: 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)

@Martha805

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I second @Chris Sunami's answer, but I beg to differ. You can indeed find time travelers. Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time AND Joanna Russ's The Female Man. Also look at Perkins-Gilman's Herland and separatist feminist texts like The Wanderground. I'm not saying you have to write characters like that, but it's a good idea to know the archive. Regarding Butler, yes, basically anything by Octavia Butler. Also classic Margaret Atwood (NOT Oryx and Crake which contains a vapid rescue-the-princess fantasy).

In addition, you can look to work by contemporary male authors with self-actualized female characters. (This is not a new thing, ahem.) Bobbie Draper in The Expanse series might be an interesting study, and there are a lot of other very strong female characters of all varieties in that series. Chrisjen Avasarala and Drummer would be two productive studies. Jeff VanderMeer's "the botanist" would also, IMO, be a great example.

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