To target specific audience please give me your opinion.
Is gender important in novels?
When it comes to male lead and female lead, I don’t say I don’t read female lead because I want to relate to the MC or stuff like that. But because most female lead stories always have romance and I dislike romance. So I favor male lead.
I only read a few good female lead with barely to no romance, but most of the time, I sometimes find it hard to find stuff like that.
A few male leads have romance, and I don’t read those. Only the ones that focus on the MC and his improvements or story.
The only time I can stand a story with romance if it is in the background and not focused that much. Or on rare points, if someone did a really good (realistic) romance story with twist and turns(but that is rare for me to find).
So my preference on MC is not gender, but romance. If some female lead stories have no romance or barely in there, then I would read more female lead. But for now, I will stick to male lead stories.
Sorry if I didn’t fit your topic.
I think most people's sexual orientation is normal, so there is no need to change the outline for the sake of a few people's hobbies. However, a small amount of elements can be added to the novel setting and characterization to meet the needs of a few people. For example: the witch set in the Lord of mysteries. But I don't suggest that you are too attached to gender. Good novels always rely on good plot and excellent cultural core. It is better to be detached from the plot than to stick to the form. I hope you can write excellent works_ A friend from China
My English is very poor, please forgive me if it is inconvenient for you to understand. Thank you
if your story is really good then both males and females would queue up to buy it regardless of who the protagonist is.Think about harry potter, or sherlock holmes, they have innumerable female fans.
Otherwise, you have the option to place multiple protagonists both male and female with or without any romantic attachment to each other.
I don't think that thos applies to the mojority of the writers. Most just develop the lead from their own connections.
(Just to point it out, I am a woman, before answering the question)
I began writing in 2015, and have been writing Male Lead novels since then. Although I ventured into the world of female lead novels in 2019, most of the time I have been writing novels where the main character is a guy.
I really like both male and female lead novels, and I know many who are the same as me. In fact, I have 7 beta readers for my series, and only one of them is female, while the majority of my current novels have a female lead character. The guys are equally happy with my female lead novels as they are with my male lead novels.
While some might be prejudice against novels which are the opposite gender, I think most are quite openminded, and what matters is not the gender, but the genre.
None_None_1744 Personally speaking, my novel is world-dependent. It matters not the gender of the character I use in the novel. Whether the MC be a male or a female, there will only be slight changes to the plot due to the gender differences. On the grand scale of things, the plot remains the same.
Though, this is because the books I write are Sci-fi or pure Fantasy. Whatever character you need for the plot, just insert them, that's all. Don't care about gender and stuff and limit your creativity. Use what is best for the plot. If you are writing something else, then my situation might not be referenceable to you.
LAUDAsan
If you do that, would the story be Female Lead or Male lead? I feel like multiple protagonists with both genders would be difficult to place
I'm fine with either or myself. As long as the MC is well written I'm not fussy on their gender. The key part is well written and like most others I find female protagonists rather... simple. I mean male protagonists aren't exactly the most complex entities themselves but females tend to fall into one of two stereotypes:
The overtly romantic twit. She loves the male lead cause he sparkles more than a Twilight vamp. He could have the most ass backwards personality but the female swoons whenever he looks at her with those cold dead fish eyes...
Has no place for a man in her life, she is a downtrodden reincarnated feminist that swears off all contact with the opposite gender cause she's a progressive self completing woman... until sparkle vamp male shows up to sweep her off her feet.
Yeah both types seem to fall for their "love interest" harder then Fabio in a dime store novel.
Very rarely do I find a female protagonist that can find romance but doesn't kill her own protagonist existence to keep him. Where she remains the MC rather than the prime focus of the mysterious sparkling dingledork.
None_None_1744 I am female but I tend to favor stories with male lead characters for the simple reason that most novels with female protagonists here are romances, particularly CEO type and face slapping, which I don't enjoy. I prefer adventure and fantasy, overcoming challenges (weak to strong), and most have male leads. Stories with strong female leads that are not love stories (or if they do have it, are just part of it and not the main plot) are rare in WN. So it's not about gender per se, but the genre.
In my own writing I honestly write a lot of characters both male and female, however I've taken up a certain opinion when writing a character.
Their gender is one part of their character, and doesn't usually determine everything about a person.
I write a character based on their mindset. Their thoughts. Their inclinations. Their goals, their desires, their relationships, their personality- not based on their gender.
How would this person react in this scenario? How does this person speak? How does this person interact with others? These things determine the personality of a character, and gender may influence them a bit, but does not determine them.
To me it doesn't matter what the gender of the mc is as long as the story is good. But I mostly read stories with a male protagonist because when its a female protag there is usually romance and even if the female protag is amazing in every way all that is tossed out the window when the romantic interest is introduced. I mean is it that enjoyable to read a story where you like the FL and she falls for or is forced into a relationship by a ML who is (a) physically abusive, (b) emotionally abusive, (c) psychologically abusive, or (d) all the above? Kind of a rant but oh well, my current favorite story I'm reading at the moment has a female protagonist, so gender doesn't matter as long as its good.
EternalNightLotus
But that is the problem with webnovel , where right in the beginning they ask you whether you want male or female lead novels, they shd ask readers which genres they prefer. Male lead /female lead can be kept as an optional separate tag or something,
None_None_1744 Likely on this platform.
Shadowfang I wrote one and it didn't test well here, so I took it to TapRead.
Kystal88 right! I don't even understand why the main character's gender should be a criteria in our choice of reading material. It's different for an author, obviously. Characterization would depend on the themes you'd like to exlore and what kind of story you'd like to write. I disagree with the presumption that females only go for love stories, though. And to be romanced by overbearing rich men. Well, perhaps that is Webnovel's market, and that's how they choose to sell novels here.
Write what you want. If there are people who will only read a male leading story, then there are just as many people who will only read a female leading one. You can’t please everyone. Wrote the story you are proud of, and people who relate with it will be drawn to it. Also, don’t be surprised if some people don’t like your story.
3 years later
Darth_Xiane you must read my vamp novel then cause the vamp guy is kind of nice on the inside... BUT then only reason he is aloof and cold to the girl is because he doesn't want to let anyone close to him because a certain curse made him immortal and people around him will die anyway so what's the point in getting hurt from losing them. Plus the FL reminds him of someone who actually placed the curse on him.
The FL meanwhile also suffers from an unknown curse because of which she doesn't have people who are close to her except for her grandfather. She also is able to see traumatic past memories of others so she always sees the good in them and tries to get close to them so that includes the vampire.