{"id":4477,"date":"2025-02-24T22:23:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T22:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/?p=4477"},"modified":"2025-02-23T20:20:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T20:20:50","slug":"how-to-write-female-characters-as-a-male-author-9-key-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/how-to-write-female-characters-as-a-male-author-9-key-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Write Female Characters (As A Male Author) &#8211; 9 Key Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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&#8217;t be surprising. Men and women have some very obvious <em>and<\/em> more subtle differences. With a little practice and awareness, you can learn how to write female characters and actually do a good job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Below, I&#8217;ll cover nine things you should pay attention to about your female characters. Some are things you should do, and others are pitfalls you&#8217;ll have to avoid. I&#8217;ll also give you some tests to do (when possible) to be sure you&#8217;re writing quality gals in your book. So, without further ado, let&#8217;s get into how to write female characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h2>Table Of Contents<\/h2><nav><ul><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#how-to-write-female-characters\">How To Write Female Characters<\/a><ul><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#1-dont-make-them-incapable\">1. Don\u2019t Make Them Incapable<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#2-ignorance-of-the-physical\">2. Ignorance Of The Physical<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#3-attractiveness-good\">3. Attractiveness = Good<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#4-lack-of-influencing-the-plot\">4. Lack Of Influencing The Plot<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#5-no-conscious-female-pov\">5. No Conscious Female POV<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#6-important-goal-based-choices\">6. Important, Goal-Based Choices<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#7-use-both-female-and-male-traits\">7. Use Both Female And Male Traits<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#8-dont-name-drop-lady-things\">8. Don\u2019t Name Drop &#8220;Lady&#8221; Things<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#9-avoid-cliche-description\">9. Avoid Cliche Description<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#female-characters-with-living-writer\">Female Characters With LivingWriter<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#conclusion\">Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"how-to-write-female-characters\">How To Write Female Characters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-dont-make-them-incapable\">1. Don\u2019t Make Them Incapable<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Female characters don&#8217;t have to be good at everything, but they shouldn&#8217;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 &#8220;damsel in distress&#8221; situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help with this, ask yourself, \u201cDo I have any female characters that are good at their jobs.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"274\" height=\"184\" src=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brienne-of-Tarth.jpeg\" alt=\"Brienne of Tarth from A Game of Thrones swinging a sword\" class=\"wp-image-4496\" style=\"width:490px;height:auto\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brienne-of-Tarth.jpeg 274w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Brienne-of-Tarth-150x101.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 274px) 100vw, 274px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">While not always elegant, Brienne of Tarth possesses raw physical strength and fierce determination.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure, they aren&#8217;t great at <em>everything<\/em> and occasionally need help. But they&#8217;re all <em>very<\/em> capable at some particular things. Your characters should be, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-ignorance-of-the-physical\">2. Ignorance Of The Physical<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve ever been over to the &#8220;bad women&#8217;s anatomy&#8221; Reddit page, you know that there <em>are<\/em> a lot of things men don&#8217;t understand about female anatomy\u2014particularly things like periods and menstruation, pregnancy and reproduction, and health issues specific to women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This also applies to things like makeup that never smears and lipstick that doesn\u2019t come off. In general, these are things most men don&#8217;t think about on a daily basis throughout life. However, that&#8217;s no excuse. Just like many other things you&#8217;d put in your book that you&#8217;re unfamiliar with, you&#8217;ll need to do some research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, you should also consider what info is relevant to your story. It&#8217;s completely fine not to bring up your female leads period. But if you&#8217;re going to mention it or you need to mention it, do yourself (and your readers a favor) and get the info right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-attractiveness-good\">3. Attractiveness = Good<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>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&#8217;re doing this consciously, that&#8217;s one thing. However, if you default to sex appeal being an indication of morality, you&#8217;re doing your writing a disservice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re guilty of this, it&#8217;s a pretty easy fix. Don\u2019t make sex appeal (or lack thereof) the key personality trait unless it\u2019s on purpose. And you could consider giving all important characters (regardless of gender) some &#8220;good&#8221; and &#8220;bad&#8221; physical qualities if they come up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-lack-of-influencing-the-plot\">4. Lack Of Influencing The Plot<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This one is tricky. Sometimes, you may include ladies in your work and not do anything particularly poorly. However, it&#8217;s not uncommon for female characters to lack general substance in the story. For example, perhaps a male main character&#8217;s mom, girlfriend, or sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, every story doesn&#8217;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&#8217;t, you&#8217;re probably guilty of writing pretty flat female characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you find this to be the case, consider that character&#8217;s role in the plot. If they&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You May Also Like: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/most-overused-fantasy-tropes-top-10\/\">Most Overused Fantasy Tropes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-no-conscious-female-pov\">5. No Conscious Female POV<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An example I&#8217;ve always noted is how women typically look out for one another. Even if it&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There isn&#8217;t a set-in-stone &#8220;right or wrong&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-important-goal-based-choices\">6. Important, Goal-Based Choices<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s say you&#8217;ve followed along so far and have tips 1-5 checked off. Congrats. You&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do any of them make any decisions that affect the plot\u2026 Romantic decisions about men don\u2019t count. Ok, they <em><strong>can<\/strong><\/em> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"590\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Katniss-Everdeen.jpeg\" alt=\"Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games drawing a bow\" class=\"wp-image-4494\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Katniss-Everdeen.jpeg 590w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Katniss-Everdeen-300x178.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Katniss-Everdeen-150x89.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Katniss&#8217;s decision to take her sister&#8217;s place sets the entire story in motion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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&#8217;s happening? Any character (male or female) that is only ever reacting to things happening to them probably isn&#8217;t very interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is particularly common in &#8220;damsel in distress&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7-use-both-female-and-male-traits\">7. Use Both Female And Male Traits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p> So far, we&#8217;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&#8217;s not forget the general human things that we <em>all<\/em> do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Men can be highly emotional. Women can be quick to violence. The tip here is don\u2019t make your character 100% entirely feminine. But don\u2019t fall into the \u201cwrite a man and make it a female\u201d advice either. If you&#8217;re reading this article, you&#8217;re beyond such nonsense, and you know that while gender isn&#8217;t relevant to everything, there are things to consider!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"8-dont-name-drop-lady-things\">8. Don\u2019t Name Drop &#8220;Lady&#8221; Things<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, there can be exceptions to this, given they&#8217;re relevant to a scene. We should not learn that the protagonist is a woman by reading about how &#8220;acutely aware of their ovary&#8221; they are while waiting for the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an extreme example, but you get the point. Don&#8217;t be lazy and introduce a character with a random mention of some body part or function unless it&#8217;s for a well-thought-out reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"9-avoid-cliche-description\">9. Avoid Cliche Description<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the one you&#8217;ve probably been waiting for. Don\u2019t describe your female characters by body parts &#8211; hair, hips, boobs, etc. And please, don\u2019t use dimensions. This has nothing to do with morality. Describing women in a sexual way or with particular body parts could be acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mention this because it&#8217;s incredibly common and usually just <em>bad<\/em> writing. \u201cShe was 5\u20197, weighed 120 pounds, c-cup breasts.\u201d This would be like introducing a male character and mentioning his bicep size. Sounds pretty cringy when you flip it, huh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you wouldn&#8217;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&#8217;re not careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"female-characters-with-living-writer\">Female Characters With LivingWriter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/livingwriter.com\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"http:\/\/livingwriter.com\">LivingWriter<\/a> is an all-in-one writing platform to help writers reach their full potential. If you&#8217;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 <a href=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/how-livingwriters-ai-manuscript-chat-works\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/how-livingwriters-ai-manuscript-chat-works\/\">Manuscript Chat<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a great way to get feedback on stories you&#8217;ve already written and find areas where your characters could be better. A very simple example is, &#8220;Do I have good female characters?&#8221; which I asked for one of my stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"721\" src=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Female-Character-Analysis-1024x721.png\" alt=\"LivingWriter manuscript chat analyzing the female characters in a story\" class=\"wp-image-4492\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Female-Character-Analysis-1024x721.png 1024w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Female-Character-Analysis-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Female-Character-Analysis-150x106.png 150w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Female-Character-Analysis-768x541.png 768w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Female-Character-Analysis-1536x1081.png 1536w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Female-Character-Analysis-650x458.png 650w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Female-Character-Analysis.png 1648w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The beauty of LivingWriter AI is that it doesn&#8217;t write for you. Being integrated directly into your manuscript, it&#8217;s able to offer you tailored and personal feedback that helps you improve your writing. All while keeping your voice and work completely intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;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 <a href=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/how-to-create-ai-elements-on-livingwriter\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/how-to-create-ai-elements-on-livingwriter\/\">LW Elements<\/a> give you a profile to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a brief prompt, you have a fleshed-out profile of a character to write into your story. Again, this doesn&#8217;t write the character for you. But, it gives you a foundation to apply the tips that you find in the article, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AI-Character-Profile-1024x683.png\" alt=\"AI Character Profile\" class=\"wp-image-4493\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AI-Character-Profile-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AI-Character-Profile-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AI-Character-Profile-150x100.png 150w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AI-Character-Profile-768x513.png 768w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AI-Character-Profile-1536x1025.png 1536w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AI-Character-Profile-650x434.png 650w, https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AI-Character-Profile.png 1978w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You May Also Like:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/how-to-write-unique-characters-with-livingwriter\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/how-to-write-unique-characters-with-livingwriter\/\">How To Write Unique Characters With LivingWriter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"conclusion\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There you have it, my friends &#8211; 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&#8217;ve read enough, you&#8217;ve undoubtedly seen some sub-par or downright poorly written ones, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hopefully, if you struggle with this, you&#8217;ve found today&#8217;s article helpful. If you&#8217;ve made it this far, comment and let me know what you think of my tips. Until next time, get out there and write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a male author, there is a lot to get wrong with your female characters. From cliches and stereotypes to leaving ladies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[751,752,753,748,754,30,36,351,39,38,749,17],"views":4669,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4477"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4498,"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4477\/revisions\/4498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingwriter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}