Guys, I’m gonna get real for a sec. With all the talk of diversity in Hollywood and the dismal number of women who direct (and are otherwise involved behind the scenes in) mainstream films, it’s not surprising that there are a ton of articles coming out about how to write female characters, etc. This is especially true since two of the biggest blockbusters to come out in the past year had awesome, amazing female protagonists (Mad Max: Fury Road—which I loved—and Star Wars: The Force Awakens—which I haven’t seen yet).

ScreenCraft just published one such article (written by a woman) on their blog:  5 Tips on How to Write an Awesome Female Protagonist.

Let me say first that I’m happy that the idea of writing better female characters is getting all this attention. Because it’s about freakin’ time. But there are so many things wrong with this that I felt the need to write my own version.

So, here are my tips for  How to Write Kick-Ass Protagonists (Who Might Happen to be Female) [Editor’s note: bonus points for anyone who gets the George Carlin reference in that one].

1. (S)he has a past.

If you want to write amazing characters, you need to think of them as real, live people.  With a past. And a future. They have had experiences that have shaped who they are, and how they act within the world of your screenplay (or novel, etc.).

2. (S)he is a complete person.

Full, realistic characters are well-rounded. I don’t mean that in the college-application-well-rounded way. I mean that sometimes they’re funny. Sometmes they’re serious. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they fail. And sometimes they just do really stupid/smart/mediocre/pointless things.

Of course,  the emphasis you place on aspects of their personality will depend on the genre you’re writing. But even in a comedy, your character probably isn’t funny all the time.

3. (S)he isn’t a stereotype.

I don’t care if you’re writing a  male character or a female one. If there’s absolutely zero chance that you could swap the gender of that character without a massive rewrite, then congratulations: you’ve written a completely stereotypical character.

Here’s a tip: don’t do that. Sure,  there are  some subjects and plots that are naturally going to lend themselves to one sex or the other. Obviously if your story is about the front lines of the Civil War, you’re going to have issues with creating a female soldier protagonist. And if your story revolves around breast cancer, making your protagonist male  would give it a completely different slant. But if you can’t pick a random piece of dialogue out of your script and change  the sex of who said it  and have it still make sense, then you should rethink how you’re writing your characters.

4. The Bechdel Test is not the be-all and end-all.

The Bechdel Test  gets a lot of attention. The test consists of three things:

two named female characters
who talk to each other
about something other than a man.

Simple, right? Sure. But there are all kinds of movies that  pass the Bechdel  Test  that don’t have well-rounded female (or other) characters.  And there are certainly movies out there that don’t pass the test that have wonderfully written characters of both sexes.

Here’s the thing: your characters’ conversations should revolve around more than members of the opposite sex. Yes, even if you’re writing a romance. Think  about your daily life. Do you only ever talk about who you’re dating? Hopefully not. You probably talk about ideas, about work, about the errands you don’t want to run, or the family member who’s driving you crazy.

Instead of focusing just on the Bechdel Test and calling it “good”, try focusing on creating characters who are concerned with more than just one thing (that one thing being getting laid).

5. (Wo)men are people.

Your characters are people. Regardless of what they’re doing in your story, they’re whole, real people. They have their own experiences, their own motivations,  their own wants and dreams.  Don’t  write a woman “like she’s human” because  she is human (unless she’s an alien, but I digress).

The same goes for the men in your story. For every woman out there who’s written as a marriage-obsessed bimbo, there’s a guy who’s written as an emotionless macho “man’s man” (whatever the hell that means). Neither one is  true-to-life in most cases. Sure, we all know people who come across like that in our real lives, but there’s more depth beneath the surface; there are reasons  why they’re like that.

 

The point here is that writing male and female protagonists isn’t really that different. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Your goal should always be to write characters who are real, full people within the world you’re creating in your story. The second you start thinking about them as characters is the second you’ll start  veering off course. Think of them as people first and you’ll have a much easier time writing realistic, believable, rich characters.