Writing Good Female Characters

[Reyold]

I was looking the thread on Jimquisition's latest episode, "Objectification And... Men?" when I saw this this:

It is a well know fact for anybody that studies literature that men write women more poorly then women write men. This is obviously a generalization anyone who is a fan of Joss Whedon could easily point this out (controversy, controversy, whatever your opinion he writes women well), but when story is so lowly prioritized the general and the poorly skilled are brought in, and what we get are basically what unskilled hacks are able to cobble together about women as they picture them in their minds as the ideal. There isn't something malicious about this - at least for the most part- they are literally writing the most engaging female they can picture the problem is it's a fairly limited and more evolutionary driven picture then what meets reality.

While only a part of the actual post, that about sums up the whole.

As a male myself, and an aspiring indie dev, there is the distinct possibility of of me writing a female character, and I want to do a good job at it. So what would you suggest?

 

[Galletea]

The main problem that I see with fictional women, is that they tend to be put into two distinct groups. There is the strong woman and the weak woman. The strong one refuses to be helped, makes comments about men not being up to the task, and is generally aloof and annoying.
The weak woman clings to one of the other leads, speaks softly and breaks down after doing something heroic.

Quite often these two characters can be interchangeable, even within the same person, a strong wise-cracking woman has a crisis and becomes an wreck until someone tells her to snap out of it, and she becomes arrogant again.

The best way to do it, is not to think of the character as a woman, but as a character, first and foremost. Decide what you want your characters to be and go from there. You don't have to have a neon sign saying "IM A GIRRRRL" over her head all the time, although we sometimes think in different ways to men, our personalities aren't that different really. You can draw attention to the differences between the gender of the characters, but make sure that her being a woman is secondary to her being a hero, or a mechanic, or a whatever.

 

[MrCollins]

Joking, joking.

There are 2 ways of writing good female characters in my opinion, or at least there are 2 ways of not falling into the trap of writing terrible ones.
Each method will be more or less suitable depending on the story who want to tell.

1) Write the character as a man, and then change all the grammar so it's female. A good character is a good character, so unless you are tackling issues that only affect one sex then this method may help you avoid lazy stereotypes.

2) Think of which aspect of being a woman you to explore (if any, and if it suits the story), it is motherhood? Insecurities? Social Pressures? and build from there. Just think it through, when writing every word must be carefully chosen. Also, it helps to stop and think "Why did I use that turn of phrase?".

 

[Deverfro]

I've just spent a semester at uni looking at this, but in comics, principles still apply though. I think one of the better ways is to simply write a character, and not have the gender be a defining characteristic of their personality. But at the same time, don't have it completely removed, you don;t want the sort of "feelings are for girls" characters we get -.-

Oh and don't write her as a plot device for a male, so no damsel in distress!

 

[Tazzman]

Well for starters he made a spelling error in his first sentance so I wouldn't take his opinion too seriously. Other then that if you're a good writer then gender doesn't count for anything. Although I'm not an expert in the field of literature so what do I know, except how to use spell check unlike that guy haa

Edit: he also makes a gramatic error aswell

 

[Lilani]

As a male myself, and an aspiring indie dev, there is the distinct possibility of of me writing a female character, and I want to do a good job at it. So what would you suggest?

If you're a good and experienced writer, then you should be able to write female characters fine. Write the character that works with the story. Work out their role in the story first. Who you want them to be, what you want them to do, that sort of thing. Get a good base for their character. Then decide their gender and add more details as necessary. I feel like the "just write a dude and make him a chick" advice can work, but gender is inevitably a part of a person so completely ignoring this aspect could lead to a flat character. You don't need to address their gender (or gender identity) all the time in order for them to be a good character, but even if you never write down these details it's good to have them in the back of your mind as you're writing.

I think men are perfectly capable of writing women, and vice versa. To me it's the skill of the writer, not their gender. You do have sort of a home field advantage with whatever gender you are, but as long as you have a good grounding in how people work and a good idea of what you want from the character, you'll write them well regardless of how similar you are to them.

 

[BlazeRaider]

This might help you out, but yeah, I'd go with the advice that a good female character is just a good character, sex shouldn't play too big a role in it's goodness (unless you want to make a point of that).

 

[chozo_hybrid]

This might help you out, but yeah, I'd go with the advice that a good female character is just a good character, sex shouldn't play too big a role in it's goodness (unless you want to make a point of that).

Only problem with that is some people make the accusation of "man with boobs" so you have to be really careful of that.

 

[Reyold]

This might help you out.

I watch Extra Credits almost religiously, so I don't now how I missed that one. Either that, or I forgot about it. Either way, thanks much.

 

[Daft Time]

So what would you suggest?

I was writing a post, while switching between a few other tabs and posts, then refreshed the page only to see an Extra Credits video posted (that I hadn't seen before, that was cool) that pretty much covered all I was about to say.

Damn.

Here is some of it anyway, albeit edited down quite a bit:

First, you need to realise that you can have female who are good characters without them being good female characters. What separates the two is often over looked, though simple; a good female character is used in a manor where the differences of being a woman is discussed, while a good character who is a female will be no different if the gender was swapped. The problem is discussing the unique issues of being a woman can lead to characters who are not only bad, but sexist.

To illustrate my points in a (hopefully) more cohesive manor, here is an example using alcoholism (yes, I think we can agree this is a negative characteristic but it's not meant to be a reflection of gender and the examples below are entirely applicable to being female or male) as a trait:

====

Character A is an alcoholic, but the character is not used as a discussion on alcoholism. He may be a good character who happens to be an alcoholic, but he's not a good 'alcoholic character'. You'll see this character in many police procedurals.

Character B is an alcoholic, and is used to discuss the nature alcoholism. The debate is entirely rational, and makes no assumptions that are entirely false for the sake of idolising or demonising the trait. This is quite possibly a good character who is an alcoholic and a good alcoholic character. Think Whip from Flight.

Character C is an alcoholic, and is used to make ridiculous claims on the nature alcoholism. There likely a lot of demonising or idolising this trait based on irrational logic. He might be a good character who is an alcoholic (though not likely), but he almost certainly will be a bad alcoholic character. I'm not quite sure where I've seen this character, hopefully it doesn't actually exist.

====

Second, if you're going to write a good female character you're going to need to understand what separates being female from not being female. "What issues do women face?" is a reasonable, though likely not all-inclusive, way of capturing what this is about. These a things like Motherhood, Gender Roles or Discrimination.

Obviously, there's a plethora of smaller details you'll need to understand when writing a character and using being female as a topic for discussion, but I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to writing fiction nor is a forum the best place for the kind of detailed analysis this would require. The Extra Credits touches on a few important things I didn't as well, so you really should watch it.

TL;DR - Writing a character who happens to be female is no different from writing any other character. If you're using gender as a topic for discussion, then you need to understand how to discuss a topic through a character's trait as well as understanding what it is that makes being female different.

EDIT: Just a word of warning, you're going to take everything I said with a large grain of salt. I didn't even make it through high-school and I have limited experience in both character analysis and writing.

 

[sanquin]

There's a very important thing to keep in mind when trying to write a good female character: There will always be people that see a female character as bad, no matter how you write her. Especially in the feminist circles in my experience, there are women that will say a character is sexist just because it was written by a man, even if the character isn't. I haven't had complaints from men in the past, but they are there as well most likely.

As for how to write a good female character...I'd personally start with a genderless character. Think of what 'it' wants to do or accomplish, what 'it's' personality is, etc. Then only after that make 'it' female. It's a bit hard to explain this method exactly for me. But it has worked for me so far.

 

[Lynx]

Don't forget: study, study, study. Ever read any books that, in your opinion, have great male and female characters? Good. Go read them and ponder what it is about them that is so great.

I would personally study the Harry Potter characters. They are diverse, relatable and realistic. They all have their own set of assets, quirks and flaws, and they've all stirred up emotion and debate between readers ever since the books came.

So find books that do that for you and study them. Just like a painter studies other artists' paintings.

 

[Miyenne]

I have a bit of a hard time writing women as well, and I am a woman.

Men and women are basically the same; our motivations, our emotions, our actions.

There is no getting around the fact that men are physically stronger than women. But from an emotional direction, we really do think pretty much the same. Some men (and to a lesser extent some women) refuse a lot of their emotions because it makes them 'weak' or 'less manly' but I believe we process things pretty much the same way.

Now some people don't understand how to process their emotions. It's not a gender thing, it's a personal thing. I think some men don't know how to handle or work through emotional problems as well as women because as a cultural thing, men aren't supposed to get worked up or emotional while women are given more freedom to cry and explore their feelings; the 'how' and the 'why' of it through conversations with their friends and families, while men are usually encouraged to 'get over it'. I am totally generalizing here, by the way. Most men are more emotional than I am, I'm practically a robot with boobs.


Captcha: Okey-dokey. You think my analysis is crap, don't you? Well phoo on you, it's my own personal opinion.

 

[Cloake]

I just recently learned about the Bechdel test, which is, according to Wikipedia,

used to identify gender bias in fiction. A work passes the test if it features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man.

This seems like a good place to start--maybe try to write such a conversation as a writing exercise, and then try to write some more about one or both of the characters having that conversation and see what happens.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

To be honest, I kind of agree. There is a surprising amount of men who just don?t get women at all. Like, at all. You?d speak to them and it?s as if they?ve never even spoken to a woman before. To use a fictional example, look at the way the female characters are depicted in Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata (who?ve apparently admitted that they?re not good with female characters). Most of them are just dumb plot devices to prop up the more competent male characters, the worst offender of all being Misa ?I don?t care if you use me!? Amane. But, although I love the series, there?s literally a scene where a FBI agent denies help from his ex-FBI girlfriend because she?s ?just my fiance now?, whereas a seventeen-year-old boy in the same series is mentioned to have helped out on numerous police cases because he gets good grades and his dad?s a cop.

As for an example of well-written female characters?look at Fullmetal Alchemist. I doubt any man could?ve written those characters as well as Hiromu Arakawa, who is a woman. No-one is overtly objectified (apart from Lust, of course), most of them are believably human, only one of them is an exaggerated ?badass?, and even the weak love interest is a successful mechanic.

The reason women can arguably write men better than the other way round is because there isn?t years and years of stereotypes bogging them down and forcing them to think, ?Well, yes, they should act this way or that way?. But my advice, as a budding writer myself, is to just write a character, and then add their gender in second, unless their gender is vital to the story (e.g. it deals with issues of pregnancy). Don?t make them extensions of the male characters; they have to be individuals, with their own feelings and goals. There?s nothing wrong with making them sexy, unless you have a reason for that. Otherwise, you?d be better off writing porn. Oh, and remember that both men and women are human.

I don?t mean to sound like I?m preaching, but?well, sometimes I just get a bit fed up of this stuff.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Andrew Kreisberg writes for Arrow. Moira Queen is a very sophisticated woman - she acts helpless, but she is very powerful. She's very attractive, but she's super evil. She is very complicated, as I think women characters should be portrayed.

 

[Autotelic]

The advice usually given on this topic is, "Write a character, not a female character." This isn't to say that you should just use female pronouns for a male character, but rather that their character is not defined by their femininity in the same way that a male character (generally) isn't defined by his masculinity.

Your characters are obviously primarily defined by dimensions beyond gender. Gender is just a social construct. Everyone has their own response to this social construct - some people embrace it fully, other people reject it, and you have a whole range of in-between. Understand how your character interacts with this social construct, rather than allowing the social construct to define your characters.

A significant part of this construct of gender roles are the stereotypes about each sex. So, let's take the stereotype of women wearing make-up. Women do not wear make-up simply because they are women, otherwise all women would wear make-up. If a female character wears a lot of make-up, why? It's associated with femininity, but being female isn't an intrinsic motivation. Is she insecure about her appearance? Does she belong to a fashion subculture and feel it's a part of her identity?

Think about characters and their interaction with their gender roles, rather than the differences between men and women that you have observed, and you will have convincing female characters.

 

[Angelowl]

To repeat what others have stated before but from a different angle. Play RPGs? Then this example is pretty obvious. The character class matters more than the gender, so prioritize on it. And check out tv-tropes for what writers usually falls for when it comes to simple mistakes. It's all fine and dandy to utilize tropes for your stories, but unless you give it some twist it will end up just being a trope and little else matters regarding how the readers view the characters.

I'm quite surprised no one has suggested this yet. Give it to a woman or two to proof-read, with the question "is this believable?" or "how reasonable or ridicolous is this?" It is often quite easy to be blind from problems if one simply hasn't experienced the relevant perspectivees. On the other hand, stay away from feminists. They tend to have quite strong and differing opinions regarding how a woman should be.

 

[Olrod]

Write the character in such a way that if no reference was made to their gender, would the reader be able to tell if the character was male or female?

If obvious gender is obvious, then you're probably doing something wrong.

 

[Dragonbums]

A lot of people have stated this already, but don't focus on the gender of the character. Because once you have the image in your head this this character is a woman, then her gender is the main focus and everything else is second. Simply focus on the character. Their quirks, pros, cons, tastes, flaws, abilities etc.
Avoid common female character cliches like romantic drama, needing a support in times of crisis, and sexism.
What I mean by sexism, is avoid having in game characters bring to the forefront that she is a woman. Like Mass Effect. Not a single characters sans pronouns ever make reference to your characters gender. This was good because it didn't remind everyone that this is a woman first, character second.