Yeah, my latest female character is actually luggage.
2 Likes
Is she a talking suitcase?
2 Likes
Nah, just passed around between two feuding Hero Men. I’m sure peeps would love her for her helpless plight and relate to her to no end. I even made her a virgin, therefore reaching the pinnacle of char development.
3 Likes
She still sounds like a sentient suitcase to me
2 Likes
All my female characters (yes, I write them sometimes 
) are actually pretty cool and badass. @NotARussianBot really seems like enjoy Alicia.
3 Likes
She is. Hence, she is love interest, not the protagonist. Call me old-fashioned, but I like protagonists to drive the plot not be dragged by it.
3 Likes
What you need to try is the reincarnated villainess trope. It’s pretty popular in the Mangas I’m reading right now, so I know there is an audience.
Basically, it’s the act of reliving your failures and fixing them, so that you rewrite the bad ending you had died in. It allows the female to ditch the male lead that they were clinging to, and be pissy at men chasing them around. You write the weak woman ending where you’re kissing the ground of “Le Idiota Grande” (not meant to be good Spanish), and he beheads you for a crime, and in the next one, you rewrite history, steal ideas for inventions years before they come out make lots of money and make the jerk your puppet, maybe even execute him, if you do it right.
Lmao
4 Likes
@rachelsfloetry If this video can exist and be popular, then you can write a good female lead!
3 Likes
I don’t like reincarnation trope. I like characters who cast the die without guarantees, and lives where the past can’t be corrected. Honestly, I overall dislike the premise that one has to die to live a fulfilling afterlife instead of living their life to the fullest.
Best Served Cold is the book I wish I could have written… and, well, Indiana Jones, only with the main girl.
Like, what bugs me, is that flawed female characters that people like are ‘unsure of herself’, ‘too shy’, ‘feeling unworthy’, ‘wounded’, ‘fearful’ etc, when arrogant, overconfident and judgmental are perfectly great flaws not just for men.
Anyway,bathe gist is that I feel the completely opposite pressure in terms of female MCs. And it’s writing the weak/vunerable female protagonists.
1 Like
I would blame the audience for being harsh, then.
It’s not supposed to be that premise, lol. It’s living your life with regrets that premature death brings on. It could even be addressed very early: "I had everything to live my life to the fullest, but I fucked up. I know I can do better than this.
It doesn’t HAVE to be reincarnation, but a near-death experience or some other wakeup call where they are stuck as a pawn in a game allows for the male to become the opposition.
The whole point of villainess stories is to break free of the “weak woman” tropes, mostly for revenge. So things can be juggled around to drop the parts you hate.
“You shouldn’t write your character like that” coincides with a subliminal “if she’s a real heroine”. A great villain has some hero traits, just aren’t bound to the heros limits.
1 Like
I love this comparison of Black Widow and Captain Marvel. ／(^ᆺ^=)＼
2 Likes
And a good woman can’t be strong? Only the villains women are allowed to be assertive, vain, openly pursue men they like? That’s another thing that bothers me. But it’s neither here nor there. I’m writing what I want to write and hoping to find some sort of a middle ground.
2 Likes
They sell themselves as the villainess. Most the one I’ve read, they’ve been in the right the whole way.
1 Like
I don’t agree entirely with that analysis of Katniss, but I do see where you’re coming from.
1 Like
Perhaps where you fall short is in your views of what a ‘weak woman’ is. Perhaps your ideas of milder women are more male chauvinistic then you think. Which isn’t exactly a bad thing, considering societies idea of ‘strong women’ is hammered around what men think and want sexually, and women especially are brainwashed with unrealistic ideas of the ‘perfect’ woman the ‘strong’ woman, etc. Things like shyness or kindness are seen as a weak, but they really aren’t?
3 Likes
No. I am not a male chauvinist and I am okay with any female character other people write if they are not Pity Sues.
2 Likes
Do I need to bust out the demonic loaf video?
1 Like
Sorry, didn’t mean to offend. It just felt like your views are a bit extremist and unlike what a lot of authors experience when writing women. Like they say: Write what you want to see. If it works for you, then great. I just don’t agree with your take on what writing ‘strong women’ means, and your views on softer, ‘weaker’ women isn’t something I fully understand. Perhaps it’s a communication issue, or just a difference of opinion.
All I’m saying, that there’s no pressure to write strong women for the sake of popularity at all, based on my experiences.
1 Like