Screenwriting : Strong Female Characters by Aalijah Amaro

Do you have any strong, female women in your life? See what their strengths are or struggles and how they overcome them. Any woman that inspires you, make notes as to why they inspire you, then you can create characters from there. Hope that helps : )

Thanks :)

Write them as you would for all other characters—as three-dimensional human beings. Write them as characters who have their own agency. Define them by who they are, not what they look like. If you can write effective characters then you can write any character, no matter the gender. ;)))

Showing is better than telling. Strong actors will be key. Like Christine says, you can look to real life examples and convey their emotions in a way that the talent can show it.

my go-to screen women:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKdSGSZfbnA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyDHqRN1V58

"This wasn't a lonely guy who lived with his cats."

My take is make strong female characters but give them shitty love lifes,. That makes it more fun. Then you have characters who are badass but for some reason they fail hard at love.

Have their passions be something besides focusing on a man or their love life. Put them together talking about other things.

What also might help is to write down each character and what their motives are in the story. What is their goal, why is their goal so important and how are they going to achieve it. What is the end result for all of them? Also, my characters grew as I wrote my story. Just start writing. Introduce each character along the way and build them up from there. Before I wrote my screenplay, I had an idea of who they were but by the end of it, I knew them entirely. Then the dialogue will come easier.

Write them as best you can and then get women to read and give feedback. When you bring in new perspectives, especially those of the character you are trying to portray, you get a more authentic portrayal. Whenever we are looking for new writers in my writer's group, we always search for someone who has different life experience to all of us.

I'd watch Hidden Figures repeatedly. As a math nerd, I found it empowering.

Nick: Good counsel.

Spend some time reading blogs/books by females, surround yourself with different women, observe them and listen to them to get to know what matters to them and their different voices. Love that you’re taking the time to even think about this. Many don’t and just write shallow and stereotypical characters. When you’ve written anything, have a woman read it for a female perspective and voice. Good luck!

Just be careful not to over due it. If you have to many characters with to many issues it can take away the drama. Two or three characters can give you the chance to go deeper into the subject.

In watching Hidden Figures this morning, I see that they stand up for themselves, defend their inner boundaries, and maintain dignity amidst daunting circumstances.

Just think of the female as a male. There now you have enough.

I treat females like male characters. I try to make them engaging. I don't overthink it.