Writing Female Characters

As a female, I have read some books written by men and how some male authors have written female characters is rather questionable. In some books, women are seen as objects for male sexual needs. In others, females are seen as not friendly with other females and their relationships are catty and petty, I spoke about this problem in my book review of The Killing Lessons. And if a woman does have a good relationship with another woman, the only topic they talk about is a man - as if that is all they care about. 

Every author needs to treat every character the same, the way you plan a male character should be the same as a female character. Creating the perfect character means they have different layers to themselves which makes them realistic. But it also means that these characters can be interchangeable - a white cis male will do the same actions even if they were a black trans female. However, a character can not be interchangeable if the challenges that they go through are due to their sex, gender, race, sexuality, disability. 

Here are some tips for writers to make sure that their female characters are realistic and don’t follow the stereotypes. 

She/they have their own opinions:

→ Their decisions aren’t forced by others they are made from their instincts.

→ They will have their own thoughts and feelings. 

→ Some decisions might be mistakes, but they will learn from them. 

She/they are their own person:

→ Being their own person doesn’t necessarily mean that they are single, your character can still be in a relationship and be their own person. 

→ They will have their own goals and ambitions that aren’t focused on relationships but on their career, hobbies and pleasure, such as travelling. 

She/they will have flaws:

→ As mentioned, to create a realistic character is by giving them different layers and some of these layers will be their flaws. 

→ These flaws need to be accepted to help her overcome them and achieve their goals. 

Bechdel Test

→ This links with your female character being their own person. A women’s life doesn’t just revolve around men, there are so many aspects in their life that makes them amazing. 

→ For a book to pass this test there have to be at least two females who are talking to each other, but the topic is not about a man. 

→ A few topics that women could talk about is their career, their hobbies, maybe a problem that they are facing - such as money issues. 

→ Remember, this test can still happen in a romance novel. Although this genre is about love and the love interest might be a male, there is a lot more in their life than love. 

Research

→ This is extremely important for male authors, they will not know every single thing about females because they are not female. 

→ However, any author should be researching. As a female myself, I am completely different to another female and if I need to understand how a female’s reproduction system might work differently I will need to research that because I do not understand that. 

All of these tips are to mainly help male authors to make sure that they write realistic female characters. How you might plan your male characters and learn about their past is what you should be doing for your female characters as well. However, this is also for other authors, we all need to make sure that our female characters are treated fairly for our readers to see them and not only relate to them but admire them. 

On top of this, these tips can be used for any character that you create, for example, if they are non-binary or identify as they/them - they are still human and should be created just like any other character. 

Also remember, that character’s who do identify as non-binary but have a feminine body, e.g. having breasts, are likely to face the same issues as people who identify as women due to the way they are both perceived in the public eye.