I have two apologies to make to Fantasy Faction readers. First, I apologize for my last article. I sort of phoned that one in. I realized it after I re-read it. It was definitely not up to my usual standards. Second, I apologize for not submitting an article last week. While I hate to sound like I’m making excuses, you can blame both problems on my insane summer schedule. I have four kids, ages 7 to 13, home for the summer, and things get a little . . . um, hectic? Yeah, hectic. So I dropped the ball on both posts. I am truly, truly sorry.
Second, I have an announcement, of sorts. In an effort to realign my priorities, time, and schedule (and hopefully balance my life a bit), I’m going to post here every two weeks instead of every week. Hopefully, that will mean 1) articles of a slightly higher quality, 2) a little more sanity and balance in my weekly schedule, and 3) more time to work on my own projects. If you ever just desperately need to see what’s happening in my life on the off weeks, however, you can certainly visit me at my own blog, www.modicumoftalent.com.
Now onto this week’s topic . . .
I started this series by talking about writing female warriors and how I thought that was becoming a stereotype of its own. The original question on Twitter, however, was how to write strong female characters who are not warriors. I intended to get back to that and didn’t, so now I’m going to actually look at that question and offer a few suggestions and hints about how I think you can write a strong, non-warrior female character.
- Narrow the scope. One of the hallmarks of a strong character is agency—the ability to act on the world and drive the plot. One way to give a character agency is to narrow the scope of the story or scene. It’s a lot harder to give a character agency when she is one of a dozen major characters. Consider dropping a few characters and narrowing the expanse of story to allow your female character more opportunities to push the action forward. You can also do this on a smaller scale with scenes—narrow the scope of the scene until just a couple of essential characters are the ones doing the acting, and then allow your female character to be the one who pushes things forward in that scene. This is actually a great way to create a strong minor character, and if you make that character a woman or girl, then you’ll show that you have a more well-rounded cast of non-stereotypes.
- Develop your female character’s voice by listening to other women. This one may be more directed at the guys, but I think the same could be true of women who try to write good male characters. Spend some time with the opposite gender. Really listen. Find some people who have a distinctive voice and think about how to recreate a similar voice on the page. In general, shameless eavesdropping will go a long way toward helping you write better dialogue and find distinct character voices. And focusing on how women communicate—the inflections they tend to use, the way they interact with others verbally, hand gestures, body language—can help you figure out how to give your characters unique, authentic voices.
- Remember that we are not solely defined by occupations or roles. “Warrior” is only a piece of a character. So is “mom,” “queen,” “priestess,” etc. So rather than fixate on the particular role of the character, think about what aspect of that strength you’re trying to convey. How can you communicate that aspect of character in some other fashion? A “warrior” might be someone who has a strong sense of justice and right and wrong. Can you put a woman with that trait in some other role?
- Consider the hallmarks of personal strength. Certainly, “strength” isn’t always about physical capabilities or showing off an “I don’t care what anyone thinks” attitude. In fact, a lot of times, the “I don’t care” attitude can indicate that a person is actually deeply insecure and hiding behind an attitude. So think about some other ways you can show strength:
- Ability to forgive
- Personal fortitude—the resolve to not be swayed from closely held beliefs
- Integrity, especially when forsaking it would be beneficial
- Pursuit of excellence despite setbacks
- Compassion when being compassionate comes with a significant personal cost
Those are just a few things off the top of my head. None of those aspects of strength are gender- or role-specific. A warrior can have those traits just as easily as a priest(ess), parent, diplomat, assassin, lawyer, royal, or merchant. Is it possible to put your character in a different role and still have her display those hallmarks of strength? Then you’ve probably created a fairly strong character no matter what her actual role is.
- Make her the protagonist. Of her own story, that is. Even if your female character only has a minor role in your story, look at her part of it through her eyes. How does she act on her own part of the story? What does she see that you didn’t see as the “omniscient” creator? Get inside her head and behind her eyes. Her responses will be a lot more genuine if you make her the protagonist of her story.
It should be fairly obvious that any and all of these tips can work for creating male characters, too. In fact, isn’t that sort of the point—that characters are just people (human, elven, fae, whatever), despite gender differences? Creating a strong character starts with character, not gender.
In two weeks, I want to look at creating male characters who can contribute to genuine feminist goals—namely, gender equality and basic human rights. Because men, even if you’re nervous about creating female characters, you can still write good fantasy that encourages gender equality and mutual respect.
