Strong Male Characters

People complain a lot about the presence of too many strong male characters, but there are clear things that are done when writing strong male characters that don’t necessarily do them any good. There are a number of characteristics that appear a lot when having strong male characters. These appear more when he is the love interest than in fantasy novels where he is the MC, but many of them cross over between genres.

He is physically strong. There is very rarely a main male character who does not start or at least end as physically powerful. There is a feeling with men more than with women that they need to be physically strong to be considered powerful. Brains are less likely to play a part in whether the character is considered strong, and magical power—if it exists—often plays more of a role than intellect but still less of a role than physical prowess.

He is in the military/a military-like organization. This can include a governmental military, a military-like organization that isn’t directly attached to a government, a rebel group, or sometimes the police/FBI/an investigative service. He might be a bodyguard, but that’s usually after having military training. If he was part of the military and left it, it is usually because something bad happened to make him disillusioned to what was going on. There are a lot of male MCs that are part of groups of paranormal/magical warriors with the mission to save the world from whatever horrible demon/demon-like creature or set of creatures are trying to take it over. There are not as many scientists or doctors or engineers or accountants, and even if they are in one of those positions, they’re a soldier on the side.

He has few friends. He is probably described as being a loner. His friends are probably part of the organization he is part of (see above) or part of the military if he left it (see above). There are probably not many of them, but they are fiercely loyal to each other and often willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. All of his friends are probably similar to him in that they are soldiers, loners, physically strong, and have many other characteristics that he has.

He is immensely possessive. This is generally true when it comes to the woman he is dating/in love with (but only her, not the other women he dated (see below)), and it will often lead to him making stupid decisions. He will even be willing to lock her up or otherwise keep her from putting herself in danger, sometimes without seeing how this will make her angry. He may also be incredibly territorial, especially if he is some sort of were-animal or otherwise has animal characteristics. This generally extends to his house and his property, if he has any, but can also apply to his car or his other belongings.

He is very good at sex and/or knows a lot about it. This generally goes with sleeping with many women before finding THE ONE (see below) but can also be after being celibate, sometimes for long periods of time. Like years. This is sometimes due to the fact that he is empathic or telepathic and can tell what the person he is having sex with likes/responds to. There is almost never a strong male character who is bad at sex.

He has slept with many women. He probably was the model of promiscuity when he was younger (high school, probably), and it continued after he grew up. He probably has at least one ex-girlfriend panting after her, and she will probably show up in the book. She might show up in book two if there are multiple books, right when the relationship between him and THE ONE is becoming solidified but before it actually is.

He is attractive. There is never an unattractive strong male MC. He probably had muscles, thick dark hair, tan skin, and attractive eyes. Everyone thinks he’s attractive. Women give him their number. He would be mistaken for a model if he weren’t so rugged.

He has scars. See: was in the military. Also, just sort of in general. He always has scars. It adds to his rugged attractiveness.

He knows a lot, often including information that wouldn’t be part of his skill-set. He might be a poet, or a mathematician, or be really good at computers. He can do everything that he works at, often without actually working at it. Even if he screws up, he succeeds next time. If he doesn’t succeed the next time, it actually makes everything work out better in the end.

He has a secret from his past that affects his behavior. He might have been abused (see below) and then killed the person who abused him. He might have done something really good but either considered illegal or considered bad. He might have signed onto something bad or into some bad organization to protect someone or something he cared about. Whatever it is, he’s hiding it, and it ends up hurting THE ONE. Until it all gets better. If he was abused, he probably thinks that he has that same “abuse gene” and that he will abuse whoever he forms an attachment to. He probably sees his extreme possessiveness as a bad thing because he sees it as a sign that he is like his abusive parent.

He either had a very good childhood or a very bad childhood. He might have two loving parents who care about him very deeply, and he probably has siblings that he gets along with very well. If there aren’t any siblings, there are close cousins or close friends. On the other hand, he might have been abused by a father or stepfather (or sometimes crazy mother), or his parents died when he was very young, possibly violently, and he was traumatized for life. Another choice is that one or more of his parents was on drugs or an alcoholic. He probably didn’t have a nice, “normal”, “ordinary” childhood with some ups and some downs.

He has a thing about control. He always likes to control the situation, and if he can’t, he gets angry. He might get violent, though never at THE ONE. This is true in bed, too. It usually works because the female character is submissive in bed, despite being “strong” not in bed.

He is an alpha-male. It might be literal, such as if he is some sort of were-animal, but otherwise, it is the sort of metaphorical “alpha male”. Also, see above about control. More literally, this means that he gets preferential treatment in terms of sex and food. This is in general more true regarding sex, where he could have a choice of virtually everyone (except for his friends’ wives/girlfriends, at least one of whom he might have slept with in the past).

He is willing to do bad things for the people he cares about. This can include killing or sometimes even torturing. He pretty much always draws the line at rape. He doesn’t like hurting women, though he can usually rationalize that away if she hurt THE ONE. Other than, he will do virtually anything. He generally doesn’t have an issue with killing, especially if it will protect people he cares about. This may be a product of the military past, but isn’t always.

He is very good at what he does. He is very good at everything, except for those specific things that he’s actually bad at. It might be computers, and then he is lightheartedly teased at being bad at modern technology. Otherwise, he’s good at killing, good at sex, and good at everything else he puts his mind to.

He is kinder than he lets on/than most people think. He is probably very good with children, despite having rarely dealt with them. He is likely also good at comforting crying/traumatized women. He likes helping people even when he claims not. He might do things to help people without letting anyone know, and then be annoyed when someone tells.

He has a high position in the organization/structure he is a part of. Unless he is the literal alpha male, he is probably second or third in command, but he is probably a close friend of the person in charge. He is important, and he is well respected. He might have fallen out of favor slightly due to something he did wrong, but he is still respected by the people who matter.

He was experimented on. This happens especially frequently in urban fantasy or sci-fi, where some crazy scientist (who might be the father or guardian of THE ONE) tried to turn him into a super-soldier by doing experiments that look more like torture. This might be the horrible thing in his past. It probably traumatized him, but it also made him stronger.

He is loyal, sometimes to a fault. He might end up doing things for people he shouldn’t or trusting people who end up betraying him.  He usually doesn’t kill for them, though sometimes he does and then feels horribly guilty for it. But it all works out in the end.

He has darkness within him. This is often how it is described, or some facsimile of this. It is probably due to his traumatic childhood, and he thinks that it will make him a bad husband/father. He gets over it, but it usually takes literally killing his demons or having THE ONE fix him to deal with it.

He finds THE ONE. THE ONE is the person he has been waiting for all along, even when he was dating other people. He might have been sleeping with other people to fill the hole that was there because he hadn’t met/slept with THE ONE yet.

He is white. Very rarely is he biracial, and even more rarely is he entirely non-white. There is a decent chance that he is Italian or Irish, but he might be generic white. Sometimes he’s Russian, especially if the author particularly likes Russia and the Russian language. Very rarely is he Asian, and then pretty much only if he is biracial.

He is heterosexual. THE ONE is pretty much always a woman, and he is pretty much always straight.

As much as women complain about women in books being sexualized, it is done at least as frequently to men, especially in romance novels. There is even less variety of men in romance novels than there is of women. It isn’t necessarily that any one or two or even five or ten of these traits is bad, but when every main male character is like that, it becomes excessive. Be careful of how you write your characters.