Originally published at: https://shanniiwrites.com/2018/07/21/breaking-the-glass-ceiling-creating-positive-female-characters/
It’s all well and good to say we need stronger, better female characters in the media… but how exactly do we achieve that? Here are some tips which should make your girls fantastic!
10 Likes
So, fun story about the art. The day I did this, Shannii was upset at me for something I had said earlier that day. I actually remember exactly what it was I’d said, too. And she wasn’t talking to me. Later that night, after we had sorted it out, she told me this was probably the best piece of art I’d done up to that point.
btw, I’m still really happy with how it turned out, and it kind of acts as a proto-Author in a few ways
3 Likes
Sorry, @Bloggers, I missed a day. I may try to sneakily catch up by doing one late tonight and then later in the day tomorrow. Just so it’s still almost a day in between. Anyway, Shani’s seventh blog post on creating positive female characters. Needing some help with creating one?
Remember that if you really enjoyed this blog, feel free to recommend it (it’s similar to liking it). This will help with it being higher in the results of search engines too.
4 Likes
I’m fine with reading two today! 
This one sounds like it will be very useful to me!
1 Like
ngl, i have been neglectful of gender and gender roles when it comes to writing
this post made me realise that, and also made me think about a couple thing
firstly
- Cliches aren’t always your enemy. You just need to know when and how to break them if you’re going to use them.
THIS
YES
cliches aren’t bad themselves, it’s only when one STAYS in a cliche and won’t build from it that it starts being negative: it’s lazy and plain
- We should have focused on creating a convincing and interesting character first, instead of simply reducing her to a feminist symbol.
agreed
an interesting, full-fledged character is always the base one needs in order to make a good character, this is where a lot of people (even published writers) fail often
they think “woman” instead of “person” and limit the character’s options like that
all the tips are very good
i will keep this short because, since i am not a woman, i don’t want to tell people how they should write women y’know?
but i do want to emphasise on this
Give them agency.
Agency is so important for female roles in fiction
they’re often portrayed as objects, instead of subjects (it’s really scary how often i’ve seen it in mass media)
and okay, sure, fictional characters aren’t actually people
but we can still give them agency and a life of their own, with decisions they can make themselves and free will
also, if you’re interested on the topic, i’ll recommend y’all to read about the “male gaze” in (mostly visual) media, and how damaging it can be for female characters
4 Likes
Added some tags