Is your protagonist male or female?
I wonder if most of the main characters in novels are the same sex as the author.
There are examples of famous writers have failed when they have based their novel on the opposite sex.
There are also famous authors who have intelligently avoided the pitfall of writing about the opposite sex.
‘The Professor’ by Charlotte Bronte is based upon her experiences in Brussels, where she was a teacher in 1842. Much of the same subject matter of The Professor was reworked from the perspective of a female student into Brontë's later novel Villette, which attracted MUCH HIGHER critical acclaim.
Jane Austen wrote about men in situations she was most familiar with. In her personal encounters with men. In situations when both men and women were present. But she knew little of what men spoke about in the absence of women. Austen avoided pitfalls by writing about what she knew.
Sigh the OP and later comments make me a bit sad. Thanks Michael & Victoria for the reassurance. Youth and inexperience will make some allowances...
Bu,t Adrian, the way your post degenerated into some odd claim that Austen knew her place, that Bronte was less successful because she didn't is....misogynistic nonsense.
I hope other commenters keep that in mind when reading. Is writing another gender to you own experiences truly that limiting when I doubt very much that you have personally experienced the sort of plot events (murder, mayhem, fantasy creatures/settings, ect ect) that are no doubt riddling your writing? Are differing dangly bits that fearsome?
The context of setting is also key: You society does not have to be ours, or is that exploration another limitation that is too foreboding?
Explore, learn, write I say.
I find it very difficult to write the scenes between my two male characters when they are alone, obviously because I have no first-hand experience, but that doesn't mean I don't love doing it! It's the most challenging form of writing and really stretches you. Embrace it, I say.
My main character is a woman
I have based her loosely on someone I know, I find it easier to think about how the character talks and acts.