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Writing in the Male Point of View

This question is asked so much that it makes my eyes bleed. Only a little bit. I'm fine though, thanks for asking.

In case you guys haven't notice, I'm a guy. I have external male reproductive parts and everything. I suppose that qualifies me for all kinds of fun things. I can wear three socks, for example. But let's not talk about that. Instead, let's talk about a common question here on Wattpad. A question that frequently shows up on forums in wattpad is...

How do you write in a male Point of View (PoV)?

The answers, whether they come from a man or woman, are fairly run of the mill generic stuff. Be tougher! Hide your emotions more. Guys don't think about clothes. Guys think about girls. Guys think about sports. Guys think about girls as a sport. Guys are dicks. Guys have dicks. Guys are dickheads.

All of these are technically right, but also very wrong. They are wrong for one simple reason. Guys, ie, 50% of the human population of earth, are not all a-like. I know... it's shocking. Who knew that 4 billion differing personalities of people couldn't be summed up by a hand full of sentences?

That being said, people need to stop asking the question, How can I write in the PoV of a man/boy? And start asking the question: How can I write as a tough person? Or how can I write as a Strong person? Someone who takes charge? 

I feel like a clarification is needed here. I'm saying that when someone says a character doesn't act manly, they're speaking of typical masculine characteristics. First off, I dislike the notion of masculine or feminine characteristics. They're just characteristics. However, as you'll read, whether someone expects certain characteristics or not depends less on sex, and more on the character you established.

You see, I'm one to agree that men and women are different. They are. But do you know what else is different? Men... and other men. Women... and other women. So don't write a character that's a man, write a character that is a character. If you write a good character. If that character's actions make sense within his own narrative, it doesn't matter what sex they are. Their personality makes sense.

Whenever you see Michelle Rodriguez playing a tough military girl, no one is saying "Oh no, she's a girl but she's being too masculine." They say "Oh, that's the Michelle Rodriguez playing as Michelle Rodriguez"... until she inevitably dies prematurely, of course.

The same goes with any guy. If someone is saying your guy sounds too girly, that's probably not what they are saying. They are saying that you presented a character that is supposed to be hard, cold, and a little bit of an a-hole. However, he's being really sensitive, and kind, and caring about others feelings. He's presented as a guy who doesn't care about his appearance... a tough guy. Then he spends half a chapter thinking about clothing and what cloths this girl is wearing. The failure isn't that you couldn't write a guy properly. The failure is that you couldn't write that character believably.

That's probably not the advice you were hoping for from this chapter, but it's true. Your character needs to make sense. You can have an effeminate man. You can even plop him into a universe where his feminization is natural and no one ever calls him on it. However, it still all needs to make sense within the narrative. You need to gain some empathy, the ability to pop into someone else's shoes and see from their point of view. Then, you can write that way.

Don't write a boy to sound like a boy. Write a boy to sound like a person who grew up in a tough environment. He was raised intercity where his single mom was abandoned by a deadbeat dad, and she had to work 24/7. He barely had any guidance as a kid except for that one coach that wouldn't give up on him. He was constantly under pressure to use drugs or join gangs, and barely manage to stay out of it. Now he's living in a little town where the idea of gangs is foreign and the toughest boy in school is a fat kid with dandruff. He's annoyed by teachers who all of a sudden care about his progress where the intercity school teachers couldn't care less. He's used to an environment where skipping school was normal, and everyone had to protect themselves, even on the way home from school. Imagine that, and now you have a bad boy character.

The only other thing I can advise on writing boys is what you probably already know.

Women are under pressure to be women. You know all of the sexy ads. The model photoshopped women who look like what you can never be. The sexy, voluptuous, talented people that you're afraid you can't live up to.

Boys are under the same pressure, but from our male role models. You know what boy male role models are just as we know what girl Role Models are.

You're pressured to be like Kate Upton or Hilary Clinton (depending on the ambitions of your parents I guess), just as we are pressured to be suave like James Bond or metrosexual like oh, I don't know, Ryan Seacrest? Arnold the Govenator? I'm just saying that the way males are projected in the media to you is the same way they are projected in media to us. And just like you feel the urges to compare yourself with female celebrities, admire, and want to be a little like them, boys have the same problem with male celebrities.

So, if you can imagine yourself always under pressure to be physically fit and a natural leader, then you can apply that on top of all the character that is already there... But that's only if your protagonist is the kind of person that let's that stuff affect him. Remember, this is your character and they must make sense in their own narrative.