How to ACTUALLY Write Female Characters

uh I don't know if you know this about me but I'm a pretty big deal now I'm a YouTuber who complained about women and fiction on the internet one time and got hundreds of thousands of views for it no the other one no the other one okay yeah so my last video on this topic did incredibly well and I can't say I'm too surprised by it in fact that was the intent in fact out of any video that I had made in that batch I knew that one was is going to be successful there are few things that the YouTube algorithm will always have a place for and those are cat videos and some random white guy on the internet complaining about fictional women anyways I think I have a little bit more to say on the topic so I wanted to go into a bit more detail about my thoughts and ideas for writing women in fiction uh namely I wanted to talk about why it seems some female leads seem to effortlessly resonate with audience where others struggle I also wanted to address some comments and conversations that were happening in the comment section of the last video and you might be thinking to yourself why should I listen to some random Italian man on the internet and my answer is stop coming into my house to ask these things I've changed the locks like three times how do you keep getting in here go away the second thing I might say after defenestrating you is because unlike most white boys critiquing female characters on the internet I actually write female characters in other words I put my money where my mouth is and I'm confident that I have at least some of the answers when it comes to making compelling female characters in fiction and if you don't believe me you can check out the rough draft of my book over at Royal Road for free no sign up or anything needed literally just follow the link in the description and read a few chapters and while I don't believe one needs to be skilled in what they criticize in order to make a valid critique I also feel they're far too many critics using that fact as a crutch for their own lack of Talent OR effort anyone can backseat a writer and tell them what they did wrong anyone can make something difficult sound extremely easy and simple not everyone can put lessons to practice or commit hours to honing a story that might not even be good in the end not everybody can put themselves out there and be proud of the effort that they made even if somebody else might claim that they have no Talent that's a very long-winded way of saying that when I make a critique it is coming from a place of expertise I understand the difficulties writers have when making their characters because I am a writer myself I find too many critics in this space will make up some sort of conspiracy theory for why a certain show or character is bad when they really don't know the first thing about writing a good character or how even with all the knowledge of how to make a good character writers can still fail at making a good character this brings me to my first point something I don't think anyone really ever talks about is that a likable female character doesn't always start at whether or not it's well written sometimes it starts at what people interpret about the author's intent when writing the character in the first place and here's what I mean by that if the audience begins to think that a character was only made into a female character in an effort to Pander to them or to cast a wider net and appeal to more people then people are less likely to enjoy that character there is an air of manipulation that comes from this part people can get a sense that an author has written a character that is less about their personal preferences and perspectives and more about suiting the personal preferences and perspectives of the people they wish to appeal to I.E the audience but the simple fact is that all writers are manipulators to one degree or another the mark of a good writer is to get you invested in stories and people who might not even exist in the first place we tell stories in such a way that you react as we intend you feel sad happy or angry depending on what happens in the story however when it comes to pandering and The Meta critique of female characters in fiction the writer no longer has control over those emotions no instead it's the grifter on YouTube telling you to be outraged at the latest story who has control over your emotions but not always sometimes our anger is valid and it's not not just the opinion of another person that shapes who we are or how we react sometimes we have our own personal biases and preferences which shape how we interact with media I'm sure everyone can agree that yes men are annoying and when it comes to writer did I really write that where am I going with this oh that's what I was saying yes men okay I'm sure everyone can agree that yes men are annoying and when it comes to writers that try to appeal to everyone with their characters there's a very yesman vibe that comes with this the type of person who will change their personality in order to suit whoever they are talking to and an effort to suck up to them and make friends someone who is too afraid to have a controversial opinion and is just paring whatever everyone else is saying around them all the while not adding anything meaningful to their conversations because none of their thoughts ever appear to be genuine or their own you cannot trust Yes Men writers nor can you relate to their characters they are not trying to tell you a story they're trying to appeal to you and those are two very different things on the opposite side of this coin we have a writer whose intent appears to be to stir the pot a person with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove to the audience and anyone who might dislike what they like uh there's an air of insecurity in this writer when you're reading something from this writer it feels as if they're trying to justify their choices to you instead of just making the choices and allowing people to come to their own conclusions for this type of writer it is not enough for them to Simply have their own interests in politics they must belittle and attack others they perceive to be against them and they must bring others down to their level of insecurity in order to feel as if they are worthy of telling their own story with their own female characters regardless of which side of the spectrum the writer falls under when an author appears to write a female character to appeal to other people or attempt to justify their choices to a perceived opposition it can come off as disingenuous to the audience instead of just writing from the heart the writer is too preoccupied with the opinions and views of other people who may or may not be engaging with their art in doing so they ironically detach themselves from the very audience they are attempting to reach with their work when writing something like a female character or any sort of character for that matter it's important to remember that you should write from the heart fill your Niche and your role pay no mind to what others may or may not think about your writing and focus on the message you wish to send instead take joy in the process of writing have fun with your character let their personalities resonate with you and it will inevitably resonate with others because if a character is not fun for you to write about chances are that character won't be very fun to read about either there are also things that are out of your control as a writer such as the perception people might have of the company you work for or the assumptions other people might make about you as a person based on how you choose to write your characters it's unfair it's frustrating but most of all it's temporary these sorts of opinions change with the times what was critically panned in one decade may be Reve viewed and retrospect it in another the majority opinions surrounding the quality of a story can shift over time and I personally believe that a story written with conviction and Care is one which will always inevitably be viewed as good in the end I think it's important for writers to stick to their virtues and their interests when writing especially when it comes to female characters your art will not always be understood the moment it is released and that's okay allow people to have their opinions about it no matter how wrong or right you think they are speaking of wrong opinions I find that the discussion surrounding female characters is rather disingenuous sometimes it feels as if female leads are held to a higher standard than male leads and if you're currently writing something in the comment section to uh disprove that or discredit that claim you've kind of just proven my point in order to have a female lead these characters must be well written and cannot settle for anything less and if the the female character is not well written well then that says something about the writer or their politics or that they're just pandering and yada yada yada as if a woman just existing in fiction is offensive because yes in fact the aspect of what a good and bad female character is is not always up to whether or not the character is actually well written it's up to the general impression of those who engage with those characters it is at the mercy of public opinion a public opinion which can be swayed by taking advantage of people's hidden biases and using them as the basis for attacking a perfectly fine character one such character that has been spammed in my comment section of the last video on this topic is Kora I think that when I was growing up watching Kora a lot of people actually really really disliked her as a character and a lot of people didn't like how the legend of Kora turned out most people stop watching at the first two seasons uh but those who kept watching uh likely those who were a lot younger ended up enjoying the series as a whole and coming to like b as a character I haven't yet gone back to rewatch The Show so I don't really have an opinion on that one way or the other however I do think it's an interesting take because it does show that sometimes a female character existing is just enough for people to not like them if they're not as well written or up to the same standard as the other male character leads then a female lead can lead to a lot of controversy even if the writing is just fine and what I'm trying to get at with all of this is that all of these critique channels who will take the latest female lead character and prop them up as an example of how far our society has fallen by trying to be inclusive are just cringe pointing to diversity as if it's something which destroys storytelling just doesn't make any sense and talking about how female lead characters somehow take away from men as a whole is just insecure how are stories worse off or having involved minority groups or putting women in lead roles because sometimes the difference between something that is Well written or something that is poorly written is whether or not the critic's feelings have been hurt by them existing in the first place but I like plenty of female characters the critic might say here's an exhaustive list of all the female characters who are done right and while that is fine to have a list I think you're missing my point having a list prepared in the first place only proves what I'm saying when we talk about poorly written male characters we rarely ever need a list nor do we ever talk about men as a whole gender whereas whenever we talk about poorly written female characters many times if not all the time gender roles and traditional feminine traits are brought up as talking points I can't remember the last time I've seen a male character get trashed for not being manly enough or a poorly written male character being hoisted up as an example for why men are ruining writing and fiction maybe I'm just not looking in the right places no it always seems like the male character is allowed to simply be a bad character whereas a poorly written female character must always have some sort of overarching message about our society and its declining talent for storytelling and how wokeism is ruining Hollywood and blah blah blah blah blah blah and no I'm not saying we should start criticizing male characters on the basis of their gender to make things balanced and equal that's not what I'm getting at I'm saying we should stop doing that to female characters and just allow them to exist in fact stop doing it to any character that doesn't fall under the narrow standards of normal this simple fact is some stories are just not written for us some stories will not resonate with us because we simply do not share those perspectives or interests that the writer is writing about it does not make the story bad simply because it does not appeal to us and it does not mean something cannot appeal to us if it is not technically intended to appeal to us either we can resonate with any story which suits our taste and so can everyone else any story which gets wildly popular in a short amount of time is proof of this concept the story will reach audiences who do not resonate with it in fact any extremely popular story will constantly reach audiences who do not resonate with it we'll see contrarians haters trolls and people who just don't see what all the fuss is about viewing their own personal tastes higher than others as one does some might feel cheated that the story they love is not as popular as another story that they don't feel deserves it amazing digital circus is a good example of this as well as a good example of how to write a fantastic female character although to be fair at the time of writing this video there has only been a single pilot released so it's really a stretch to say whether or not any character is truly well- written in the long run we just know that pretty much every character introduced to us including and especially the female cast are all very strong starts which has captured the interest of millions there is a concept of a strong female character that is always thrown around when it comes to fiction and media I think it's because people often confuse the term strong female character with well-written female character or strongly compelling female character a strong female character does not need to be strong in any physical or emotional way no a strong female character is less about the strength of their will or body and more about the strength and potency of their personality PNE is an excellent example of this neurotic mentally unstable emotionally and physically weak and yet lovable for all the flaws she has we can all relate to pom's situation in one way or another the existential dread of being trapped in a false reality wanting so desperately to escape your imprisonment knowing how terrified we would be if we no longer remembered our names or our pasts just knowing that we should not be where we are and we cannot leave especially seeing the other characters around you are all fighting the urge to break mentally themselves allowing their mental states to bend in an effort to avoid breaking completely something which pomy I think will soon have to learn L they meet the same Grim fate as those who came before them it's a compelling narrative and there's a lot of mystery in the show which entices the audience and sets our imaginations wild with potential I predict however that the moment these questions start getting answered is also the exact moment we see YouTube critics panning the show and telling us how good it used to be regardless what sets a character like pomy who has only had one episode apart from characters like Ray from Star Wars or Kora from Avatar who have entire franchises to their name what sets her apart from characters many critics will pan as poorly written or downright terrible I think it's that ability to display their flaws and draw upon something the audience can easily attach themselves to we can put ourselves in pom's place regardless of whether or not she shares our gender or if we would react in the same way she does py is equally allowed to be the butt of the joke as well as the main driver of the plot she sees an exit and tries to follow it from the very first episode escaping into the void before being brought back to that digital prison for more wacky hij Jinks and Adventures to come PNE is not a good character because she's the hero who is destined to free everyone from the digital circus she is not a good character because she has all the answers and intuition necessary to save everyone she is a good character because she is just as flawed as everyone else around her in the story she is a good character because she is allowed to be the butt of the joke she is granted the freedom to be her own person and most importantly I don't think anyone would really bring up the fact that pomy is a woman in the first place I don't think anyone is standing on a soap box declaring pomy to be the character for little girls to Aspire to and I don't think the writer is proudly proclaiming that they've made a great female character I don't think anyone is propping pomy up on a cross okay you know what maybe the animator is uh but I don't think anyone is propping pomy up as an example for How the West has fallen and politics has ruined writing because good writing is good writing and a well-written character can make people forget about their biases it can make certain critics just a little bit more quiet that's not to say though that writing alone is what makes her good I think another thing that probably sets her apart is the quality of the animation and voice acting writing is just one aspect of an entire show and although fantastic writing can make any show good no matter how well or poorly produced it is having good visuals and acting performances can really breathe a lot of life into the characters that are written the facial expressions alone can tell you a lot about a character and that's something which goes beyond simply writing amazing digital circus is amazing for many reasons but I'd argue the most amazing thing about it is the potential it has rather than the actual content we've seen so far however that's a topic for another video If I ever decide to make it back on topic I think there's something to be said about how quickly we can get people to like a character even a female character sure we can defend our egos as writers by telling the critics that they're just sexist or biased against us but we can't force them to like the character they've already decided to hate or can we well we definitely can force people to like our characters but perhaps forcing is the wrong word writers are Master manipulators as I've said and the number one rule of manipulating someone is to make them think that their decisions are their own and not yours I actually don't know if that's the first rule or if there are rules to manipulating people I'm not a manipulator or am I no I'm not but maybe yeah no I'm not is what I would say anyways the simple fact is that that a writer desperately arguing in the comment sections of their work is never going to convince a critic that they've got it wrong the best thing you can do as a writer is to make something you enjoy writing and allow critics to have their opinions sometimes it is Our intention as writers to make a character which people hate only to give them a Redemption Arc which turns all the haters into fans sometimes though people get impressions of characters that we do not intend and it it is up to us as writers to do one of two things clarify it later in the story or take that unintended impression and make it seem like you always intended to do that yes sometimes writing is about how well you can fake it and sometimes making a good female character is less about making a character everyone loves and instead making a character that everyone hates because whether or not someone loves or hates a character that still means that they care about it in some way even if some salty people might try to claim that they don't care in the middle of an hourong video essay about how much they hate your character I guess what I'm trying to get at is you're never going to be able to control everything when it comes down to your story or your characters especially when it comes to female characters however you can control how you react and you can control how seriously you take your own writing we don't need every female lead to meet this arbitrary standard of good writing we don't need female characters to represent their gender Inspire young girls or say something profound and impactful those things should come as a consequence of a well-written story with fundamentally interesting characters and thought thread frein is another example of such a story which has absolutely blown me away recently and it's something I feel I want to make more videos on in the future what's interesting to me though is that Ren's cast is everything an anti-sjw critique bro would complain about and yet they don't maybe it's because the show has not run for long enough or maybe freerun story and World building is so immaculate it fries their brains too much trying to think of something that they hate about it things like male characters being shoved to the side or emasculated while female characters are so much more powerful and stoic and yet something like that never seems to bother anyone when it comes to free room I think it's because the weakness is not projected on to men as a whole gender and the strength of the female characters is not projected onto women as a whole gender I also think that it's because frein is so fantastically written that it could pretty much display any sort of woke politics and the critics would have to be silent or grasp at straws just to make anything close to a coherent argument against it that should be your goal as a writer to make something so compelling so deep and engaging that even if if the people who are politically biased against it they still have to admit how good it is when I see some writers fall back and claim that the reason people don't like their stories as a whole is because their audiences are sexist and they just don't get it while I agree that sometimes that is the case a lot of times it's also just a skill issue I think the reason a character like freen is so compelling is because the writing does not focus on those aspects of the story if they are present instead the story shows the strengths and flaws of frein as a character she is stoic but she's also aloof she is patient but she is far too complacent and ends up wasting a lot of time which other human characters simply do not have waking up early making the most out of every day finding meaning in your life all of those things are foreign concept to a being who lives as long as frein does as knowledgeable and un powerful as frein is her glaring flaw is how little she understands despite having lived for so long she does not know why she cries at the death of her friends that she's only known for a mere 10 years and finding the answer to that is what the story is All About That which gives her purpose her spells is something she only collects because someone mentioned how cool her spells were frein is a story about how the small bits and pieces in life is what makes our lives worth living in the first place frein is a character who is allowed to be as flawed as she is powerful the story is meant to show us her progression in understanding the value of life and memories and she is not the only character who matters to the story this brings me to my next point the reason some female characters appear to be poorly written is because they are the sole Focus some female leads are written perfectly fine but the focus we put on them should be a matter of intent and not from a lack of good supporting characters or themes this issue tends to affect male characters more than female characters in my opinion but I think female characters get called out for it more the issue I'm talking about is how only the main protagonist seems to matter in their own story while every other character's personality is seemingly centered around the main protagonist hardly anyone likes to read a story where only one character gets to have all the spotlight but it's given a pass sometimes Dragon Ball is an excellent example of this at some point in the series it seems as if only Goku matters in the end he's the one who always gets the final hit and any of the friends or former enemies he has at his back are only there to suit him Vegeta's character is completely reliant on his rivalry with Goku Trunks comes back from the future to save Goku beerus comes to Earth to fight Goku Zeno is inspired to do a tournament because of Goku and any character who has either resolved their rivalry with Goku or is unrelated to Goku often falls to the Wayside as a background character can we remember the last time Tien or Krillin got a w can we remember the last time Gohan actually mattered to the story who the hell is launch I don't know this is a common critique of Dragon Ball and I'm not even a hater in fact I think most fans of the series will point this out as something they dislike about the series however I don't see anyone crying that this is an issue with male characters or male power fantasies And yet when it comes to writing and characters I actually think that Legend of Kora does it better than Dragon Ball yes the first two seasons of Kora are lackluster compared to the original series they fumble greatly on on the finales and ruined the continuity of Avatar as a series however if we compare how the characters are written and how they are focused on how they fail or react to things not going their way we can find that they at least do a much better job than what Dragon Ball does but I think the hatred for a character like Kora has something to do with how much they stumble in their Beginnings how much the writers attempt to throw Kora in the audience's face as the cool new female protagonist on the Block she's the Avatar and you got to deal with it I think things like that can rub people the wrong way it comes back to my first point about how audiences will dislike female characters if they dislike what they perceive the author's intentions to be Goku is a prodigy Talent capable of beating the best in the world from a young age because he is just built different Kora is a prodigy Talent capable of bending all the elements from a young age because she's just built different and while someone might argue that these two shows are not comparable I think it has more to do with the context of each story if Kora was not a sequel series to Avatar and we had the same beginning I feel less people would have a gripe with how powerful she is just the same I think there are plenty of people who criticize Dragon Ball for allowing Trunks and Goten to devalue Super Saiyan by being able to turn into them when they're like what eight no one likes when power scaling is thrown out of the window and I think that's the case with Kora here she's not a poorly written character If You observe her in isolation but the context and expectations the audience already has conflicts with how she's written so if you want to write a good female character for your story make sure they're consistent with the world you've already built around them while new characters can introduce new things about your world they should also not contradict what is already established and I know this sounds like advice for making any character well written but well that's the [ __ ] point of this whole video honestly if you're still looking for a Magic Bullet about how to write a good female character then I think you're looking in the wrong places a well-written female character beyond the sexist bias of certain critics beyond the higher expectations of outside viewers is a well-written character plain and simple you cannot write a good female character unless you know how to write good characters in the first place I've said this in the previous video but sometimes you're just overthinking it a good female character does not need to be bogged down by all of these extra conversations surrounding gender a good female character needs flaws beliefs and motivations just like every other character and they need to be consistent in their world and most importantly they do not need to be the only good character you write about your characters are pieces of yourself and if you have trouble writing good female characters then it's time for some introspection it's time to broaden your perspectives and skills Beyond just writing because the best writers are not people who always write and read the best writers are people who experience life as much as they can the ones who learn skills and accomplish things beyond the scope of Storytelling a compelling person can write compelling characters with enough practice your interests your passions and your accomplishments can bleed through into your stories that's why it's important to stop focusing on whether or not the character is a woman that's why it's important to live what you seek to teach why it's important to practice what you preach the problem with writing female characters is that you've narrowed your focus down so much you fail to see the bigger picture a poorly written female character is a symptom of a greater underlying issue with your story and your life experience which you should address one way or another but most importantly it should be add rest through trial and error and nothing will get you to write a compelling female character than first failing at writing a compelling female character so fail as fast and as many times as you can until you get it right open up your documents and start writing

Channel: Scrit

Views: 240,623

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Id: KKk5wYsuYPE

Length: 31min 20sec (1880 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2024