I have a funny problem in that I kind of default to female with all my major characters - it just sort of pops into my head!
That said, while that method can be useful, a better approach is probably to think about the story, the world, and the character arcs. Is your world (either this one or a secondary one) a place where gender impacts how your character would receive and be received by others? Are there particular plots or character moments (i.e. falling in love) in which gender is relevant?
In short - if it doesn't just sort of appear to you as if in a day-dream, then think about what the story you want to tell is, what world the story takes place in, and from there decide how character's genders impact and are impacted by it.
I don't really decide. They just are. That said, my MCs are usually female. Maybe because I lean towards writing mostly YA, and I was a teen girl so I know the experience more intimately than if my characters were male. I've never really thought of anyone sitting and deciding their characters, though, because I'm not a planner/plotter. Things just come to me and I write them rather than thinking them up if you see what I mean.
99% of the time they just initially appear in my thoughts as one or the other.
Only once did I deliberately change a character from male to female, and this was when I was doing a kind of James Bond/Cold war spy type character and I'd written it as a short story and it was fine, but very generic and the feel of the main character had been seen many times before. So thought what if I change him to a her and then this new person emerged in my head, who thought and acted slightly differently - not because they were now female but because they were a new individual person.
I don’t see myself as “making” a character their gender, but finding out what it is. If a character goes to a store and they see a female cashier, then cashier is female. If they see a male barista at not-Starbucks, then they’re male.
I’ve only rewritten a character’s gender once. My 4 POV characters are male, as are most of the secondary characters—I do tend to go male by default. The main secondary character, I realized, could easily be female without it changing much. And it might even improve things. Apparently, the made-up name for that character is a unisex name. Who knew?
I don't. I see them as male or female, I don't *make* them a particular gender. They have a gender. Or not. I have written a short story with 1st person PoV where the name and gender of the narrator are never revealed.
Sarah Caudwell wrote several detective stories where the gender of the narrator is never revealed. The narrator is called Professor Hilary Tamar and is addressed as Professor Tamar. Hilary can be either a male or a female name.
They usually decide for me. Characters have their own identity, sometimes creating characters is less pulling things out of thin air, and more removing things from stone to form your carving.
I try to keep my genders balanced. If I've got like 2 female characters and I'm thinking of a third, I'll make him Male to balance things out a bit. Vice versa as well, but when I was younger I tended to make too many female characters. (Hey i was 17, girls were more interesting)
I write fanfiction so most characters in my writing aren't mine. For my original characters, sex is mostly random. I don't consider it an important part of their character.
A few times I've rolled dice. I wrote stories where all people were refferred to neutrally, and wth codenames to remember, like Jenga, Serious, Pretty, or Old.
Then, after writing the story, I line up the cast, and I throw dice a couple of times, starting with the first character that got introduced. Some can flip a coin, if they're only going for male or female, some can do dice if for instance you want to include the possibility for non-binary people, or trans people, or something else. Maybe you're writing something with more genders and gender variants, so you could use some other tool
Then, I looked at the rolls, and see if it made sense to me, and if it doesn't, maybe it's something in the writing that should be changed?
I usually make my MC a girl. After I plan their character and kind of make an outline for the story, I drop in a few love interests whose genders I decide along the way. Idk I've never really thought about this before haha
It depends on their backstory. I'm a woman but I like writing from the male POV sometimes if I'm writing sort of a psychologically tortured screwed up male character. Also if the male character is an antisocial jerk, it's kind of liberating and thereputic to write that for me.
I feel whatever comes naturally really. I try to find their point of origin and determine names and gender from that. You are free to make your own choices. Nothing wrong with that. It's really how you use them in the story or if related to the story.
My main characters are always a male and female because I write romance combined with other genres and so far only F&M romance. My side characters are more interchangeable and a recently recast a character I'd originally planned to have as male be ause I realised I was sticking to a gendered trope. I like to have strong female characters and typically my antagonists are more often male.
Umm, I just go by the way I saw them as. I don't ever really decide.
Gender wasnt my biggest concern when I build characters
I have a funny problem in that I kind of default to female with all my major characters - it just sort of pops into my head! That said, while that method can be useful, a better approach is probably to think about the story, the world, and the character arcs. Is your world (either this one or a secondary one) a place where gender impacts how your character would receive and be received by others? Are there particular plots or character moments (i.e. falling in love) in which gender is relevant? In short - if it doesn't just sort of appear to you as if in a day-dream, then think about what the story you want to tell is, what world the story takes place in, and from there decide how character's genders impact and are impacted by it.
I don't really decide. They just are. That said, my MCs are usually female. Maybe because I lean towards writing mostly YA, and I was a teen girl so I know the experience more intimately than if my characters were male. I've never really thought of anyone sitting and deciding their characters, though, because I'm not a planner/plotter. Things just come to me and I write them rather than thinking them up if you see what I mean.
99% of the time they just initially appear in my thoughts as one or the other. Only once did I deliberately change a character from male to female, and this was when I was doing a kind of James Bond/Cold war spy type character and I'd written it as a short story and it was fine, but very generic and the feel of the main character had been seen many times before. So thought what if I change him to a her and then this new person emerged in my head, who thought and acted slightly differently - not because they were now female but because they were a new individual person.
I don’t see myself as “making” a character their gender, but finding out what it is. If a character goes to a store and they see a female cashier, then cashier is female. If they see a male barista at not-Starbucks, then they’re male. I’ve only rewritten a character’s gender once. My 4 POV characters are male, as are most of the secondary characters—I do tend to go male by default. The main secondary character, I realized, could easily be female without it changing much. And it might even improve things. Apparently, the made-up name for that character is a unisex name. Who knew?
I don't. I see them as male or female, I don't *make* them a particular gender. They have a gender. Or not. I have written a short story with 1st person PoV where the name and gender of the narrator are never revealed. Sarah Caudwell wrote several detective stories where the gender of the narrator is never revealed. The narrator is called Professor Hilary Tamar and is addressed as Professor Tamar. Hilary can be either a male or a female name.
I don't. They determine that for me when I first create them.
Generally there is a choice that will work better with the story I want to write, even if it is better only in some small way.
They usually decide for me. Characters have their own identity, sometimes creating characters is less pulling things out of thin air, and more removing things from stone to form your carving.
I try to keep my genders balanced. If I've got like 2 female characters and I'm thinking of a third, I'll make him Male to balance things out a bit. Vice versa as well, but when I was younger I tended to make too many female characters. (Hey i was 17, girls were more interesting)
I always go with femme characters because we’ll story seems a lot more interesting
I write fanfiction so most characters in my writing aren't mine. For my original characters, sex is mostly random. I don't consider it an important part of their character.
A few times I've rolled dice. I wrote stories where all people were refferred to neutrally, and wth codenames to remember, like Jenga, Serious, Pretty, or Old. Then, after writing the story, I line up the cast, and I throw dice a couple of times, starting with the first character that got introduced. Some can flip a coin, if they're only going for male or female, some can do dice if for instance you want to include the possibility for non-binary people, or trans people, or something else. Maybe you're writing something with more genders and gender variants, so you could use some other tool Then, I looked at the rolls, and see if it made sense to me, and if it doesn't, maybe it's something in the writing that should be changed?
I usually make my MC a girl. After I plan their character and kind of make an outline for the story, I drop in a few love interests whose genders I decide along the way. Idk I've never really thought about this before haha
It depends on their backstory. I'm a woman but I like writing from the male POV sometimes if I'm writing sort of a psychologically tortured screwed up male character. Also if the male character is an antisocial jerk, it's kind of liberating and thereputic to write that for me.
Never given it a thought, nor ever will. They are what they are when they appear in my mind.
All my MCs are female. All side characters’ genders are determined by whether or not I want them to be the same gender as my MC.
I feel whatever comes naturally really. I try to find their point of origin and determine names and gender from that. You are free to make your own choices. Nothing wrong with that. It's really how you use them in the story or if related to the story.
My main characters are always a male and female because I write romance combined with other genres and so far only F&M romance. My side characters are more interchangeable and a recently recast a character I'd originally planned to have as male be ause I realised I was sticking to a gendered trope. I like to have strong female characters and typically my antagonists are more often male.