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For some reason, when I find myself writing a male protagonist, I seem to default to the brooding, gritty kind of man that could easily find his place into a noir novel. Those characters are often shaped by something in their past, some mistake that they regret, or something in society that they deeply distrust. To be fair, I've been told that I write that kind of character well, in a believable way; so thumbs up for what might be an earned skill.

Yet, all my male characters **can't** sound the same. I want to be able to write more hopeful characters, light hearted characters, characters who can crack a joke and make the audience chuckle, characters that stay positive without sounding childish. *It can't be raining all the time!*

Yet, I'm at loss. I don't quite know where to begin. Part of me fears that "light hearted" will be instantly equated to "stupid, clueless" for the audience point of view.

In short:

# How do you write believable, light-hearted characters?

P.S. First draft of this question was specifically about writing light hearted *male* characters, since at least in my case I have less trouble having a more diverse, emotionally wise, female cast. I didn't include it since it won't probably bey relevant to the answerers.