Cat Fight In The Kitchen-Wattpad Rant

Things Writers Should Do With Male Characters

Where have I been? Busy. But let's talk about: Things Writers Should Do With Male Characters

1. Realize that males can have emotions

I feel like everyone always focuses on the big emotions, like how it's okay for guys to cry, and I like that. I'm on board with letting our male characters cry. Why not?

I'm also on board with them feeling other things. I'm telling you, arrogance and aggression are the only two emotions I ever see a male character have on Wattpad. But why can't they get jealous? Why can't they get annoyed? Why can't they be bouncing off the walls happy? We attach crying to the word "emotional", but that's not always the case. It doesn't have to be that.

I think a lot of girls don't realize that guys can have a lot of intense emotions, because all too often they're portrayed as the calmer of the two genders. I see it a lot in female writers trying to write in a male POV that they cut off all emotions. They stick to only fact and while that might be okay for certain characters, it's not a dead giveaway for a male.

If you have trouble thinking about this, I want you to take a step back and think about male songwriters. Women get a lot of shit for writing about their emotions and singing about them, but men do the exact same thing and no one really cares that much. So no one is going to care if your male character has emotions outside wanting to fight or screw.

For example, the other day (I keep saying the other day, but really I mean last month, just work with me) when I was with my best friend, he was doing this work interview thing (I don't know. I'm not very attentive when there's a dog in my midst and I was totally playing with his dog when I was supposed to be paying attention. What do you want from me? I'm pretty much a five year old), I overheard him say "I'm getting all emotional over here." I don't know the context. I don't know if he was kidding. All I know is I heard him say that. So there. He's of the male species. He said he was getting emotional. I have just provided you with concrete truth that males can have emotions.

Call me detective.

2. Give them an actual POV

For once I want to read a male POV that is more than just strict observation. I don't want to hear about how "She had big tits and her ass looked great in those pants". That's not a male POV, that's just a dick (haha, Addy jokes).

If you're going to do first person POV, then I want some biases. You can't do first person and then just give facts. You might as well do third if you want to do that. Give your character a personality. Let them think about what they see. Let them make comments. It's not that guys only state what they can tangibly see and feel. No. They have biases. They attach emotions to things. Just like girls. We need to get over this gender divide.

Let's play a game. I'll go through my text messages with my best friend and we'll see how many times he tells me thing things that aren't strictly observations. We'll focus on things that have emotion words. Rules clear? Okay. Go.

"You think you get sinus infections from too much cocaine? Or is that something my parents told me so I wouldn't do drugs? I'm very concerned about this." (Random bartending musings)

"My soul feels empty this cloudy Tuesday morning." (I have no idea. He sent it to me after he got off work, so your guess is as good as mine.)

"Dude I'm tired tonight. Emotionally charged day bro." (Because tired is a feeling. He didn't just say he was going to bed.)

"I'm so mad" (He thought he left his guitar at work. He did not, because it was followed by "False alarm. I'm better")

"You ever cry when you listen to old Blink songs? I don't. But you might." (More bartender musings. But he thought about crying, so it counts, right?)