I'm not sure if I can say anything helpful on this, since I tend to default to female characters, which is such a different place to come from.
But from having read the Booth stories and The Virtu (less so in "A Gift of Wings"), what I'd say is that you do tend to a particular kind of female character, practical and clever and plain enough to look pretty when she really wants; giving off an air of terrible competence. Whereas your male characters are more *vulnerable* and more imperfect; more free to be dislikable and more free to show their damage. When they're competent at something, they undervalue it (Booth, Mildmay) or flaunt it (Felix); they are more dramatic about it.
I mean, I did notice the hints at damage in the backstory for one of the new female characters in The Virtu, but they're hints, very restrained and unemotional, whereas Felix and Mildmay kinda bleed all over the page.
no subject
But from having read the Booth stories and The Virtu (less so in "A Gift of Wings"), what I'd say is that you do tend to a particular kind of female character, practical and clever and plain enough to look pretty when she really wants; giving off an air of terrible competence. Whereas your male characters are more *vulnerable* and more imperfect; more free to be dislikable and more free to show their damage. When they're competent at something, they undervalue it (Booth, Mildmay) or flaunt it (Felix); they are more dramatic about it.
I mean, I did notice the hints at damage in the backstory for one of the new female characters in The Virtu, but they're hints, very restrained and unemotional, whereas Felix and Mildmay kinda bleed all over the page.