Strong MALE characters

A while back I created a post about strong female characters. (If you missed it: http://mediocrewriterrachel.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/strong-female-characters.html go read it. Seriously. Now.) And I felt that the opposite gender needed to be stood up for as well.

So here we are.

Strong male characters. This isn't so widely touched upon as a topic for many reasons. Some of these include the fact that in stories, books, movies, TV series, we usually expect the main character to be a guy. With this comes to idea that men are typically strong, able bodied, can fight, are skinny and hot etc etc (we all know the kinds right?) But there comes the problem of making a character all of this but whiny or just like the last character.

So how do you go about making a strong male character? (There's going to be a lot of similarities to my 'female' blog but bare with me please) Think about the age of the person. The time they were brought up in. What kind of slang were they brought up around? What kind of thinking did the society have back in the day? Don't overuse slang. Especially in today's day and age. Think about what kind of character you want. Okay, so you do want a strong male character that can fight, is hot etc etc.... make them human though.

Again - Make. Them. Human.

Many characters could be read as just getting the job done for being strong and able to fight. Past that nothing much else matters. But give them emotions, humanise them. Think about the guys you know and love (or hate) and think about what kind of personalities you're going to give them. Think about the fact that the character won't be able to fight off everybody. They have to lose at some point. They need a weakness.

This is one thing that can let a character and its writer down. They may create a badass character who is lovable and desired by all the women reading about this character, but if they have no weakness? What's to love about a soldier who can power on through without stopping for anything? And I don't just mean about wounds but emotions and emotional trauma's as well.

Let's consider the fact that you may not create a male character that can fight through the toughest of battles and come out victorious. I'm going to use the examples of two characters I have created. Corporal Patrick Nelson and Sergeant Evan Torres.

Patrick Nelson: He's a junior Doctor and goofs around a lot. Does not have the greatest of skills with weapons and is only permitted to carrying a pistol. He can handle a fight so long as his opponent isn't too overpowering. (fight someone your own size kind of thing) He can lose to a female soldier and he will likely never be in command of a ship. The others keep an eye on him and put him in the middle of the group for his own safety.

Here we have a guy who is competent enough that he can hold his own, but not competent enough that could overcome somebody who is stronger than him. He isn't fantastic at shooting and his primary job is helping people. And he's a goof. (That's the humanisation of him.) He's a goof in the sense that he takes on stupid bets and deals in the heat of the moment because at heart he is still a child.

Evan Torres: Engineer who likes to tinker around with computers and electronics. He can use a standard issue rifle but not to the standard the others can. He's not much of a fighter and more of a doer or helper. If he could choose between electronics and a fight, or even fighting and restarting an entire ship, he'll take the ship. Likes to have a laugh with the rest of the crew and has a 'weak' stomach when it comes to really vile and horrible things.

Evan will throw up when something makes him gag. This is typically something we don't see in what we call 'strong' characters, but he works. He isn't a fighter in any instance and is one of the most protected of the crew. Despite being a Sergeant he is still seen as young and a little naive, not to mention that he looks for the humour in a situation.

There are two examples of (in my opinion, feel free to disagree) decent, well rounded characters that could hold up to scrutiny. I love them both and I would not change them.

So, strong does not necessarily mean a character that can fight his way out of any situation, or somebody who will jump head first as a noble sacrifice. It could very well be the guy that stays behind to bring a different series of characters back to full health or the guy that could stop the other characters from getting locked in a room full of sadistic murderers.

Have fun creating all kinds of characters. Strong means many things other than physical strength.

Happy Writing.