Strong Female Characters Will Ruin Your Novel (Writing Advice)

Here's how you write a great female character that captivates readers.

⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - The problem with strong female characters
02:30 - Three levels
04:16 - The importance of flaws
05:40 - Compelling character arcs
07:00 - A worthy antagonist
07:34 - Multi-dimensional
08:37 - Strength beyond muscles

✏️ MY FREE WRITING ADVICE BOOK:

🚀 BUILD BETTER WRITING HABITS:

💌 MY NEWSLETTER:

📙 MY BOOKS:

🎮 MY VIDEO GAME:

🔨 MY FAVOURITE WRITING TOOLS:

🧑 ABOUT ME:
Hi! My name's Jed. I'm a fantasy author with three published novels and a bestselling video game. On this channel, I draw from my 10+ years of writing experience to help you become a better writer.

💬 CONNECT WITH ME:

(Note: I don't always get a chance to reply to every email. However, I do my best to read as many of them as possible, and it's my preferred method of communication.)

[Jed_Herne]

My next fantasy novel, Kingdom of Dragons, launches on Kickstarter on November 2nd!

[failure]

Strong female characters are not bad because they are strong, but because they are nothing but strong.

[lucifermagne]

A great quote I remember "we don't want strong female characters. We want strong characters that happen to be female"

[bad-people]

How to write great female characters.
Write a character, not a plot device.

[FCSchaefer]

When I've written my horror and fantasy novels, I never strive to make my female characters "strong, " instead, I want to write "brave" women characters, because courage is both a choice and a struggle to achieve, and that choice and struggle makes the characters interesting and ones the reader will be invested in.

[robinthrush]

Going back to re-reading the Harry Potter books for the first time (audio), it's striking how Hermione was edited in the movies to lean into "strong woman" compared to her book counterpart. She is given many of Ron's lines, for some reason, so that she's not only exceptionally well-read, but she knows wizard slang and culture she really shouldn't have cause to know. Like when Malfoy calls her "mud blood." In the books, Ron explains this insult in the shack while puking slugs while Hermione had no real response to being insulted, but the movies give her this explanation AND the offense associated with knowing the meaning.

[jojobookish]

My favorite way to define a character's flaws is to make a list of their strengths and then imagine how (and why) those could drift into extremes that result in mistakes that can inform the plot.

[submandave]

This is why character wise Book Hermione >>> Movie Hermione. They removed a lot of her complexity to plus her up with many of Ron's good character points to make her stronger.

[TheNutzak]

True strength of character is not just power and attitude, like we nowadays get.

[teabearchurchill]

Interesting that you use Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" under your "Disney Princess" comments... considering she was one of the first to actually break the mold.

[sniperdubey]

I will add that most "Damsels in distress" that people cry about aren't actually damsels in distress. They just haven't bothered to understand the story. Cinderalla and the Little Mermaid are the two who people often claim are one dimensional characters who are only looking for love, but they really aren't when you actually do a character analysis. Ariel and Cinderella are both wonderfully complex characters who show incredible strength and persistence in the face of everything going wrong around them. Even Belle and Aurora are actually far more complex and well rounded characters than you expect. I recommend you re-watch some of these old Disney films, rather than just working off your memory of them.

[fruzsimih]

I'd love to see more stories where physically weaker characters do not prevail by violence but purely by other qualities like cunning, knowledge, originality, building alliances with others etc. Think Shining, where Danny overcomes his murderous father by luring him into the maze. Think Spellbound where Ingrid Bergman's character, a psychologist, is able to talk the villain out of killing her. I also very much liked the female characters in Indepence Day. They didn't fight the enemy, but they all were courageous, nurturing and intelligent.

[alexfilma]

Just started doing some writing of my own. It’s low medieval fantasy with quite a few important female characters including a witch and a queen. So I know I need to make sure I don’t fall into "Strong Female Character" pitfall.

[VandarAlden]

I hope that more people will catch on to this distinction, not just in stories but in life women don't need to be men with boobs to be interesting and respected nor do they need to be a female stereotype. Most people can and should be somewhere in the middle.

[ojroche]

I’m glad many content creators cover this topic, but it doesn’t matter how many know because screenwriters will follow the exact same formula. They believe strength is in ties with their understanding of masculinity, and so they believe the only acceptable strong women are those that pummel others to the ground or belittle them, with no sign of weakness.

[hopedust]

I dunno how I feel about this. I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I don't like how the term "strong female characters" has devolved into a meme for "woke 2 dimensional characters". I have always liked strong women characters. Lara Croft. Sarah Kerrigan. Eleven. The Bride. Ripley. Jean Grey. Daenerys Targaryen. Clarice Starling. Trinity. I could go on and on about how much I love overpowered women, but what's something they all have in common? Depth. They are more than boss ladies. They are imperfect and have weaknesses. What you described is not a strong female character. I don't care what Wikipedia defines it as. We should collectively stop referring to poorly written characters as strong. That's my only real issue.

[nemanjap]

I love perfect stories and characters. On the topic of female characters, i neverooked at gender until america started forcing it . Kill bill is one of my favourite movies and i always imagined that i would have her courage, it never crossed my mind that its important whether if its a boy or a girl

[m.j.johnsonbooks]

The bit about the worthy antagonist gave me some inspiration for my story. Something that's been on the tip of my tongue for a while but I just could not clarify until now. Thanks Jed!

[supernatural]

Enjoyed this. My debut novel is in the process of editing now. The main lead female character is a strong character. And she appears along side her brother who is more calm and reflective. As the story develops they are both tested. She finds that she is an obedient lap dog for her male employers while her brother despite the fact he can never win at least tries to defy them. At face value she's the strong one but she says at his actions " I've never loved him more or been more proud of him this was how I tried, and hopefully avoided the one dimensional character.

[closetedopinions]

I like most of everything you stated except the part where you say that Disney princesses are damsels in distress. The only one that fits that category would be Aurora. All the other princesses were very much their own person. Regardless if the prince helps them along the way, they were never just damsels in distress. Mulan was a complex character, Pocahontas as well, belle was no damsel in distress, Jasmine fought alongside Aladdin. I think they were all complex in their own way, even if they had help from the male co-star.