How to Write a Female Character As a Male
Writing believable, three-dimensional, well-fleshed out characters is a challenge for every writer. Understanding gender differences between female and male characters is important, but most writers will tell you that the character's personality and motivation comes first, and their gender second. The secret to writing believable female or male characters, particularly when changing their gender in a story, is to focus on them as a good, solid characters first, and whatever their gender expression is second.
Instructions
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Consider your character's personality. If you've avoided stereotyping her with cliché feminine characteristics throughout the story, it should be relatively easy to shift her personality to male. Ultimately, personality should be developed with a nod to gender when writing characters, not the other way around.
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Think about her setting, and how the other characters interact with her. A story set in Elizabethan England will have certain ingrained cultural attitudes toward men and women, which you'll need to take into account when changing gender. Alternatively, a character-driven story set in modern times will require more subtle cultural indication in respect to gender.
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Examine her motivation. If there is a romantic motivation, you may need to switch the gender of her love interest (or not). If multiple characters are romantically entangled, you may need to consider how their respective sexual orientations will now play out in the story.
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Avoid the pitfall of using stereotypes to indicate the gender of your character. Not only is it lazy writing, but it creates single-dimension characters that can't appeal to a wide range of readership.
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Go through your story and change any details that reference your character's gender. Pronouns, other characters referring to her gender, and gendered words should all be found and changed for continuity.
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References
- Photo Credit writer on the tracks image by Trevor Goodwin from Fotolia.com
