female characters

[heartberry]

Hello, well after getting replies to my last post, I just would like to ask you another question. My friend and I are actually in the process of making a story. Our main character is male, but then we have two main females, and I was just wondering if you have any suggestions for those two female characters. Their personalities, their clothings styles, or anything else you can think of.

[Shia]

maybe it's just me lacking a certain amount of imagination, but if you'd be a bit more specific on what kind of story it is, it would be way easier to help you with your request.
(you wouldn't want me to suggest stiling one of the girls as a geisha with kimono, fan and make up when the story is set in the USA, year 2053?)

but leaving that aside, I think that it's not the best thing to have other ppl modeling main charakters of *your* story...
I'm sure that you (and your friend) have enough creativity to get your female charakters working without any help [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Risu-chan]

Erm... speaking as a writer, I'd need a lot more information to be able to offer any remotely useful suggestions. ^^;;; For starters, what century is it in? What planet is it on? What country/culture is it in? Do they follow the standard culture, and what are that culture's consequenses if they don't? What's the basic plot type (romance/mystery/comedy/drama/fantasy)? Is there an established relationship between any of them? Is there anything any of them are going to need to know/specialize in studying for plot-related purposes?

...^^;;; I can't imagine just throwing character traits at people in the dark without knowing at least a little of what it is they're doing and going through...

ed: wow, timing! I was writing that while you were, apparently... (waves) hi, Shia!

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ April 16, 2003 11:01 AM: Message edited by: Risu-chan ]</font>

[heartberry]

Yeah,

I am really sorry, now I feel silly. I guess you can cancel my question. We can come up with characters on our own, but I just wanted to know what kind of character would be a good female character, what they would be like. Some people were talking about girls in stories and how too much of them are way to stereotypical, coming off as the "cute" girl,or stuff like that, and I was wondering how I could accomplish a good character that isn't like that. Okay, what traits do you think a good female character should have? I am probably making a bad question again, sorry again. I guess I just wanted to make a likable female character.

If you want to know a bit about my story though, I can tell you. It's set in our time, in Canada (but starts off in the demon realm). The story starts out with a character named Hamaun. He is the offspring of a demon Lord and a fallen angel. Well, Hamaun was "prophesized" to be very powerful, so his father feared Hamaun would someday rise against him, and steal his spot at the very top of the demon council, so he creates a lie that says that Hamaun's two different bloods caused him to be unable to use magic (so Hamaun is taught that he can't use magic, and is never taught to use it, even though he is actually very powerful). Why did the demon lord not just get rid his son when he was born? Well it is because he intended to wait until Hamaun is stronger (grows stronger with age) so he can steal Hamaun's powers for himself. It is finally time, when the Seers (Demon lord's "prophets") tell The lord that they must take his powers now, you cannot wait any longer, he will destroy you, he will realize the truth that he can use magic very soon, and destroy The Lord, and then they add, that it may already be to late. The Lord finally agrees, even though he would still like to wait, since the boy is still very young (15 earth years). So The demon Lord comes up with an idea to steal Hamaun's powers. He will tell him that they found a way for his to use magic. He was born without power but he is still able to "conduct" magic, so he just needs a "magic infusion". They tell him that the Demon Lord, his father will give him a portion of his. Hamaun is suspicious and says that his father would never do that, but they convince him by saying that The Demon Lord believes that Hamuan will be very usful to him. Soon Hamaun gives in. They take him to our wourld on top of a huge building. They out hamaun in the centre of a weird symbol and start the ceremony, that is supposed to be able to transfer powers between two beings. Soon The demon lord and his Seers chant and stuff, and when the ceremony is almost over, Hamaun's mother comes in and intends to steal Hamaun's powers for her own, but she fails, and is practically killed. Because she failed, she decides to foil the demon Lord's wishes and tells Hamaun the truth, that he can indeed use magic and that he is very powerful, and the Demon Lord's actual intentions. SO hamaun tries to go at his father, but there is a barrier surrounding him that he can't get out of, but eventually he succeeds, showing power that he never thought he could have (killing some of the Seers). Anyway he escapes, but one of the Seers cuts his wing and hamaun is unable to fly, and falls. It is raining and he wakes up feeling strange, all around him are people. And I don't know how I am going to do this next part, but Hamaun gets freaked out because he can feel their emotions, which Hamaun has never felt before, and are too overwhelming for him. He doesn't know what is going on so he starts off running. On his run he rememebers that he is also still being chased by the Seers, who are flying after him (but they still haven't caught sight of him). (oh just to point out, nobody can actually see Hamaun, since he is invisible unless he wants to be seen, notice why no one is screaming running for their lives, at this freaky being). Anyway he is running and it is hard for him, he slows whenever he feels stronger emotions, and eventually, the strongest emotion yet, hits him, and he collapses to the ground, near a large bridge. He looks over and sees a young boy and finally realize when these "feeligs" are coming from, from people (or strange beings that Hamaun has never seen). He just lies there unable to move, but realizes that the boy is climing over the rail, and is going to jump. He does, and Hamaun feels a strange impulse, and jumps after the boy. Hamaun tries to fly, but his one wing is still injured, so they both fall into the river below.

Next we tell a little bit about the boy and why he deicided to jump. Fighting in the home, divorce, Abuse from mother,abandonment, father who doesn't care about him (at least that is his point of view), stuff like that. He has a best friend named Alexis (One of the main female characters). They were friends since age 10 when his mother left him and he went to live with his father. Well anyway, he gets into a fight with some guy in school, and injures him very badly. Hamaun is expelled from his school (I am not sure about the legal issues, like what his punishment will be, I will have to figure it out). Anyway, father is tired of Boy's behaviour and kicks him out of house, he will go live with an aunt or something. And that is when th boy runs off to go kill himself.
Okay, now The boy wakes up in the hospital ( well I guess I should tell you now, the boy actually died, and Hamuan somehow went into the Boy's body as the boy left it, so actually tho boy from now on is not the boy, but Hamaun, so if that may have been worded very badly, but I hope it makes sense). And he meets his mother again, she wants him to come live with him (she says she is better, and says she is sorry), he finally agrees, because he has nowhere else to go, but she shouldn't expect anything from him. Then he is off to another school, and he meets the second girl (becky) who he becomes friends with, and her cousin, Garbriel.

That is where we get to. The Demon lord is still after Hamaun, but does not know where he went. The boy is in a different school, adn he is supposed to change slowly into a "good" person (he will start helping people since he can feel their emotions), etc. So that is our story so far, we made a few other parts but I don't need to tell you those. I still have kinks to work out about it so far, but I think I can get it done.

Opps! I guess that isn't a little bit, but I didn't realize how much I had actually written when I was writing it. I am not very good at summerizing, and I tent to get carried away (obviously too carried away) when I tell people stories, when I am only supposed to tell them the jist of it. Oh well, maybe I can ask you what you think of my story then. Even though it has nothing to do with what I wanted in the first place, ideas for female characters.

[Shia]

wow [img]smile.gif[/img] I like the story's concept and I'd love to read the whole thing!

as for tips for developing "good" female chars... I'm not too good at writing stories even though I love to think them up ^^

but if you want an amateurs opinion on the topic: when developing a char, don't forget the fact that there's more to people than just one or two character trait that define them. to stick with the sailermoon example: that girl's lovely, slightly stupid and loves to eat a lot (oh wow, that's also FY's Miaka *surprised*).. not much more to her than that in my opinion.
If you've got a rough concept of how your female char sould be, think what an ordinary day in her life would be like (getting up, quarreling with her parents about the lengh of her school uniform's skirt, killing evil spirits with the the power of love, chatting with her best friend, things like that). That's a thing that usually helps me to get the charakters view of the world straight again, if I'm stuck with the character development. (I don't think that that tip was any help... but hey, I tried ^^)
oh.. and another thing.. I've noticed that a few people tend to use their characters to express what *they* would do in a certain situation instead of how the char itself would react under those circumstances... so it's usually good to stop and check if it's really what the person you've created would do..
(please don't get offended if you already know all those things, it's just that those were tipps that would have really helped if someone had told me about a while ago ^^)

if you want more qualified advice, wait for risu-chan to reply, she's the one with the more brilliant mind and the experience with writing good stories. ^^

(I guess I haven't exactly answered your question about what traits a good char should have, but I don't think that I can give an answer to that, any trait is ok if it fits in the whole picture of that special "person" I assume)

[crisisdreams]

What Shia said. From my writing experience (not much at my age (^^**), but I have written a book that my teacher said she would help me publish, only she skipped the country shortly after so it's sitting on my hard drive, slowly rusting. ~.^) your character needs her faults as well as her good points, and her quirks that make her unique (we've all got some weird traits in us that goes beyond the scope of being clumsy and liking food a lot). I definitely like what Shia said about imagining a day in her life.

Hmmm...but since you seem to want to know more about what certain traits readers like to see, I can tell you a few of my preferences. It varies for every reader though, and you can definitely create a happy go-lucky girl who's full of love for everyone, if you add on to that basic stereotype and make her more *real*. -- very important. Make them seem like they could be real people.

Anyways, I like strong female characters. I think many female readers do, because we're constantly surrounded by a male dominated world, 24/7. If a female character can think and stick up for herself (and even help the male out at times), she's on my nice list. [img]wink.gif[/img] For instance, in terms of manga, Alexiel is my favorite female character. She's just so independent and strong. ~.^ There *are* stereotype roles for headstrong females too though...

But please, for the love of all things holy, don't make a character like Sailormoon or Miaka, because 77% of every other female main character in manga/anime is like them as well. (But yes, this is again just my personal tastes which don't include annoying girls. XD )

[heartberry]

Hey,

thanks for the advice from you two. Yeah, I kind of knew all that stuff, but it is still good, and yeah I didn't know how I wanted to make the characters, so I thought I would just pull some ideas for people, and use them to come up with my own ideas (I do that with my friend, I ask her to make something up and then I use that and make it totally different). Yeah I will try to give my characters depth, and try my hardest to make them "real". I even based one of my characters on me, ha ha, but my friend made me be a guy, meanie, jk. Yeah, I think it will be fun to do that character since it will be the the easiest, and wierd to see what my guy self would be like. As for my other characters, I will definently try to get into their heads, and maybe even be them. Yeah, I wonder if I will ever get this project done with my friend, especially since I will have to do all the drawing, because we both draw too differently. I estimated when we started it would take five years, but who knows, it may take longer ha ha. In fact I should get the scripts for the first few chapters finished so I can start on the drawing. Just hopefully I have enough endurance.

[jadey]

hmmm im a little late on this post but i decided to add a little to. Im actually in the process of writing a book too. Im really proud I never thought Id be able to stick with it. Its currently 200 hand written pages and im still only in the beginning. I had hoped to finish by my senior yr so I could use that year to edit and then send it out to a publisher, but I have so much more to write. I dont feel like describing it but for tips or something, I based alot of my character traits on things I thought were admirable. Like my main character is a guy named Fawkes (yes like harry potter, but i thought of the name first!!!) and hes an all around perfect person.....but to make him more real I gave him a dark side. So he seems to be all together but hes actually pretty messed up in the head.

Oh and alot of my scenes , or comedy things, are from real life and it makes it so much easier to write. I actually find writing a lot of fun, when I sit and write the story I feel like im entering another world *_* (yes im a dork you can all feel free to laugh)