How To Write Female Characters (As A Male Author) – 9 Key Tips

As a male author, there is a lot to get wrong with your female characters. From cliches and stereotypes to leaving ladies out of your book entirely, there are a lot of things to get wrong. This shouldn’t be surprising. Men and women have some very obvious and more subtle differences. With a little practice and awareness, you can learn how to write female characters and actually do a good job.

Below, I’ll cover nine things you should pay attention to about your female characters. Some are things you should do, and others are pitfalls you’ll have to avoid. I’ll also give you some tests to do (when possible) to be sure you’re writing quality gals in your book. So, without further ado, let’s get into how to write female characters.

How To Write Female Characters

1. Don’t Make Them Incapable

Female characters don’t have to be good at everything, but they shouldn’t all be utterly helpless or useless. In small doses, for some characters, this may not be an issue. However, if your female characters are all passive and incapable, or it happens in all your books, you may be falling into a “damsel in distress” situation.

To help with this, ask yourself, “Do I have any female characters that are good at their jobs.” If not, you definitely need to make some changes. Some good examples of characters who have a strong suit are Hermione Granger, Brienne of Tarth, Katniss Everdeen, and Arya Stark.

Sure, they aren’t great at everything and occasionally need help. But they’re all very capable at some particular things. Your characters should be, too.

2. Ignorance Of The Physical

If you’ve ever been over to the “bad women’s anatomy” Reddit page, you know that there are a lot of things men don’t understand about female anatomy—particularly things like periods and menstruation, pregnancy and reproduction, and health issues specific to women.

This also applies to things like makeup that never smears and lipstick that doesn’t come off. In general, these are things most men don’t think about on a daily basis throughout life. However, that’s no excuse. Just like many other things you’d put in your book that you’re unfamiliar with, you’ll need to do some research.

That said, you should also consider what info is relevant to your story. It’s completely fine not to bring up your female leads period. But if you’re going to mention it or you need to mention it, do yourself (and your readers a favor) and get the info right.

3. Attractiveness = Good

This is an issue for all characters (partially thanks to Hollywood casting) but is very common with female characters. The protagonist is usually good-looking, and the antagonist is often ugly. If you’re doing this consciously, that’s one thing. However, if you default to sex appeal being an indication of morality, you’re doing your writing a disservice.

If you’re guilty of this, it’s a pretty easy fix. Don’t make sex appeal (or lack thereof) the key personality trait unless it’s on purpose. And you could consider giving all important characters (regardless of gender) some “good” and “bad” physical qualities if they come up.

4. Lack Of Influencing The Plot

This one is tricky. Sometimes, you may include ladies in your work and not do anything particularly poorly. However, it’s not uncommon for female characters to lack general substance in the story. For example, perhaps a male main character’s mom, girlfriend, or sister.

Of course, every story doesn’t have to have women prominently featured. However, if you do have female characters involved in the plot, take a look and see if any have stand-alone plots that are not just a support role. If you don’t, you’re probably guilty of writing pretty flat female characters.

If you find this to be the case, consider that character’s role in the plot. If they’re there, they should be involved in the conflict, have motivations of their own that influence their actions, and an arc that progresses the plot or sub-plot in some ways.

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5. No Conscious Female POV

Women have a very different experience in the world than men. This is not to say all ladies are terrified to walk down the street alone. However, in general, women will have a different awareness of their surroundings.

An example I’ve always noted is how women typically look out for one another. Even if it’s a stranger, I notice ladies are often very diligent about the safety and comfort of one another in public and quick to help when needed.

There isn’t a set-in-stone “right or wrong” here; consider when men and women might genuinely react differently to a given situation and write accordingly. Bonus tip: Less is more here; not every action has to be dictated by the fact that the character is a girl.

6. Important, Goal-Based Choices

Let’s say you’ve followed along so far and have tips 1-5 checked off. Congrats. You’ve probably got some strong, realistic female characters that are important to the plot. Awesome. Now, stop and list all the ladies in your novel.

Do any of them make any decisions that affect the plot… Romantic decisions about men don’t count. Ok, they can count, but you can do better than just the romance angle. This is similar to number four, which is to be sure your female characters are actively influencing the plot with their own storyline motivations.

This tip refers to them taking things into their own hands. Are your ladies just along for the ride, or are they making decisions and choices that influence what’s happening? Any character (male or female) that is only ever reacting to things happening to them probably isn’t very interesting.

This is particularly common in “damsel in distress” type situations where a woman is taken against her will, does very little to successfully help her situation, and is later saved by someone else. If your character has goals, let them work toward what they want.

7. Use Both Female And Male Traits

So far, we’ve been somewhat black and white about male and female traits. In reality, everyone has some masculine and feminine characteristics, even if they are subtle. And let’s not forget the general human things that we all do.

Men can be highly emotional. Women can be quick to violence. The tip here is don’t make your character 100% entirely feminine. But don’t fall into the “write a man and make it a female” advice either. If you’re reading this article, you’re beyond such nonsense, and you know that while gender isn’t relevant to everything, there are things to consider!

8. Don’t Name Drop “Lady” Things

When you write, the reader only knows what you tell them and what is implied. There are a lot of ways to let the reader know which sex your character is without shameless name-dropping things that are exclusive to women.

Of course, there can be exceptions to this, given they’re relevant to a scene. We should not learn that the protagonist is a woman by reading about how “acutely aware of their ovary” they are while waiting for the bus.

This is an extreme example, but you get the point. Don’t be lazy and introduce a character with a random mention of some body part or function unless it’s for a well-thought-out reason.

9. Avoid Cliche Description

This is the one you’ve probably been waiting for. Don’t describe your female characters by body parts – hair, hips, boobs, etc. And please, don’t use dimensions. This has nothing to do with morality. Describing women in a sexual way or with particular body parts could be acceptable.

I mention this because it’s incredibly common and usually just bad writing. “She was 5’7, weighed 120 pounds, c-cup breasts.” This would be like introducing a male character and mentioning his bicep size. Sounds pretty cringy when you flip it, huh?

If you wouldn’t give height, weight, and chest measurements for a male character, we can probably do without them for your female character. I also advise you not to overuse generic descriptions like petite, slender, hot, or dainty. While not terrible, they tend to be used frequently and can feel amateurish if you’re not careful.

Female Characters With LivingWriter

LivingWriter is an all-in-one writing platform to help writers reach their full potential. If you’re struggling with writing amazing female characters, LivingWriter can help. For instance, any of the questions I suggested you ask while looking at your characters can be asked directly to the Manuscript Chat.

This is a great way to get feedback on stories you’ve already written and find areas where your characters could be better. A very simple example is, “Do I have good female characters?” which I asked for one of my stories.

The beauty of LivingWriter AI is that it doesn’t write for you. Being integrated directly into your manuscript, it’s able to offer you tailored and personal feedback that helps you improve your writing. All while keeping your voice and work completely intact.

If you’re starting from scratch on a new story, LivingWriter can give you a head start on a well-crafted heroine or villainess. For example, you can start with some basic info and let the LW Elements give you a profile to work with.

After a brief prompt, you have a fleshed-out profile of a character to write into your story. Again, this doesn’t write the character for you. But, it gives you a foundation to apply the tips that you find in the article, too.

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Conclusion

There you have it, my friends – Nine tips on how to write female characters as a male author and do a good job. Many male authors do an exceptional job with characters of the opposite sex. If you’ve read enough, you’ve undoubtedly seen some sub-par or downright poorly written ones, too.

Hopefully, if you struggle with this, you’ve found today’s article helpful. If you’ve made it this far, comment and let me know what you think of my tips. Until next time, get out there and write.