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Thread: What Makes A Good Female Character?

  1. What Makes A Good Female Character?

    It was brought to my attention by 3 out of 34 people, that I wrote poorly for a woman in my last story.

    So, I’m trying to correct that and understand what it is I’m lacking in writing for females.

    So, what do you think makes a good female character? Video Games, Movies, Novels, any work of fiction.
    "Question the world man... I know the meaning of everything right now... it's like I can touch god." - bbobb the ggreatt

  2. tits or gtfo

  3. #3
    Sarah Connor.

  4. #4
    Is Sarah Connor a good female character? Doesn't she just spout weird philosophical bits like some sort of anime character in T2?

    Ripley is probably a better example. Same for SW in ghostbusters. They are not simply male characters with a female avatar. They have their own lives and hobbies outside of the rest of the cast. They get sad, frustrated, angry, scared.

  5. #5
    Its hard for me to say what makes a good female character because I'm male. On one hand you can just write a character like you would a man, then make them female. That way you don't fall into tropes and the character seems more genuine.

    But then you run the risk of making the character sterile and devoid of the impact female biology has on women. But that's hard for even women to write because all women are different, so they usually play it safe and avoid it.

    Like can anyone really remember anything where women were really written like women? And all of them in the cast? Like their hormones cycle and that impacts small things in their personality? Or that women typically respond with fear in situations that would anger men (thats not an IPism, that came from a study. Women experience fear like 80% more than men)? Or the special traumas they experience as children and how that impacts how they think differently?

    Sure some stuff tackles that, but then it becomes the primary focus of the fiction. The whole story becomes the pain of childbirth and how the MC hates her mother.

    What about something where a secretary gets anxiety because her boss reminds her of her mother who hit her, and we're never allowed to know that? Because thats real life. Thats how women really work. Or the secretary that goes and cries in the bathroom everyday because she's miscarried 10 times. Again, the viewer never gets to know that. They just get to see the edges of how it impacts her job. Thats real life. Thats how real women work. There is a hidden world, and it either becomes the primary focus of a story or is completely removed and the women are mostly written like men.

    I suppose that if you did try to write characters like that, the viewer might hate it, because those characters would seem crazy or poorly written. You wouldn't understand their motives. But eh, thats life.

  6. #6
    Anyway, I figure what a lot people want when they ask for better female characters is female characters that don't fall into stereotypes or make women conscious of their poor sexual value.

    So, just write them like men. Have them talk to other women about stuff that isn't men. Don't make them have huge tits or wear sexy jeans, making Ms Sloth in the audience feel bad about her lack of tits and ass and you're mostly good. Pepper in some female specific life experiences with like 5 or 6 words of dialog.

    There, you're probably good. At least as good as Friends, Full House, or some other primetime show.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Fe 26 View Post
    Ripley
    Quote Originally Posted by Fe 26 View Post
    write a character like you would a man, then make them female.

  8. #8
    some say their is a mother thing going on with her, the cat and nuet

  9. Jackie Brown

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Fe 26 View Post
    some say their is a mother thing going on with her, the cat and nuet
    There is FOR SURE a family thing going on in Aliens (Newt calls Ripley "Mommy" at a pivotal character moment, Dwayne and Ellen drop names and meaningful glances ) but they wrote her as a dude in Alien. I think they wrote all the characters in Alien genderless (read: dudes). I'm not going to google to check because whatever, man.

    I would have really liked to see that "The Adventures of Hicks, Ripley and Newt the Kickass Space Family" Alien 3 that never happened, btw.

    Quote Originally Posted by kingoffighters View Post
    Jackie Brown

    yeah dude.
    Last edited by Josh; 21 Oct 2019 at 12:30 AM.

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