How to Write a Strong Female Character™ · 8:06pm Feb 14th, 2021
Stop me if you've heard this before: to write a female character well, you have to treat women like people, and in fact the key to writing a Strong Female Character™ is to firstly write a strong character who just happens to be female. I probably just summed up 99% of the advice that you can find online on this topic.
"You should be posting your blogs on fimfic, JawJoe!" "Why aren't these on fimfic, JawJoe??" "You simply must shill your blogs on fimfic, JawJoe!"
Alright, jeez.
So as you may or may not have heard, I've been running a semi-regular blog for a while now, where I post writing advice, updates on my recent work, and whatever weird ramblings that pop into my head. I don't usually like to repost that stuff here; as I've said in a previous post, it feels disingenuous to piggyback off my old "horse fame" when I haven't been doing anything fandom-related in literal years. Yet my friends keep asking me to do it. So you know what? Fine. I'll do it.
I finally "broke" because this particular blog, about Strong Female Characters™, is probably relevant to all of you lovely writers (and perhaps readers) fimfiction, for reasons that should be obvious.
It's a topic that has been done to death, and frankly, I'm as sick of hearing "but how DO you write female characters???" all the time – but I am just as sick of hearing the repeated advice of "well just write PEOPLE, duh!!" It's not bad advice, per se, but I think it's only valuable to people who already know how to write strong female characters. It's something that becomes obvious in hindsight. If someone seriously doesn't know where to begin, telling them to "just write people, duh!!" can completely throw them off the rails. That is why I ended up writing this article.
I'd love to think that I've managed to add something actually valuable to this admittedly overplayed discussion. Of all the little blogs/articles I've written so far, this may be the first one I'm actually legitimately proud of. So please, if you're interested in writing Strong Female Characters™ at all, give it a read – and tell me what you thought!
She's got elf ears. That's enough for me!
I was gonna make a dumb joke comment, but that comic has completely disarmed me. I am helpless.
Then there was Jack Nicholson's character Melvin Udall in As Good As It Gets - "I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability."
Kidding aside, good article. Surprised no mention of Thomas Harris' Clarice Starling, as Jodi Foster's protrayal of her in *Silence of the Lambs* shows visually exactly what your article talks about in contrasts to smaller, weaker women in men's worlds, but who has the strength to face down monsters. But not quite the right media, I guess. (I still have to read the book, it's been on my shelf for ages).
Looking forward to your dark fantasy one. I remember the dragon in the shopping mall snippit I had read ages ago, and always wondered if that would go anywhere.
Been meaning to mention to you, the book I'm reading now reminds me a lot of your own work, at the least in the tone and feeling of the female protagonist, if not the magic-in-modern-world setting. It's The Rise & Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. Melisande Stokes feels very much like one of your leads, probably more Alice than Raina though. You'll also probably find the lead witch, Erszebet Karpathy entertaining - she's old, Hungarian, and very much a prima donna. She takes no one's crap. The structure of the book is also interesting. The majority is a recounting of the titular rise and fall by Melisande herself, but there are diary entries, letters, reports, and various transcripts of meetings or presentations as you get further into the book. Though them all, we see that Melisande may not be the most reliable narrator. I'm just over half done, but think it's something worth your time to check out.
I remember reading something about the movie Alien where the script was written so that any of the characters could be played by a male or female, and some of the characters/actors could be swapped around without a great deal of extra work.
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Elves are overrated.
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I've been chuckling every time I remember it.
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I only remember the titbit about Ripley, but what you say may as well be true. The point stands in any case, I think.
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You know, I think Clarice is actually a perfect example. It's just been so long since I've seen the movie (also guilty of having not read the book), it's totally slipped my mind. Although, now that I think about it, even after all these years I might not be smart enough to understand that movie, haha.
I did have a mall and a dragon, but I don't remember actually having the dragon in the mall. Hmm. But it's been soooo long, and the book has gone through sooo many iterations since then, you don't even want to know! It's shaping up. Very, very slowly. But it is shaping up.
That book looks really interesting. I've been looking for good reading suggestions for a while as I've been slacking this year. I'll have to check it out. Also, Erzsébet, not Erszébet. I hope that's just you getting it wrong (honest mistake) rather than the book (unforgivable, literally unreadable 0/10). "Takes no-one's crap" sounds a lot like one of my old teachers. Almost the same last name, too. Consider it on my list.
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No, they are not.
Checks book. You can be annoyed at Stephenson and Galland then. They have it at as Erszébet.
Glad to hear it might just be what you're looking for. I do hope you enjoy it if you're able to track down a copy!
5454518 Second the motion in favor of Clarice, all in favor...
I think the problem a lot of writers (and a whole bunch of Hollywood types) get is when they have a female character, it is a FEMALE character, so any flaws must be paper-thin and their abilities have to be better than any of the guys etc... While when they have a male character who interacts with this paragon, the male suddenly loses 20 IQ points and starts drooling. (particularly in commercials) Marvel avoided that fairly well until they hit Captain Marvel, at which point the wheels came off the bus, going down the mountain, with alligators at the bottom. (see your note on Mary Sue characters, multiplied by an actress who could not keep her mouth shut off camera)
Character arcs are for characters, not just (fill in gender of character here). Character has major problem, encounters smaller problem on the way, overcomes it through difficulty, encounters another smaller problem, overcomes it through more difficulty, etc... until character comes up against major problem that was telegraphed from the start. Now if you can weave that in with another character going through the same thing, you're a genius. Make it a romance and you're a criminal genius.
One of the reasons I geek out over Lois McMaster Bujold and the way she just stuck Shards of Honor is the way treated/abused Cordelia Naismith and Arel Vorkosigan. They are two people of honor, broken in service to their homeworlds, and without each other, they will die. The true hammer comes when she realizes just exactly what she had stumbled upon with shocking clarity.
(Oh, and Joe? If you haven't read Shards of Honor, tell me and I'll buy you a copy. Right up front. It's that good.)
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Are too!
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Shame on them for such a blatant mistake. Literally type the name into Google, authors, jeez. Regardless I'm sure I can find a copy so I can hate-read it.
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I've never heard of Shards of Honor, so I might have to take you up on that. I mean, as with the other recommendation, I'm sure I can track a copy down somewhere.
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The Vorkosigan Saga is great