Women by Women

[Elaichi]

Can any of you please recommend me some good books with female protagonists written by women, it would help me write women characters better
Thank you

 

[pmmg]

Sarah Ashwood Aerisia.

Should probably check out romance, they have a lot of female authors and protags.

 

[Insolent Lad]

Old school, check any and all of the Witch World novels of Andre Norton (yes, she used a male pen name).

 

[Finchbearer]

Well…how long is a piece of string?

What genre? Style? Type of protagonist?

 

[skip.knox]

This search string
books with female protagonists written by women
returns more results than you likely can read. And you can narrow that query by genre, if you wish.

Please let us know which ones you selected, and what you learned from them.

 

[Elaichi]

Well…how long is a piece of string?

What genre? Style? Type of protagonist?

Any would work, like now I'm reading that of Agatha Christie but I would be applying them to write in fantasy works

 

[Prince of Spires]

Most books by Trudi Canavan

 

[Finchbearer]

Okay, in classic fiction:

Anything by Jane Austen
Anything by the Brontë sisters
Little Women

Modern classics:

The Colour Purple
The Handmaids Tale
Wilds Swans

Modern and fantasy:

Anything by Sarah j Maas
The Hunger Games series
Circe
Daughters of Sparta
Anything by Kristin Hannah
Anything by Holly Black
Anything by Kate Quinn

Not a comprehensive list but I would say all of these authors have written compelling stories about women who describe in lots of ways what it’s like to be female specifically, and are all good stories besides, many based on real life or historically mythological events.

I personally wouldn’t say that Agatha Christie would give you as much of that but of course do whatever you feel is best.

Any other questions about what makes a compelling female character to me, as a woman who enjoys reading female authored books about female protagonists…please feel free to ask!

 

[Elaichi]

Okay, in classic fiction:

Anything by Jane Austen
Anything by the Brontë sisters
Little Women

Modern classics:

The Colour Purple
The Handmaids Tale
Wilds Swans

Modern and fantasy:

Anything by Sarah j Maas
The Hunger Games series
Circe
Daughters of Sparta
Anything by Kristin Hannah
Anything by Holly Black
Anything by Kate Quinn

Not a comprehensive list but I would say all of these authors have written compelling stories about women who describe in lots of ways what it’s like to be female specifically, and are all good stories besides, many based on real life or historically mythological events.

I personally wouldn’t say that Agatha Christie would give you as much of that but of course do whatever you feel is best.

Any other questions about what makes a compelling female character to me, as a woman who enjoys reading female authored books about female protagonists…please feel free to ask!

Have you compared the characters written by opposite genders, like men by women and women by men...Both show this fantasized version of another gender, which is the reason I'm trying to find such works. I'm trying to write my character as in villainous female deity, she needs to be disassociated from reality but still contain the essence of that femininity. I am new to writing, and the only lead I had was about Agatha Christie, so I just went on with it. Now if you got any thoughts or advice, please let me know would love to hear them. Thanks for the suggestions

 

[Mad Swede]

Well, any book by Simona Ahrnstedt. Here in Sweden she's best known for the novel Överenskommelser, although she has written 10 other novels since then. You can find her books on Amazon.

 

[pmmg]

I am new to writing, and the only lead I had was about Agatha Christie, so I just went on with it. Now if you got any thoughts or advice, please let me know would love to hear them. Thanks for the suggestions

How can Agatha Christie be the only one you have heard of? Like the whole romance genre is full of this? And there are so many female authors, it would be impossible to name them all.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, you probably wont gleam much difference watching the way women write women vs men. Generally, the male/female nature of an author shows itself to me in the things they focus on, and usually around treatment of the opposite gender. I don't think that has much to do with the characters presented, but more the authors own interest. Insightful stuff about writing the other gender will more likely come from writing them, and a lifetime of observation about them.

I'd be interested know if you find differently, and how?

 

[Finchbearer]

Have you compared the characters written by opposite genders, like men by women and women by men...Both show this fantasized version of another gender, which is the reason I'm trying to find such works. I'm trying to write my character as in villainous female deity, she needs to be disassociated from reality but still contain the essence of that femininity. I am new to writing, and the only lead I had was about Agatha Christie, so I just went on with it. Now if you got any thoughts or advice, please let me know would love to hear them. Thanks for the suggestions

I haven’t done any comparison exercises in terms of when I’ve read a book written by a male author who has written female characters, it doesn’t really matter if I’ve enjoyed the book. And of course the idea of a woman through the eyes of a male author are just as wide and varied as those written by female authors.

However, from my perspective there are some running themes that tend to crop up in my opinion.

Where to start. I can name a few authors of whom I have read with female characters by male authors, namely JRR Tolkien, Haruki Murakami and Dickens.

They are all varied authors from different times in history and from different backgrounds and experiences, and yet they have all managed to create female characters that are at times interesting and depthful, and at other times, woefully flat or over conceptualised / fantasised.

As an example, Tolkien wrote Galadriel as a stand out female character, but from my perspective she was overly removed from any kind of realistic version of a woman. He may have been inspired by Arthurian legend ie. Morgan le Fay or other incarnations of women from early chivalric prose. But in a relatively modern book, it makes her feel flat and not true to life.

Murakami is one of my favourite authors, but he only wrote one main female character in his novel 1Q84, Aomame, a cool as a cucumber female assassin, who navigates a magical world filled with peril. The book contains some disturbing sexual themes, but Aomame is a very memorable character, and I can’t blame Murakami, as a male author for sexualising woman as a heterosexual male.

Dickens was famously sexist because he only seemed to have the capacity to write either old hags or young beautiful women, and nothing in between. But he is redeemable because he wrote some good books.

Luke Jennings with his Villanelle / Killing Eve series of books (completely different to the tv series) is actually a really good portrayal of compelling and interesting female characters.

If you’re looking into creating a female deity type character perhaps it would be useful for you to delve into some of the many Greek Goddess retellings, such as Circe, but there are many more in this style written by women who have chosen to write about females in history giving a specifically feminine pov in the subject.

I also cannot speak for all women so keep in mind that it’s just my opinion, but just a few thoughts.

I could go on about what I think makes a readable and memorable female character to me personally, but again, that would be anecdotal and subjective.

 

[Prince of Spires]

In my opinion, the best way to write a good female (or male for that matter) character is to simply write a person. Don't think of one of your characters as "this is the strong female character who does X" but rather "this is the character who does X and happens to be female."

If you frame it this way, you'll stay away from the cardboard characters who are only there to fulfill a certain role. Instead, you'll more likely end up with a rounded character who has her own wants and needs, desires and flaws, and everything else.

Being female (or male) isn't the one big defining trait of your personality. It's part of who you are for sure. But no two females are alike simply because they're female. I've got 2 daughters, and they're very different personalities. One is very much a girlie-girl, who likes pink and cute stuff, and dresses and all that. The other is a lot more interested in dragons and playing with a football and doing crafts. They've had the same upbringing and yet they're very different personalities. They're also both very clearly female.

 

[Finchbearer]

Leading on from your search for the knowledge of how to write a realistic female character, I went to chat GTP to conduct a thought experiment, and I asked some questions that produced some very ropey answers. I would say that this AI model is very biased, or otherwise ‘tries to please everyone’ and therefore ends up pleasing no one.

So I can’t copy and paste it all in here but I asked:

What makes a realistic female character in fiction?

What is wrong with sexualising a female character in fiction?

What makes a woman a woman?

What makes a woman feminine?

And then I asked it to define feminism and then the whole thing exploded.

You see the problems here? Next I will conduct the same experiment but input ‘male’.

I think your idea of reading various female authored books that have female characters will actually be good to do, and hopefully you will have read some good stuff

 

[CrystalD]

Tamora Pierce is a solidfantasy writer with a good femal protag. But I agree with the advice of write a compelling character who happens to be female, it's easier than you might tink. I like a lot of indi authos, so Tara Grace, Debra Grace White, she isn't indi but I think Marissa Meyer does a solid job of writing both male and female characters.

 

[Elaichi]

Perhaps I should have posed my questions in a better way
The reason is, while writing deities, they have to be disassociated with mortal matters so as to be corrupted and grow in darkest phase, what remains are their intrinsic motives, usually stemming from the identity proses. In Greek Mythology, Gods were scandalous but you see there was a stark difference I prank and scandals they were involved in when gender is brought into the picture, Power and Lust, arrogance and ego, Abuse of powers while keeping in mind they should also be roaming the mortal lands
This would seem irrational out of context but is helping me in building character and world
This then goes on to really know women around me in a better way
But thanks anyways this thread is sure helpful, would love to talk to you guys more on this topic

 

[Elaichi]

How can Agatha Christie be the only one you have heard of? Like the whole romance genre is full of this? And there are so many female authors, it would be impossible to name them all.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, you probably wont gleam much difference watching the way women write women vs men. Generally, the male/female nature of an author shows itself to me in the things they focus on, and usually around treatment of the opposite gender. I don't think that has much to do with the characters presented, but more the authors own interest. Insightful stuff about writing the other gender will more likely come from writing them, and a lifetime of observation about them.

I'd be interested know if you find differently, and how?

That's interesting, Now I could look into works of both men and women around female characters in particular time period to see how the situation was around expression and stigma
In here my country, you change states you could see how women are treated differently thus impacting their thoughts, ideas and indefinitely their liberty of expression and mode
so Agatha with her work in that era would show me how women wanted to be portrayed while Conan Doyle shows what majority viewed women

 

[Elaichi]

I haven’t done any comparison exercises in terms of when I’ve read a book written by a male author who has written female characters, it doesn’t really matter if I’ve enjoyed the book. And of course the idea of a woman through the eyes of a male author are just as wide and varied as those written by female authors.

However, from my perspective there are some running themes that tend to crop up in my opinion.

Where to start. I can name a few authors of whom I have read with female characters by male authors, namely JRR Tolkien, Haruki Murakami and Dickens.

They are all varied authors from different times in history and from different backgrounds and experiences, and yet they have all managed to create female characters that are at times interesting and depthful, and at other times, woefully flat or over conceptualised / fantasised.

As an example, Tolkien wrote Galadriel as a stand out female character, but from my perspective she was overly removed from any kind of realistic version of a woman. He may have been inspired by Arthurian legend ie. Morgan le Fay or other incarnations of women from early chivalric prose. But in a relatively modern book, it makes her feel flat and not true to life.

Murakami is one of my favourite authors, but he only wrote one main female character in his novel 1Q84, Aomame, a cool as a cucumber female assassin, who navigates a magical world filled with peril. The book contains some disturbing sexual themes, but Aomame is a very memorable character, and I can’t blame Murakami, as a male author for sexualising woman as a heterosexual male.

Dickens was famously sexist because he only seemed to have the capacity to write either old hags or young beautiful women, and nothing in between. But he is redeemable because he wrote some good books.

Luke Jennings with his Villanelle / Killing Eve series of books (completely different to the tv series) is actually a really good portrayal of compelling and interesting female characters.

If you’re looking into creating a female deity type character perhaps it would be useful for you to delve into some of the many Greek Goddess retellings, such as Circe, but there are many more in this style written by women who have chosen to write about females in history giving a specifically feminine pov in the subject.

I also cannot speak for all women so keep in mind that it’s just my opinion, but just a few thoughts.

I could go on about what I think makes a readable and memorable female character to me personally, but again, that would be anecdotal and subjective.

Liberty,independence and expression for both genders have never been same in any culture in any period of time.In order to make it relevant to my country in this period, I have to get views defining women in that period by both genders so as to draw parallels
A snippet .... In my country women are becoming more and more independent as government and society is supporting the cause after decades of confusion and misrepresentation, while men are now getting away from coming of age industrial cum financial liberty women are entering there, No to draw parallels and corrupt my female deity in the same period, I would really need both good and bad examples of strong characters who happen to be women. That is why I'm looking for some defining differences, maybe a shot in dark but I will try
Also Im a movie buff, If yu can suggest some great movies around these topics like recently I came across Ex Machina, It would be helpful
Thanks

 

[Elaichi]

Leading on from your search for the knowledge of how to write a realistic female character, I went to chat GTP to conduct a thought experiment, and I asked some questions that produced some very ropey answers. I would say that this AI model is very biased, or otherwise ‘tries to please everyone’ and therefore ends up pleasing no one.

So I can’t copy and paste it all in here but I asked:

What makes a realistic female character in fiction?

What is wrong with sexualising a female character in fiction?

What makes a woman a woman?

What makes a woman feminine?

And then I asked it to define feminism and then the whole thing exploded.

You see the problems here? Next I will conduct the same experiment but input ‘male’.

I think your idea of reading various female authored books that have female characters will actually be good to do, and hopefully you will have read some good stuff

Exactly, when I try to add feminism and its impact, where should I start, The champions like French and Americans or still struggling Afghans. I get more confused as I try to understand it. Both have different ideas and priorities but could be argued on same spectrum they lie
I tried to write but still it didn't feel appealing enough, maybe I'm expecting too much who knows, As I'm writing deity so impact would be around cultural shift , like In my religion the divine feminism or Shaktism is an ideal prototype to understand
Similar experiences would be helpful. would like to know if you got any more perspective

 

[pmmg]

Well, I might split some hairs with you there, but I think I will ask instead...

Do you have a woman of a particular era you are hoping to write?

And less that question, and more, who do you intend to write anyway, and what is the difficulty with it?

Cause a smattering of woman written woman is not likely to shine much light on the issues between Mr. Doyle, and Mrs. Christie.

I think you can read a lot of books, but the characters of other people will not likely lend themselves much to your own.

I could pop out a lot of traits, but they would make little difference to any individual character. Any character is not any one thing. They are a product of themselves, and the world around them. They cant be one without the other. General....women tend to be like this, wont help.