DDW - S3 Ep 02 - Writing Women We Want to Read

Doing Diversity in Writing

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about writing better female characters. This is the first part of a two-part episode on the topic.

Here’s what we talked about:

• That, in the US, women are estimated to buy 70–80% of fiction books
• There are way more male than female leads in children’s books
• That novels, on average and across the board, only have one female character to four male characters
• But that many readers FEEL like there are way more female protagonists these days than there are male protagonists
• That women writers also have a tendency to write male characters, and that women are not exempt from perpetuating problematic female representations
• What kind of roles women tend to have in fiction
• A selection of tropes to avoid or seriously consider when writing female characters
• Some of the most persistent narrative structures that disempower and/or harm women
• Why it is important to write female characters better, even if books with badly written women are selling well

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• “How many books per year do Americans read?” by Jamie Ballard: https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2018/08/14/reading-books-men-women
• “Gender in twentieth-century children’s books” by Janice McCabe: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241647875_Gender_in_Twentieth-Century_Children%27s_Books
• “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World, Even in a Pandemic Year: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top U.S. Films of 2021” by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen: https://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/2021-Its-a-Mans-Celluloid-World-Report.pdf
• “Women Buy Fiction in Bulk and Publishers Take Notice” by Trip Gabriel: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/17/business/women-buy-fiction-in-bulk-and-publishers-take-notice.html
• “AI study finds that males are represented four times more than females in literature” by Maya Abu-Zahra: https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2022/04/ai-study-finds-that-males-are-represented-four-times-more-than-females-in-literature/
• “Male leads in fiction sell 10 million more books on average than female leads” by Kelly Jensen: https://bookriot.com/male-leads-in-fiction/
• “A new study shows that girls write fewer female characters as they get older” by Walker Caplan: https://lithub.com/a-new-study-shows-that-girls-write-fewer-female-characters-as-they-get-older/
• RWBY TV Series: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3066242/
• “The Problem with Female Protagonists” by Jo Eberhardt: https://writerunboxed.com/2016/08/06/the-problem-with-female-protagonists/
• “Discussion Time: Why are there More Female Protagonists than Male?” by Beth: https://readingeverynight.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/discussion-time-why-are-there-more-female-protagonists-than-male/
• 7 Figure Fiction by T. Taylor: https://7figurefiction.com/
• “It is time to kill the cool girl trope” by Raha Murtuza: https://thermtide.com/14279/popular/it-is-time-to-kill-the-cool-girl-trope/
• Gone Girl – Cool Girl: https://youtu.be/0o4heKCLeTs
• “Name That Trope: She’s hot! She’s cool! She’s one of the guys!” by Kelsey Wallace: https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/name-that-trope-the-super-hot-bro-girl
• How to Write About Sexual Assault: An Incomplete Guide by Salt and Sage Books: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-About-Sexual-Assault-ebook/dp/B08DHHN82D
• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41104077-invisible-women
• How NOT to Write Female Characters by Lucy V. Hay: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41739262-how-not-to-write-female-characters
• “10 MORE SEXIST Tropes in Science Fiction and Fantasy” by DZA: https://youtu.be/oiooafKkVMI
• “I Don’t Want to Be the Strong Female Lead” by Brit Marling: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/opinion/sunday/brit-marling-women-movies.html
• “10 Best Tips for Writing Strong Female Characters” by Writing with Jenna Moreci: https://youtu.be/nz88MxBtuqc
• “How Not To Write Female Characters” by Kitty: http://impishidea.com/writing/how-not-to-write-female-characters
• “How to Avoid Creating Female Character Stereotypes in Your Writing” by wikiHow and Lucy V. Hay: https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Creating-Female-Character-Stereotypes-in-Your-Writing
• “Men Writing Women Characters – Never Make These Mistakes!” by Richie Billing: https://richiebilling.com/writing-tips/men-writing-women-5-mistakes-to-watch-out-for
• “Men, Don’t Make these 6 Mistakes When You Write Female Characters” by Denisa Feathers: https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/men-dont-make-these-6-mistakes-when-you-write-female-characters-c3f98a5b5e54
• Mariëlle’s 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner: https://mswordsmith.nl/journal

This week’s episode page can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2022/05/31/s3e2

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