In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about writing better female characters. This is the first part of a two-part episode on the topic.
Listen to it here on Podbean or find us on your favourite podcast app.
What we talked about
- That, in the US, women are estimated to buy 70–80% of fiction books
- There are way more male than female leads in children’s books
- That novels, on average and across the board, only have one female character to four male characters
- But that many readers FEEL like there are way more female protagonists these days than there are male protagonists
- That women writers also have a tendency to write male characters, and that women are not exempt from perpetuating problematic female representations
- What kind of roles women tend to have in fiction
- A selection of tropes to avoid or seriously consider when writing female characters
- Some of the most persistent narrative structures that disempower and/or harm women
- Why it is important to write female characters better, even if books with badly written women are selling well
(Re)sources mentioned on the show
- “How many books per year do Americans read?” by Jamie Ballard: https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2018/08/14/reading-books-men-women
- “Gender in twentieth-century children’s books” by Janice McCabe: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241647875_Gender_in_Twentieth-Century_Children%27s_Books
- “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World, Even in a Pandemic Year: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top U.S. Films of 2021” by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen: https://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2021-Its-a-Mans-Celluloid-World-Report.pdf
- “Women Buy Fiction in Bulk and Publishers Take Notice” by Trip Gabriel: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/17/business/women-buy-fiction-in-bulk-and-publishers-take-notice.html
- “AI study finds that males are represented four times more than females in literature” by Maya Abu-Zahra: https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2022/04/ai-study-finds-that-males-are-represented-four-times-more-than-females-in-literature/
- “Male leads in fiction sell 10 million more books on average than female leads” by Kelly Jensen: https://bookriot.com/male-leads-in-fiction/
- “A new study shows that girls write fewer female characters as they get older” by Walker Caplan: https://lithub.com/a-new-study-shows-that-girls-write-fewer-female-characters-as-they-get-older/
- RWBY TV Series: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3066242/
- “The Problem with Female Protagonists” by Jo Eberhardt: https://writerunboxed.com/2016/08/06/the-problem-with-female-protagonists/
- “Discussion Time: Why are there More Female Protagonists than Male?” by Beth: https://readingeverynight.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/discussion-time-why-are-there-more-female-protagonists-than-male/
- 7 Figure Fiction by T. Taylor: https://7figurefiction.com/
- “It is time to kill the cool girl trope” by Raha Murtuza: https://thermtide.com/14279/popular/it-is-time-to-kill-the-cool-girl-trope/
- Gone Girl – Cool Girl: https://youtu.be/0o4heKCLeTs
- “Name That Trope: She’s hot! She’s cool! She’s one of the guys!” by Kelsey Wallace: https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/name-that-trope-the-super-hot-bro-girl
- How to Write About Sexual Assault: An Incomplete Guide by Salt and Sage Books: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-About-Sexual-Assault-ebook/dp/B08DHHN82D
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41104077-invisible-women
- How NOT to Write Female Characters by Lucy V. Hay: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41739262-how-not-to-write-female-characters
- “10 MORE SEXIST Tropes in Science Fiction and Fantasy” by DZA: https://youtu.be/oiooafKkVMI
- “I Don’t Want to Be the Strong Female Lead” by Brit Marling: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/opinion/sunday/brit-marling-women-movies.html
- “10 Best Tips for Writing Strong Female Characters” by Writing with Jenna Moreci: https://youtu.be/nz88MxBtuqc
- “How Not To Write Female Characters” by Kitty: http://impishidea.com/writing/how-not-to-write-female-characters
- “How to Avoid Creating Female Character Stereotypes in Your Writing” by wikiHow and Lucy V. Hay: https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Creating-Female-Character-Stereotypes-in-Your-Writing
- “Men Writing Women Characters – Never Make These Mistakes!” by Richie Billing: https://richiebilling.com/writing-tips/men-writing-women-5-mistakes-to-watch-out-for
- “Men, Don’t Make these 6 Mistakes When You Write Female Characters” by Denisa Feathers: https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/men-dont-make-these-6-mistakes-when-you-write-female-characters-c3f98a5b5e54
- Mariëlle’s 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner: https://mswordsmith.nl/journal
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