Writing Female Characters
Writing complex, meaningful female characters has been a challenge for a very long time. Thanks to our patriarchal society, most female characters in media are poorly-written and misrepresented. I’d like to share some of my favorite ways to keep your female characters from turning out shallow and making them stand out!
─────────
1. Femininity does not mean weakness.
Many early literature works portray feminine women as weak and fragile. Even now, (especially in YA sci-fi, dystopian, and fantasy novels,) feminine female characters are often shallow.
A common theme in such aforementioned works is having a main female character who is considered “strong.” In theory, this sounds fantastic; more female representation where they aren’t portrayed as frail and helpless or disgustingly vain! And, surely, there are plenty of examples of this. Unfortunately, there are also some unpleasant turnouts of this. These “strong” female characters are often just masculine female characters, and henceforth just perpetuating the idea that femininity cannot possibly coexist with strength!
To prevent this, make sure that not all of your strong female characters are masculine. There’s nothing wrong with masculine women in the slightest, but when every single one is portrayed that way and also portrayed as “strong,” it does more harm than good. Be sure that your feminine female characters can be strong as well!
2. Use the Bechdel test.
The Bechdel test, created by and named after Alison Bechdel, is a way to measure the representation of women in fiction. For a work to pass the Bechdel test, it must feature at least two women who talk to each other about things other than a man. Sometimes, the requirement for both women to be named is also added.
This is to make sure that your female characters do not revolve around your male characters. They should be their own separate people with separate lives outside of a man’s. Should your work pass this test, congratulations! You’re a step closer to well-written female characters. Should it fail, you may have to review your work and make a few changes.
3. They should have dreams, goals, and aspirations.
Being a human means having things we want to do. Our minds, bodies, and souls all long for things, attainable or not. This (amazingly) goes for men as well as women and everyone in between.
Give your female characters dreams! Give them desires and goals and things that they want. Give them aspirations! Doing this gives your female characters depth and helps prevent them from revolving around your other characters. If your female characters have things that they want, they’ll begin to turn into their own people and not just extensions of other characters.
4. They should be flawed.
Another issue with “strong” female characters is that they’re often portrayed as being flawless. Not a single human being is perfect and if you want realistic characters, the same should go for them! Your female characters should have flaws, fears, doubts, things that make them human. Being strong does not mean being flawless, and that goes for everyone.
5. They should have personal stories.
Your female characters need to have their own backstories and story arcs. Many female characters fall into the nasty trap of existing solely to serve a man’s story arc, and this makes for shallow characters. Give your female characters a story that develops who they are!
Who are they? Where did they come from? What happens to them? These are all questions that should be answered throughout your story. Your female characters should have a developed past, present, and future; their own stories.
(If all else fails, write your female characters as men and change the pronouns later. It’s surprising how well this can work.)
─────────
Female characters are just as important as male characters and, therefore, should be written as such! Be sure to make your women deep, interesting people with their own stories to tell.
Go write!
