Writing a fantasy novel with a female protagonist

[canvas]

Dropping in late, but I thought I would throw my two cents in.

I'm male, and I write a lot of female protagonists. I've never really thought much on the reason for that, other than the fact that I enjoy it, but if I had to make up a reason for using female protagonists, it would be this:

No reason at all. I don't know how much sense that makes, but people are people, and not every part of their journey, nor their identity, will rely at all on their gender. I write female protagonists, but I feel like focusing on the things that make them "different" or their "reason" for being a female character makes no sense. I like the idea of a more balanced roster of our favorite fantasy characters, but not the idea of gender for gender's sake. If it's going to be normal, it has to be treated as normal, not pointed out with a "would you look at that."

I've obviously gone off-topic here, but I think there is advice to be found in that. Some people will want to read about a female character's struggles, but the more worlds we create where gender struggles aren't an issue, the more normal such a concept becomes. Characters are characters, and people will read a good story. That is probably all you should worry about.

 

[imagine123]

As a man, I'll speak on behave of all men and say no. There's no conceivable reason why a man would ever want to read a story staring a woman. I mean, that's silly. Would she just be making sammiches for 400 pages?

You'd have to be very descriptive of the sammich-making process to last 400 pages. Maybe change up the setting. Introduce conflict. You could make it a whole quest. A woman goes to make a sammich, but there's no ingredients. She must go to the store. But it's in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, and plus there's a bounty on her head because she pissed off one of the leaders of a roving band of marauders in her early sammich-making days (she can't be born with perfect sammich making skills, you want her to be a Mary Sue?)...Luckily, she's very handy with a butter knife and a variety of rotten condiments. Can she get to the grocery store and back before her husband comes back from his own weapons-scavenging (because of course he's doing MAN stuff)?

Serious-face, you're putting the cart before the horse. I call ditto on all the people who are saying don't worry about publishing if you haven't gotten the story written. I don't think about publishing at all.

Just get it written and worry about everything else later.

 

[Russ]

I am late to the party because I was away on vacation, so I will keep my comments as short as I can manage.

Personally I have no problem reading female protagonists. Whether or not there is a romantic element is fairly irrelevant to me as a reader, although I think characters who have emotional entanglements with other people are far more realistic and nuanced that the classic "lone wolf". Even Elric had love interests

But more importantly, if your target audience is agents and editors in the traditional publishing field, I can say with some certainty that there are lots of agents and acquiring editors who are looking to take on work with female protagonists for all the right reasons and would encourage you to pursue that line of writing.

 

[tbgg]

I can't address a lot of your questions, but there's one thing I can add: try giving your female protagonist a reason why she's not interested in romance, at least at the moment. Right now, I'm working on my first novel, and in the first chapter, my heroine is looking for her fiance, who failed to show up for their rendezvous to elope. He ends up being found dead, and for that and other reasons, she leaves home and her story arc begins. But at least through the course of this novel, she's grieving and just isn't interested in romance with anyone. I've also given her some other reasons to be skittish about romance in general. It's a conflict I could possibly have her work through once she's spent some time grieving, but it would have to be in a later novel. If I get that far.

I can think of another novel I read where one of the two heroines took a special oath to a god when all of her clan was killed, and in exchange for awesome fighting powers (which she had to train into), she had to be wholly devoted to getting revenge and to the deity. I can't remember the exact details of how it all worked now, but I seem to recall something like the deity taking away her desire for romance. But I know that no romance was part of her character.

So there are ways you can make 'no romance' part of the story if you don't enjoy writing it.

 

[Ireth]

I can't address a lot of your questions, but there's one thing I can add: try giving your female protagonist a reason why she's not interested in romance, at least at the moment. Right now, I'm working on my first novel, and in the first chapter, my heroine is looking for her fiance, who failed to show up for their rendezvous to elope. He ends up being found dead, and for that and other reasons, she leaves home and her story arc begins. But at least through the course of this novel, she's grieving and just isn't interested in romance with anyone. I've also given her some other reasons to be skittish about romance in general. It's a conflict I could possibly have her work through once she's spent some time grieving, but it would have to be in a later novel. If I get that far.

I can think of another novel I read where one of the two heroines took a special oath to a god when all of her clan was killed, and in exchange for awesome fighting powers (which she had to train into), she had to be wholly devoted to getting revenge and to the deity. I can't remember the exact details of how it all worked now, but I seem to recall something like the deity taking away her desire for romance. But I know that no romance was part of her character.

So there are ways you can make 'no romance' part of the story if you don't enjoy writing it.

Why does she need a reason to not be interested in romance? Can't she just not have it as one of her priorities and let it not be mentioned? Or just make her aromantic and/or asexual and be done with it.

 

[glutton]

Why does she need a reason to not be interested in romance? Can't she just not have it as one of her priorities and let it not be mentioned? Or just make her aromantic and/or asexual and be done with it.

My last novel has a female MC who doesn't have a romantic subplot and her interest or lack of interest in romance is never addressed. In my mind she is open to romance, but is too busy to actively go looking for partners and didn't meet anyone in the book who she is particularly taken with.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

You know how women have to be romantic about everything, are always gushing over guys and...

I'll stop before anyone thinks I'm serious. Nah, one of my pet peeves has always been that you can have an adventure with a bunch of guys in it (JRRT's The Hobbit), and they're out adventuring, so the story is an adventure and—as far as my then-barely-teenage mind could tell—there's no romance and no reason for the lack of romance mentioned. It's inherently obvious. The guys are busy adventuring.

BUT... throw in a lady (Peter Jackson's The Hobbit) and now there MUST be romance. Either she gets married and lives happily ever after, or she mourns Guy-Who-Dies, or she shacks up with every dwarf until Legolas [INSERT X-RATED SYNOPSIS HERE]... and before I drone on endlessly, point is, that's my pet peeve.

Why does she need a reason to not be interested in romance? Can't she just not have it as one of her priorities and let it not be mentioned?

I often ask myself the same question.

 

[Chessie]

I think the reason romance is included in a good deal of stories with female protagonists is because #1) romance sells well. The argument could be made that we're emotional creatures but so are men and really, it all depends on the individual because there are men and women alike not interested in relationships. But yeah, sex sells.

You can totally have a good story without romance involved. It can be hinted to but never fleshed out (especially if you're going for a series) or just never mentioned as some have said above. It's not a prerequisite.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The argument could be made that we're emotional creatures

I don't mean to pretend male and female differences don't exist. For example, I don't gripe about the pink and blue aisles at Toys"Я"Us. That makes shopping easier. My daughters don't want me to buy boy Legos.

I don't have anything against romance either, as long as the romance is enjoyable to read about. Sometimes it makes the characters more real, sometimes the "romance" makes me think the writer has a frat-boy mentality. (I won't point fingers. It's not like I haven't written romance and such that's likely turn off, unlikely to turn on.)

 

[tbgg]

Why does she need a reason to not be interested in romance?

I suppose she doesn't, but

a) the MC is of an age where romance tends to be important so talking about it is appropriate to the character

b) later in the book, I'm having my MC make a female friend who IS more interested in romance and asks the MC whether she's interested in anyone. The friend isn't the annoying type who talks ONLY about romance or is always trying to set the MC up with someone (which would make her someone the MC wouldn't WANT as a friend), and I think the MC should be able to explain herself. Besides, it's an opportunity for them to have a meaningful conversation about what it's like to lose the person you love more than anyone else in the world. Also, the MC's grief is going to be an internal conflict that slows down her progress toward her main goal, and the friend has to be in the know about it in order to help support the MC in it.

 

[Darkfantasy]

It's the same for girls. Does having a dude main character stop them from reading? Do girls/woman not read The Hobbit because there are no females? I'm not sure. But to level the playing field you could give you lady a brother, or father, or best friend or lover just so young men who might struggle to relate to a young female can gravitate to the male. I must admit (and I don;t know if this is good or bad) but I always gravitate towards a female character. I'm quite young and don't relate much to men because I don't understand them. I have no brothers, no male friends, no boyfriends - just my dad who's bonkers lol and I'm surrounded by females. I feel more comfortable with women than men because I'm around them more and I'm one of them.


However, the other thing I want to talk about is the spunky, full of attitude hard bitch. I would rather read a novel with NO women than a woman like this because most women are not like this and I find them too manly.
Women went from being the prize and the thing that humanised the male hero and took care of the women and children to suddenly being very butch and kick-butt. That's not a strong female. She is physically strong yes but that doesn't mean she is emotionally strong. And I think men have their weaknesses and strengths and so do women. And in general I think women's strengths are in their deep abilities to be compassionate, to be soft and gentle and nurturing while protecting at the same time. In some ways I think women can be more protective than men especially of young or vulnerable as our mothering instincts kick in.

Anyway those are my views and some may disagree but I hope I've helped you out anyway.

All the best x