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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44434
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44434
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think what's tripping you up is the idea that your male characters need to be characters that could not possibly be female. This probably comes from traditions of valuing what men do and devaluing what women do. So many women aspire to do "male" things. Showing them succeed at that can be a way of showing their uniqueness. But very few men aspire to do "female" things, and those that do are either part of a queer subculture and/or are ridiculed for it.

You can't easily have male characters who can just be male because plenty of women have stepped up and done what the men do. But even those women can still also do things that only women do, because men don't step up and do them.

My advice is to forget about someone existing to represent his or her gender and just write unique characters. The way to do that is to fully flesh the character out. Every human on this planet is unique once you get to know them well enough.

Gender is part of someone's character for sure, and all the cultural norms and baggage and qualities will be part of someone's makeup. What s/he does with them is part of what makes him/her unique.

So your male character may or may not do things that are traditionally male. But every breath he takes is infused with his culture, the society he lives in, the expectations of the company he keeps. You don't have to spell this all out (it would get deathly dull), but know that _he_ is aware of it (at least on some level) and it will influence how he acts, what he says, and the choices he makes.

Little things can make all the difference. For example, a man I know well is a feminist, does not fit into American standards of what a man should look like, and couldn't care less about how his sexual orientation is perceived. But give him a task that involves carrying things and he will overload himself to just below the point where he topples over. Especially if the other person(s) who can carry things has an injury (no matter how mild). No extra trips either, if at all possible. And honestly, at least in America, this is such a stereotypical male trait. There are jokes and memes about it. For some reason, this is the masculine hill he dies on.

Your character will never forget he's a man. Even if he chooses not to fit in as one. So ask yourself, does he feel comfortable in his own skin? How does he feel he compares to an ideal man? He may laugh at that, but he still knows. Or he may cringe. Either way, he knows everyone else judges him that way.

Don't look at uniqueness as what a character _does_, but, rather, who s/he is. A female battalion commander may have an unusual position, but it doesn't make her interesting.

Original score: 25