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Oddly, I identify with guys in fiction so much better than girls. I was thinking about this the other day, going through a list of my favourite MCs and the ones I connected to best (because that’s the kind of thing I do when I’m procrastinating), and I have literally 0 female MCs I both like and admire, as opposed to 4-5 male ones.

Maybe that’s why I prefer writing from a guy’s POV. I’ve been doing it for several years now and I think it turns out alright, though finding guys to read my writing is a challenge for me since the guys in my family don’t read fiction. My current WIP is the first with a female MC for about six years, and for some reason I decided to give her brother and love interest POVs as well, so I actually still have more male POVs than female. Don’t know why I do that.

For me, the hardest bit is separating male-ness or female-ness from personality. For instance, most my male characters tend to be introverted, logical, and pragmatic because my dad and brother are like that, and I have to make a conscious effort to write feeling type or extroverted male characters, because I do know men like that but not as many or as well.

@jane-maree I’m curious about what you mean by it being more realistic to have a guy in a sci-fi adventure? Unless your character is running a race against a bunch of guys or fighting guys for a long period of time, I don’t see why it would make any difference. A trained girl can be fitter and stronger than untrained guys, and if she knows how to fight in the right way doesn’t even need to be stronger. Conversely, an untrained guy is going to get exhausted by running or fighting pretty quickly.