#gildedbirdcageupdate

[gildedbirdcage-if]

MC is currently set to female but my hope is to be able to change that to selectable. I’m still working on getting comfortable with coding so focusing on one is easiest on me right now while I learn. I am used to writing about characters in IF gender neutrally so I apologize for any confusion by saying child vs daughter. Another hardship is that when I started plotting and planning all this, so much of what I have set was catered to how society treats women and the standards that are there so it will take time for me to be able to incorporate those same things if a character is male for example.

I know you've gotten a few negative/pushy asks about it, but I just wanted to chime in on the other side to say that I'm excited to see an IF with a female MC! That's actually what hooked me on your IF despite there being no demo yet. Especially because it sounds like some of the way she's been treated is due to her gender (being married off so her husband can rule instead of her), and I don't see much of that in IF that is specific to a female MC.

You'll get complaints, but at the end of the day this is your story and it's up to you how you want to write it. I've seen other authors get derailed by extra coding (like how a male MC would probably be treated differently), and end up losing steam for their project, so please don't take on too much trying to add in all reader requests, especially if it doesn't fit the story/setting. Most IFs have a gender choice MC anyway, so it's not like readers who want that aren't already catered to.

Thank you for this! It’s actually been very comforting to me as I have really struggled to find a way to cater to everyone but, in the end, I’m sorry to say that the story is so built around the MC being female and the treatment around that… I don’t think I could write it the same if the MC were to be born male.

This is not to say that the MC has to identify as female- there will be gender identity options to identify as non-binary or male but the MC will be set in stone as AFAB.

I’m sorry to anyone who this disappoints and I understand if that’s a deal breaker. I will be updating the pinned post to reflect this.

My next project I want to do will be more modern day and have very different options for gender.