Didn’t read all the posts, so I’m just spouting my opinion randomly. I think this depends on preferences and who the author is a lot. However, I’m not surprised that female authors are (on average) writing better and more relatable stories than men.
A lot of times guys are focused on the action and girls are focused on the thoughts/emotions in life. You know, a wife says, “Do the dishes.” Her husband does them and is shocked when she gets mad because he did them with a bad attitude. She ends up saying something like, “You can smile while you do the dishes!”
See, the husband thought all that mattered was the action of getting the dishes clean. The wife wanted her husband to want to (or be joyful about) helping her with chores around the house. She was concerned about his emotions towards her and their life.
Similar things happen in books. A guy writes an entire book where the whole thing reads like, “He punches this bad guy, and then he punches that bad guy!” He thinks it’s amazing, but his plot and characters are stale and emotionless.
A woman writes the same book, but it reads like, “He fights with this bad guy to save a woman he loves because she has these characteristics!” As a result, the whole thing feels different to a reader.
The male book might have better action, but it doesn’t connect with them. However, the female book touches them on an emotional level where they can say, “I want to be like that hero. When will I find a girl that makes me feel that way.”
Again, just my thoughts. It is possible for women to write books devoid of emotion and for men to write tear jerkers as well though. I think the emotions just come more naturally to females while writing. They already (on average) spend more time thinking about what actions mean in terms of what the person doing them feels or thinks.
Emotions will always trump actions in written stories in my opinion because (unlike movies where you can see it), it can be hard to make action scenes exciting on the page without an emotion tied to them.
