J.K. Rowling and S.E. Hinton and Mary Shelley and Ayn Rand are in trouble if that’s true.
If you write better stories and more convincing characters when your protagonists are male instead of female, then by all means, write male protagonists. Play your strengths. Female writers are not bound solely to the female voice, just as male writers are not bound solely to the male voice. Ignore anyone who tells you you’re doing your gender a disservice, because honestly? There are plenty of female writers willing and able to pick up the female protagonist slack, as it were. Write what you’re good at, and if that’s male leads, so be it.
That said, I believe well-roundedness is an important part of being a strong writer. So I will also encourage you to challenge yourself to write a handful of stories with female protagonists. They don’t have to be long stories, and they don’t have to be good; the key here is that you’re working outside your comfort zone. It flexes writing muscles and forces you into a different mode of thinking, which can work wonders for your creativity. Try it the next time you’re stuck on a main project. You’ll get to spend some time away from whatever’s frustrating you, and while you’re in that new thinking mode, you just might come up with an idea for the main work that you couldn’t have thought of while in your usual mode.
Finally, when you’re writing your male-protag stories; make sure your female supporting characters are fleshed out, developed characters. If they aren’t, or if you don’t have any female supporting characters, then you’re not doing a disservice to our gender so much as to reality. (Unless they live in a world of only dudes, which could be a thing. Or unless you’re Ira Levin.)
Hope that helps!
- Allie
