I just saw this picture on Facebook and it brought up a ton of thoughts. What a great subject and what a strange question. “Why do you write strong female characters?” Wow! Who the hell asked that question?!

When I decided to get back into filmmaking I made a few decisions about what kinds of movies I wanted to make, what kinds of characters I wanted to portray and how to write them. I went back and looked at some of my favorite movies. As always, I looked at Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I watched Karen Allen talking about playing Marion Ravenwood. She was a rising star at the time and in high-demand. She didn’t have to take that role but she looked at that character and talked about how what really resonated with her is that she got to fight back against the bad guys. She wasn’t a damsel in distress. She could go toe-to-toe with Indy as well as the bad guys. That is something I always remembered.

Everyone, man, woman, white, black, whatever. We all want to look at our heroes and see a little bit of ourselves. And we want ourselves to be AWESOME! In so many… TOO many movies and TV shows, the woman ends up being the victim, the helpless one, the damsel in distress. And sometimes the story requires that and that’s ok. But isn’t a more interesting choice to make her strong? Strong of heart, witty, smart, clever, ready to hold her own?

I hope you’re a nerd because I’m about to go down a nerd-tastic road with you. Who are our favorite Dr. Who companions? Personally? I love Amelia Pond. She takes no crap from… well, anyone. She’s Scottish. The woman can take care of herself and yet still be beautiful, feminine and vulnerable. Amy cries but she also kicks ass. When Clara “Oswin” Oswald first showed up in The Asylum of the Daleks, she was my favorite character. Sassy as hell and, you might think, even more clever than The Doctor himself! (Later in the season? Not so much, but that first episode, BRILLIANT!)

Donna Noble? Awesome! To go to other shows, Kaylee from Firefly. She was still very much a woman, sexy, kind, loving but she also stood up to Mal when he was being a dick. Same with Zoe, Inara, River, Nandy (from “The Heart of Gold”), Yo-Saf-Bridge… Jos’ women are very rarely a damsel in distress… Even Lois Lane, she’s a strong woman who, on occasion, falls from great heights and needs Superman to slow her descent but she is never afraid to get in over her head… maybe that’s part of her problem. She never has to pay the consequences to her actions because Superman isn’t there. Different story. Anyway… I could go on and on.

Why is this important? Well, that sounds like a straight, white male type of question. Most heroes are straight, white males. It’s the way it is. But everyone wants to look up there and see a bit of themselves in the hero. They want to relate. Imagine themselves up there. When you have, say, a “Willie Scott” screaming and jumping on chairs, that’s not exactly the strong person you want to be.

So, first off, make strong characters (male, female, alien, whoever!) because it’s a more interesting choice for your story. Secondly, write strong female characters because the actress is going to be much more into the role… which will, in turn, make them more fun to watch when the person playing that character is that into the person they’re playing. In the end, everyone wins. You have a character that’s fun to watch, fun to play and fun to write!

Now, this isn’t necessarily easy to do, especially if, like me, you are not a woman. Looking at other women in movies and TV is great but also ask the women in your life who their favorite female characters are. WHY those characters resonate with them. Try to get a good idea of what is so appealing about these characters and then try to take the essence of that and incorporate it into your writing. I like to take it another step and hand the script off to a couple of women and ask them for their feedback on if that character actually seems like a real woman.

I knew I’d gotten it right when an actress on one of my projects commented on the woman in the script and said, “I can’t WAIT to play this part!”

Keep on keepin’ on, folks!

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