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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30532
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm going to go out on a limb and say just write the character and let the chips fall where they may. There's a lot going on in the brain and we don't understand this. Although I appreciate some ideas about genetic determinism (aka the need as an animal for basic necessity of life), the fact is that with our brain capacity a large amount of it is, in my own opinion, bunk. That whole google document thing that was written a while back, assuming the basic premise that genetics of male and female determine evolutionary predisposition to STEM fields, it neglects the fact that we didn't evolve to sit in a cube farm for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I'm in the reverse situation, a male writing a female protagonist. I took up the whole project as a challenge because I didn't think I could write convincing women. Low and behold, she's one of my favorite characters I've ever thunk up... and most of her personality is inspired by agender personality traits I admire in various real life and fictional characters (and some flaws because no one's perfect). It's no different than what I would do if I was making a male character. The hardest part... and I mean this truly... is this is the first time I have to understand how dress sizes work... but then, I barely understand men's beyond "I must wear them in public settings". But hey, half the fun of writing for me is learning about new things so I get it right... even if it's fashion... _shutters_ (Ironically, the biggest fashion conscious character in this story is her straight best guy friend.).

Anyway, back on track, if you are considering writing a male protaganist, its' probably going to be for books for guys. If that's the case, the best piece of advice I can give you is not how to write your character, but how to write your own name... use your first and middle initials and last name.

In dating myself a little bit, when I was a kid, the three biggest authors of books kids my age read the hell out of were by R.L. Stine (I personally wasn't a fan, but all my friends were), K.A. Applegate (huge fan!), and J.K. Rowling. All three wrote books that appealed to a male audience more than a female one and are listed in reverse order of number of books sold. The only male author is of course R.L. Stine and for much of the 90s and 00s, the books boys wanted to buy were authored by women and were largely from a male perspective (exclusively in Rowling's case... K.A. Applegate had a 2:1 male female perspective character ratio.).

As a kid, because of the names not betraying the author, I picked them up and read them religiously and thought they were written by men... until I used masculine pronouns to refer to Applegate, and the librarian I was talking to informed me that he was actually a she... and I was like "Oh, that's cool... still like these characters, I'm going to read more." When it happened again with Rowling, my reaction was along the lines of "Got me again... well played."

And again, consider the reverse. Look at how many men absolutely love the latest My Little Pony show unironically. The burning question of many who don't understand why is answered when you stop watching it as a girls show and watch it as a television show that features girls as the core cast... they don't emphasize "Girl Power" or "Battle of the Sexes" and "Girls are just as good as guys". They emphasize positive characters who are more indicative of their personality than they are of their gender. There is not one of the core cast that could easily port that personality into a male character (Okay... Rarity, the Fashion Pony, is hard... but then, have you seen how meticulously obsessive some Star Wars 501st Legion fanboys are about getting their costumes just right?)

Write your character as you see him and don't worry about how masculine he seems. Write your story the way you want it, and don't worry if he seems overly emotional... because at the end of the day, guys might not show it... but we do get scared, we do have doubts... we do worry about things... we might like to pretend we don't but men are not without emotions.

Original score: 3