: Re: How to write female characters with agency? I'm attempting to write a novel, an historical fiction with a small fantasy component (time travel through a portal). The travelers (main characters)

Woman here. :)

I think what your female character would struggle with most is that suddenly she does need her man beside her - for safety, for being treated a certain way by other people, etc. It doesn't matter how feminine she was in the 23rd century, it doesn't matter if she liked cooking and staying at home and having doors opened for her, being suddenly deprived of the choice in the 14th century is going to hurt.

So how is she going to maintain her agency when the setting actively deprives her of it? There are two elements you can consider.

First, sometimes a strong character is deprived of agency. A POW isn't suddenly made a weak character by virtue of being deprived of virtually all agency, confined and abused. After becoming a POW, the character would be faced with a question - "what next?" They'd have to make a choice, pick a goal, be it "escape" or "survive" or "lead a rebellion", and then they'd be struggling to achieve that goal.

Same for your female character: her freedom has been considerably curtailed. What next? How does she choose to respond to the new situation? Whatever active choice she makes, whatever goal she picks, as long as she gets that choice - she has agency. I'd elaborate more, but @Amadeus has said it all, better than I would.

Second, and that comes after the first point, not instead, you could do some research. There were strong independent women in medieval times. DoÃ±a Gracia is my favourite example. There are others. Find out how those women came to hold prominent positions, what they had to struggle with, and what systems were in place to allow them to rise to where they did. DoÃ±a Gracia dealt with Henri II of France, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Popes Paul III and Paul IV, and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. All those prominent men accepted her as someone who one could, and should, have dealings with.

Armed with this knowledge, and depending on where you want to take your plot, your female character could become formidable indeed.

Load Full (0)

: How to adapt a comicstrip to a novel? Two years ago I pledged to publish my first comic. To do that, I had to learn drawing and learn to make comic strip. I came up with a title for my

@Steve161

Load Full 2 Comments

: How to use professional jargon when writing fiction? The military, the medical professions, police, etc. - they have their professional jargon. One noteworthy characteristic of this jargon is the

@Steve161

Load Full 2 Comments

: How does one discovery-write court intrigue? Intrigue (any kind, really, but royal courts were particularly known for it) is a series of setups that lead to a pay-off. For example, a handkerchief

@Steve161

Load Full 4 Comments

: Coining words - when and how? Writing an answer to another question, I stumbled upon a quote from The Hobbit: Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered

: Re: How to write female characters with agency? I'm attempting to write a novel, an historical fiction with a small fantasy component (time travel through a portal). The travelers (main characters)

More posts by @Steve161

: How to adapt a comicstrip to a novel? Two years ago I pledged to publish my first comic. To do that, I had to learn drawing and learn to make comic strip. I came up with a title for my

: How to use professional jargon when writing fiction? The military, the medical professions, police, etc. - they have their professional jargon. One noteworthy characteristic of this jargon is the

: How does one discovery-write court intrigue? Intrigue (any kind, really, but royal courts were particularly known for it) is a series of setups that lead to a pay-off. For example, a handkerchief

: Coining words - when and how? Writing an answer to another question, I stumbled upon a quote from The Hobbit: Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered

Login to post a comment!

0 Comments

Back to top