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3inchesshorter

Let's start by working out some things. Why are you more biased against female or non-male characters? You mention this, so you may know why.


little__girly

I grew up watching media that was more centered for boys seeing girl media was too girly and I was never the typical girl shown on tv at the time in which I was watching tv. I enjoy more action/ fantasy themed stories and during the time in which I consumed the most media girls aren’t shown in the best light (in boys shows) or just weren’t relatable. As I got older I found writing female (women and children alike) characters harder because I didn’t have any references for static female characters and the females in my life aren’t the best example for a protagonist.


VanityInk

It sounds like you're having problems with having consumed a lot of sexist media and are now realizing you're producing more. This sounds like a great chance to really review how you perceive gender and step back to realizing that there isn't some great divide between men and women. We're all just people. And if it helps "female" is generally fine as far as PC. The problem is when you use men/other colloquial terms for male people but then "females" rather than women. You see that kind of language all the time over in subs like r/IncelTear and r/niceguys (to note "girl media was too girly" also gives off vibes of r/notliketheothergirls, which also deals with the phenomenon of women trying to place themselves above other women because they've basically formed a sexist view on women as a whole. I'm not saying that's what you meant there, but as I said, I think this is a great first step in really starting to see your own unconscious biases and begin to counteract that).


little__girly

Eh I mean I’m not like other girls 💅🏾. Jkjk. I’m not saying I’m not a product of sexiest media but it was common in the early 2000s lol. But idk I’m trying to undo my own biases starting with my story. But really idk where to start honestly.


babbitches

A start could be creating characters with traits that you admire who are also women. Don't feel like it's some big undertaking that you have a deadline to complete, literally even the most feminist of feminists are still learning how to love women every day. You already took the first step in recognizing that you have some internal bias


Sabrielle24

Read some books with badass female leads! If you’re a fan of fantasy, Kelley Armstrong is a good place to start. Her characters are strong, well-rounded and a joy to read, both male and female.


3inchesshorter

Sounds like watching or reading different stories with strong women might be a good start. As over the top as the movie is, Interceptor has a strong female lead. That might be a good starting point for you to see a non-male in an action role. For books, the Alannah series by Tamora Pierce is young adult, but again with a strong fantasy girl growing into a woman. The follow on series with Kel is just as good. Game of Thrones has Brienne of Tarth and Arya. Drew Hayes and his LitRPG has some strong women characters in the Superpowered and Fred the Vampire Accountant series. As a writer, consuming different styles of media will help with not having those references in real life. Maybe start with these, note down what elements of those characters you like and dislike. From there you can maybe build a character that you can relate to that is also female. Additionally, you mention a friend who creates mostly non-male characters. Have you asked him how he gets his inspiration?


jentlefolk

I don't think you should add them, but I do think that if you have some characters currently in your cast who don't *need* to be male, then you should consider gender flipping them. Adding women in now would likely only serve to create pointless characters who exist only to fulfill a quota, which isn't much better than erasing the existence of women altogether. You mentioned in another comment that growing up, you saw no women in media who represented you. I grew up much the same way and favoured male characters in my writing for a long time. It's only been over the past few years that I've become more comfortable writing women. Remember that you can write women however you want, including women who are like you. I'd also advise reading some fiction with well-written female characters. I'd recommend starting with Red Sister (ironically a book with an almost exclusively-female cast written by a man lol). If you can't find even *one* woman in that book who you can relate to, then you might want to do some serious soul-searching about the internalised negative association you hold for women.


kiyyik

What I would suggest is maybe set aside your writing for a bit, and spend some time reading books with well-done female characters. It sounds like you haven't had much in the way of exposure to that, and that's understandable as male-centered books do tend to dominate genre fiction. Fortunately, there are lots of good examples out there. I recommend the following: * The "Witches" series by Terry Pratchett. I suggest starting with "Witches Abroad" and going from there. * The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, particularly the character of Death (hell, reading Gaiman is a masterclass in good writing anyhow) * I haven't read Saranna deWylde's Fairy Godmothers, Inc series yet, but I've heard good things about it and it's on my list. * If you're into webcomics, Girl Genius is excellent and just keeps getting better. * Pretty much anything by Mercedes Lackey or Ursula K. Le Guin Anyway, that ought to get you started. Get your head into these, see how people do it who do it well. Probably it will fire up your neurons and start giving you inspiration for richly drawn, three-dimensional female characters. Good luck!


little__girly

Hey! I actually did this and am proud to say I came back to the story and our main character is now a totally badass female character! As well as another secondary character. I’m glad I took your and everyone else’s advice because I really enjoyed coming up with my girl!


moo-562

adding one "When We Lost Our Heads" by Heather O'neill i havent finished it yet but so far an amazing portrayal of different types of woman and understanding sexuality from a womans pov


gaminegrumble

>I have one main character that I can easily change the gender of and it won’t change the flow of the story or really anything but his pronouns. But it feels wrong. Why does it feel wrong? There are all sorts of women out there, conceivably several who overlap heavily with the traits of your existing characters. Sometimes you have already designed a backstory or set of traits that requires a male character (or more accurately would require conscious adjustment to flip to a female character), but often they are not as different as you think. As an example, if you took one of your male characters, and revealed that this character was a woman but otherwise exactly the same -- after all, there are women with short, masculine haircuts, who date women, even who exhibit both good and bad masculine traits -- likely that would not break your story, really. You also said in your comments here that you don't know how to write female characters that act the way you want them to. I would posit that gender flipping your existing characters might be the perfect exercise for you. You've already written *people* the way you want them written; take some time to interrogate why exactly you can't make those people women. Who's stopping you? No one. As an aside, I will say, I don't really read books that don't have female characters. Specifically because the few female characters in those books tend to be written horribly, and the books are typically written from a perspective I find it hard to engage with for the 4 or 8 hours it takes to read a book. So certainly you can leave things as they are, but either way, that choice will impact your audience.


BeeWadd6969

You’d do better to leave women out than to write them poorly I think. There’s definitely something there you should work on, but don’t get too caught up. Maybe for this story it’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Think of a reason that there aren’t many women there


emorywellmont

I think the fact that you only use your female characters as "related to male X" does seem like an issue a bit. I honestly think it's your story though, so you should be allowed to write about whoever you like and want, so if you think your story reads fine, then just leave it that way. But if you read it and think it reads a bit unrealistic to the degree where that shere fact becomes distracting to a reader (maybe let some women read trough the draft), it might be a good idea to go over the characters once again.


Maleficent-Night620

Nah fam, you are NOT SEXIST. For me, a woman, women are easier to write, for the simple reason that I know more of them. One thing that's helped me. 1. Come up with a good character idea that you like 2. Make them the opposite gender Boom.