: 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)

@Candy753

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Both of your characters will have problems that should be intriguing. He will be an unknown man in an area where travel is unusual except for the wealthy. Strangers can be viewed with suspicion or adopted, depending on whom they encounter.

Considering she is in a society that now views her as a non person, she will be shocked and confused, probably hurt to have her value measured by her presumed husband. She will lose her voice to all but her companion and will struggle to understand why.

Raised in an egalitarian society, possibly communally, she does not normally concern herself with thoughts that her colleagues do not. She has ambitions, perhaps she wishes to pursue the sciences or medicine - which was a feminine skill in the Middle Ages.

She will see women and think of them initially as any other person. She will address men and be chided for such presumption. Her presumed mate will find himself in trouble for failing to control his property.

She might come to resent her companion, unable to show herself without his presence.

She could also be someone who studies sociology and remembers reading about strange tribes where women were treated as things. She might come to study these strange specimens and understand their society better than her companion, who might be a dance instructor or artist.

Focus less on her gender, know that she is willful and wily and will survive. She might be the one who figures out how to return, sending her companion on errands to fetch the required ancient version of what she needs to get them home.

He might start to kind of enjoy his new status, unless they are perceived as peasants or serfs, in which case neither will have much cause for enjoyment.

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