How do I write a male character?

[Anonymous No.8961647]

I'm writing a short story, and I don't know where to begin with writing the male character (no it's not a romance). Should I just give up and write the protagonist as female?

[Anonymous No.8961665]

haha pretty ironic

[Anonymous No.8961680]

>>8961665
I'm honestly trying to get inside the male psyche. That's why I browse 4chan, to understand the male mind a bit more so I can write about it. But I'm stuck in writers block.

[Anonymous No.8961704]

Depends.

Is the character white? Then he's always attempting to oppress or rape everything he sees

Is he non-white? Then he's oppressed by everything he sees and rapes as revenge.

[Anonymous No.8961710]

>>8961647
infuriating image

[Anonymous No.8961727]

>>8961704

Already got a title for the first:

The Adventures of Whitey McRapeDick

[Anonymous No.8961730]

>>8961647
>no Maoism
I'm disappointed.

[Anonymous No.8961734]

>>8961704
I'm not an SJW. I want a genuine male character, not an exaggerated stereotype of crybaby liberals.

[Anonymous No.8961743]

>>8961730
Yeah, I thought that when I saw it. A big fat smug siamese looking cat would be perfect.

[Anonymous No.8961757]

>>8961734
what the hell you talking about? That is a genuine male character.

[Anonymous No.8961773]

>>8961757
So are you admitting that rape is all there is to the male mind?

[Anonymous No.8961779]

>>8961680
Write the character as a person first, then take into consideration the societal expectations for that character: how he is expected to act, think, do, ect. How would he personally deal with these expectations shapes his individuality. Read some Raymond Carver stories and pay attention to how his characters act and why they act.

[Anonymous No.8961785]

>>8961773
Yeah, they should have taught you that in like the third grade.

[Anonymous No.8961796]

>>8961773
well rape is just sort of a hobby, oppression is like numero uno.

[Anonymous No.8961800]

>>8961785
Funny, I always disregarded that teaching and thought men were complex beings. Guess I owe saint intersectional feminism an apology.

[Anonymous No.8961806]

>>8961647
he has a giant dick and his balls are fat

[Anonymous No.8961808]

>>8961800

The only complex men out there are serial killers and trannys

[Anonymous No.8961819]

>>8961808
But trannies are -women- silly.

[Anonymous No.8961824]

>>8961808
serial killers are just men with initiative. If they could, men would kill as many people as possible.

[Anonymous No.8961888]

>>8961647
Like you would write a woman, but add reason and accountability.
Maybe it would help if you could describe the kind of character you're going for?

[Anonymous No.8961896]

>>8961888

He's a college guy, without many friends or hobbies or anything, and the story is just following him around in a typical day of his life, as he does mostly nothing and contemplates the universe and stuff.

It's a pretty original idea, I think.

[Anonymous No.8961900]

>>8961888
Well, it's kind of an exploration of alienation. But women can reason. It's only society that means they are devoid of accountability, most women would develop it if it were expected of them, but it's not.

[Anonymous No.8961902]

>>8961900
disregard this troll.

-op

[Anonymous No.8961904]

>>8961896
Excuse me. That is not me. I am OP.

[Anonymous No.8961911]

>>8961902
Could you GTFO my thread please.

[Anonymous No.8962000]

>>8961900
Probably not exactly what you're looking for, but check out thelastpsychiatrist.
He has written quite a few articles dealing with the male (narcissist) psyche.
You might get some inspiration out of it.

[Anonymous No.8962014]

Honestly, writing a book about this god forsaken site would probably be a bestseller if you're interested OP. People love schadenfreude, and would love to understand this bogeyman.

[Anonymous No.8962018]

>>8962000
Thanks.

[Anonymous No.8962026]

>>8961900
He did an inverse of a quote from the romantic-comedy film As Good As It Gets.

[Anonymous No.8962129]

>>8961647
Non-troll answer here because I get a sadistic thrill out of watching people try to write non-shit literature.

Disclaimer: these are all generalizations. They are not true for all guys, and don't have to be true for your character (probably shouldn't make him a generic John Doe).

1) Guys are less emotional.
This is trivially true, although a little more complex than a single sentence makes it out to be. Men are capable of experiencing things and not feeling any emotional response: its not just that we don't show emotion, we literally don't feel anything. This isn't across the board, and different men have different things that they can glaze over, and other things that will trigger them every time. With really traumatic events this works a little differently. A man might not show or feel any emotion immediately when his wife leaves him, but an hour later he'll be alone in a bar trying to black out. Still waters run deep, etc. And finally, guys aren't always very good at understanding their own emotions, so sometimes they think they don't feel anything towards a big tragedy, but unconsciously they do. This will either subtly influence the way they act in the future, or come out all at once if they're pushed beyond breaking. So for example if the guy whose wife left him gets made fun of by his friends for it, he'll probably just shrug it off, but he won't laugh with them like he usually does about jokes in his expense. And if his wife's new boyfriend even comes near him, he might snap and punch the guy in the face. This is a little exaggerated, but so is all fiction.

2) Guys are capable of thinking about nothing.
Idk if this is true across the board but almost all the women I've asked about the subject have said they always have something on their mind. Almost all men are capable of unfocusing their eyes and not thinking of anything at all pretty much whenever we want. This is an easy way to ignore things that are unpleasant and unnecessary, or just chill for a few minutes. This doesn't necessarily need to come into your story, but feel free to tone down the overall stress level/perceptiveness of your character to match. Those are the two things that I usually notice connected to this. Again, less sure about this one, so if I sound like a retard here just ignore this.

3) Guys don't always think about sex.
Again, this is more nuanced than a single sentence. I'm not going to -not- appreciate a fine ass as it sways by, but I also don't spend my time hypothesizing about sleeping with every female I come across. Unless your guy is written to be a narcissist/sexist/immature you can pretty much leave sex out of the equation. Not that I'm assuming you'd write like that, but just in case, here's your warning not to.

Lmk if this is helpful or not, or if you have any questions or whatever. Also post the story when its done.

[Anonymous No.8962156]

>>8961647
>trotskyism, fascism, situationism, and nihilism so grumpy
most moe ideology cat girls tbqh

[Anonymous No.8962171]

>>8962129
So a lot of male emotion is channelled into rage or jealousy? I thought a lot of men have a kind of, undefinable sadness and isolation.

>Idk if this is true across the board
It's not, I do that too.
>Guys don't always think about sex
I've always kind of hoped that this was true, so thanks for confirming it.

Thank you for the genuine reply.

[Anonymous No.8962202]

>>8962171
Browse /r9k/ for a couple of minutes.

[Anonymous No.8962215]

>>8962129
I love that filename

[Anonymous No.8962219]

>>8962171
It depends a lot on the guy. Rage and jealousy are definitely much more male things, but honestly you could look at them as a mask for the sadness/isolation you mentioned. It's difficult to build a relationship with someone to the point that you actually open up to them: with a woman by the time you get that close you're sleeping together and then you don't want to risk driving her away by your failings. If its a guy and you open up to him he'll make fun of you to cover up his own sadness. Guys tend to have a lot more machoness/bravado, but the same or even more insecurity, which we cover up with the bravado again.

It's a little difficult to try to define because like I said before these are all generalizations. There are men who fulfill every single worst stereotype and there are men who fulfill every best stereotype. Just take these as guidelines I guess.

>I've always kind of hoped that this was true, so thanks for confirming it.
Don't get me wrong, there are some guys who are constantly thinking about sex. They're almost all early-twenties frat boy douches. We do jump to sex quicker than women, but its not like a constant mental pornhub 24/7.

Idk, this is difficult to write. Not something I think about often. Maybe also consider how shitty men are at introspection/self-understanding.

Not joking about posting the story, I wanna read it.

[Anonymous No.8962228]

>>8962171
>I thought a lot of men have a kind of, undefinable sadness and isolation.
A certain kind of man does, i.e. the losers. Men are just as sensitive to social status as women are but their status in society is much more stratified; the highs are higher, the lows are lower, and the divisions are clearer. What that amounts to is, if you're on one of the lower rungs, it hits you hard, and very often you have no one to go to for emotional support because society hates weak men. A lot of men do feel emotions, but repress them because maybe their parents or a girlfriend would get irritated with them whenever they acted like a wuss.

[Anonymous No.8962242]

>>8962219
I've found that with female friendships, emotional connections are what they're founded upon, whereas male ones tend to be about having humour or politics or interests in common.

Conversely women take this to a fault, and only talk around problems wanting to blame anyone but themselves and not seeking actual solutions. I don't have many female friends because I find it annoying.

Is it true that men tend to rely on their gfs or wives for emotional support? That's what I've found in my limited experience (my dad with my mum, and my bf with me).

>Not joking about posting the story, I wanna read it.
I'll consider it, if it's any good.

[Anonymous No.8962258]

>>8962242
>Is it true that men tend to rely on their gfs or wives for emotional support?
I'd say that many men see their wife/gf as the only acceptable emotional outlet, and having to rely on anybody else would indicate a weakness or failure on the man's part. Sometimes a man isn't even comfortable opening up to his wife.

[Anonymous No.8962263]

>>8962228
I would say most girls would love it if their bf would actually DEAL with issues within the relationship though, instead of the whole 'ignore it and it'll go away' approach.

[Anonymous No.8962281]

>>8962263
It's not that black or white. Guys are taught that they need to endure unpleasantness and adapt. Whining about trivial things, unfamiliarity, minor annoyances, etc... it's not considered manly. Guys are working in the mindset that if they are uncomfortable with their environment then they just need to man up and get used to it. Which works until it doesn't.

[Anonymous No.8962283]

>>8962242
>Is it true that men tend to rely on their gfs or wives for emotional support?
Yes. Men sometimes have emotionally deep relationships, but its rare and constantly getting rarer. It already kinda looks gay, and our society is looking down on that kind of relationship. Most men who do have that kind of connection are older men who either grew up in another era/culture or are just too old to give a fuck anymore. When you have a person in your life who is emotionally receptive it's usually a girlfriend, and then she's the only one (because you're not going to get that close to more than one woman at a time you cheating bastard) and so all of your emotional burdens end up on her. Or just kept to yourself.

In general men usually aren't in emotionally deep relationships without sex being involved, but I don't think that's inherent to the male psyche. It's a social thing, its why (normie reference incoming) in Sherlock they spend so much time establishing that Holmes and Watson aren't gay, just close friends. It's something almost alien to our culture at this point.

[Anonymous No.8962294]

>>8962129
>2) Guys are capable of thinking about nothing.
I wouldn't say this is particularly true. Maybe I'm not knowledgeable about women enough to compare, but it's not as though we can naturally enter a meditative state whenever we want.
It's true we can rather easily ignore unpleasant stuff though.

[Anonymous No.8962296]

Is your character white?
If so make him super racist and a sexual deviant who does nothing but rape women and oppress minorities all day

[Anonymous No.8962302]

>not just basing your characters off people you know in real life

Are you guys kidding me? This is the easiest shit ever. Creating a complex human character from scratch is too much work for what it's worth

[Anonymous No.8962317]

>>8962171
I can confirm the only emotion I ever feel anymore ranges from frustration to blind rage

I can't remember the last time I actually felt happy or sad about something, hell, my grandmother died 2 weeks ago and I felt nothing

[Anonymous No.8962322]

>>8961896
my diary desu

[Anonymous No.8962329]

>>8961896
Literally my life

[Anonymous No.8962332]

>>8961680
Whoa whoa whoa, hold the fuck up

The 4chan spectrum of the male psyche is the WRONG FUCKING PSYCHE to be trying to put into your stories.

Nobody wants to read a story about a meta-poisoned overly sarcastic betafuckboy!

[Anonymous No.8962335]

>>8962281
I suppose. But relationships often fail because a man cannot deal with issues, while a women wants only to talk about issues. Both are at fault and need to move closer to each other's viewpoint to actually make it work.

[Anonymous No.8962340]

>>8962317
yeah with guys, disappointment doesn't really manifest as sadness, it becomes frustration or anger which gets repressed and feeds into depression

I can feel sad, and I enjoy the feeling, but it only really happens when I experience a tragic story. Never something in my own life

[Anonymous No.8962341]

>>8962332
>The 4chan spectrum of the male psyche is the WRONG FUCKING PSYCHE to be trying to put into your stories

chad pls leave

[Anonymous No.8962349]

>>8962332
So I should write about some bonehead Chad?

[Anonymous No.8962354]

Men are very similar to women, but in the west it seems they are quicker to anger and more prideful, as well as more outwardly abrasive.

[Anonymous No.8962360]

>>8962349
chads are heroic
4chan anons should be cast as evil wizards or traitors

[Anonymous No.8962364]

>>8961647
read the Catcher in the Rye, you dumb ho

[Anonymous No.8962370]

>>8961896
Fucking awesome, solid idea man!

>>8961900
This idea kinda sucks

[Anonymous No.8962371]

>>8962340
I was clinically depressed around 4 years ago to the point that I couldn't get out of bed in the morning and I was seriously loading up a shotgun multiple times a day with the pretext of blowing my head off, but I never did, and then it kind of just went away

>I can feel sad, and I enjoy the feeling, but it only really happens when I experience a tragic story. Never something in my own life

I can't say I'm the same, I almost never get any emotional response from stories

[Anonymous No.8962379]

>>8962371
she's asking for advice about an actual male character. Not some beta who's only male in a genetic sense.

[Anonymous No.8962380]

>>8962360
But nothing actually goes on in a Chad's mind aside from 'lol fuck bitches' 'look at my rolex and expensive car' 'my muscle mass makes up for the lack of brain mass'.

I am OP by the way, not some triggered beta. I just don't like and would never fuck or date a Chad.

[Anonymous No.8962383]

>>8962349
Find a solid middle ground. Nobody wants to read Chad's Big Book of Fucking, but nobody wants to read True Confessions of a Jacking-It-to-Elliot-Rodger Robot either. There are some parts of chan psyche that I would cringe to see in print.

[Anonymous No.8962386]

>>8962380
that's what makes Chad successful in life
brain mass is overrated
a university football coach has a higher salary than the dean

[Anonymous No.8962387]

>>8962370
Isn't most /lit/ about alienation in some form or other? She didn't state any plot details. You can't say it sucks yet.

[Anonymous No.8962388]

Literally just be yourself

[Anonymous No.8962392]

>53 replies and 5 images omitted. Click here to view.

[Anonymous No.8962398]

>>8962392
>not clicking here to view

[Anonymous No.8962414]

>write female character
>add integrity, reliability, intelligence, a sense of humour, honour, duty, and comradery
>voila, instant male character

[Anonymous No.8962423]

>>8961647
The archetype of all men is Odysseus. I don't know if you've read the Odyssey, but he is trapped on goddess Calypso's island for like 7 years, and during that period everyone at home forgets about him, not because they think he is dead (they don't know that), but because they don't hear about him. And when you don't hear about a man, he is forgotten. When you do hear about him, it means that he has proven himself, probably as a warrior. Now, a man has to constantly prove himself in society, whereas a woman just is. What happened to Odysseus on that island is that he sat on a rock by the sea everyday contemplating his life. He stopped being a man of action, and became a man of contemplation. That's why he had to go home and kill all those men and prove himself again.
Another thing that happened to him on that island is something called regressus ad uterum. That is an unconscious wish of every man to go back to the uterus, because that's the place where he felt most comfortable. Being on that island felt like being in the uterus again. But a man in the uterus is completely incompetent and dependent on a woman. The uterus is a safe place, but he has to go home and fight for his woman and regain his position in society. I could go on, but I strongly recommend you read it. Knowledge of the archetypes is indispensable when writing.

[Anonymous No.8962447]

>>8962379
>tfw I share a chromosome with >>8962371

[Anonymous No.8962464]

>>8962447
everyone shares a chromosome with that guy
that's how chromosomes work

[Anonymous No.8962471]

>>8962447
>>8962464
Sorry my dudes

[Anonymous No.8962476]

>>8962464
>tfw I share a chromosome with >>8962464

[Anonymous No.8962480]

>>8962341
>>8962349
I can't believe I had to google what the fuck you were talking about.

See OP, this is exactly the kind of bug-chasing meme faggotry I was talking about.

You want your readers to constantly have to smash Enter and find knowyourmeme to find out what the fuck Jacob Elliot said on page 5? That shit ain't fun. It just makes you hungry, and regret spending so much time reading 4chan level authors like Laini Taylor put doge memes in her romantic prose.

Makes me fucking King of the Ill.

[Anonymous No.8962514]

>>8962380
A Chad would never want to date you, you delusional fucking idiot.

[Anonymous No.8962537]

>>8962480
>Being so much of a newfag that you don't know who Chad is in 2017

[Anonymous No.8962707]

>>8962423
nice analysis m8. a little freudian tho. can you recc a good translation?

[Anonymous No.8962844]

>>8962414
I have met very few men with intelligence, reliability or any sense of humour, any sense of duty, and only a perverse sense of honour.

[Anonymous No.8962849]

>>8962707
No, sorry, English isn't my mother tongue

[Anonymous No.8962852]

>>8962514
I wasn't under the impression that Chads had any standards, so, provided she's reasonably attractive, why not?