic would do. (This is something he does naturally when I go with the 'flow' which surprises me)

He's a bit of an odd duck, in his mind everything is some kind of cryptic puzzle, especially social norms. BUT he's willing to explain that's just how his mind works. A lot of characters he interacts with pretty much understand this because he explains it so frankly, it also results in some funny situations too. The funny part is I made his teammates as energetic as possible (at varying levels and types) so he has to get used to socializing at some point lol

In the real world tho, it does matter, unfortunately. Just about men: the more they stray away from the typical picture of masculinity, the more issues they get with other men. Even with women, who had been raised with a very patriarchal mindset.

I think this depends a lot on who you're interacting with, especially social groups or 'cliques' (I believe that's the word) of any kind.

It used to be that 'Gaming' as a hobby was seen as a 'nerdy' thing (And by nerdy I mean the classic pop bottle glasses, pocket protector etc nerd, a trope which also seems to have faded.) but in more recent years that stereotype has seemed to have faded. (By a good amount too!) I saw a clip from a more recent live action TV series where one of the characters (who wasn't 'nerdy' in the slightest) gets a girl he likes to come into his dorm by asking if she wants to play Xenoblade lol