Naomi Williams's Lounge Discussions

Debbie Croysdale you don’t have to be an intellectual psychologist. Bit of an exaggeration.

by her body language-flick hair, smile, look him in the eyes, touch him if she speaks.

The storyline has the two characters switching roles - she's becoming the A character (hero) but needs him to move forward; I've got them touching and eye locked. Now she just needs to lead him into the next scene. I'm amazed at how many males explained the subtleties of the female character to me.

So much more information is needed. What exactly is she interested in? As an anti-hero, would she be all about the physical encounter and not interested in sentiment? How do they know each other - work, family/friend connection, chance encounter? What's her strength as the anti-hero? Her flaw should come through in this initial approach.

If I were to put some part of my personality in it, I would find something on him to chat about and compliment - a shirt, tattoo, piece of jewelry. But I play a very long and honorable game. I look for someone who sees me as a person before I can open up and flirt. These are the nuances that aren't female, but that can be. I think you have to dig further into the character's wants, needs, strengths and flaws to know what she would do.

I'd recommend reading/watching Fleabag. She's an anti-hero who shows attraction towards several men throughout the series. Although she breaks the fourth wall and shares her inner thoughts with the audience, she also uses a lot of body language and expression. Plus, it's just a great show!

@Freyja - Agreed. Although to add to that, I'm also quite done with strong female characters being angry in order to exercise that strength (the understanding being if you calm them down, then they would be powerless, or worse, could be provoked). Did you see Brit Marling's NYT post about not wanting to be a "Strong Female Lead"? https://www.indiewire.com/2020/02/brit-marling-new-york-times-strong-fem...

Karen "Kay" Ross I haven't read that yet, I'll take a look now. I love OA. There's something about writing female characters (whether they're the lead or secondary characters) that have their motivation as their personality, instead of their personality reacting to the motivation. The Good Girls did it well for the most part, as well. There was plenty of sex and violence, but the characters were fully alive and fully formed. I'd love to see more of that in secondary characters and extras as well. And in movies/tv where it's not the purpose of the show. Can female characters be incidentally fully alive? That would be nice. Thanks for the article!

Another aspect I don't think has been explored in the other comments is what it would mean if they were in charge. If outside their enclave is death have the current leaders had to make hard decisions to keep more people alive? Are any of the slaves willing to maintain a regimented society to keep it running? I can't imagine it's easy if outside is death - how is everyone fed? Clean water? If suddenly there was no rationing would it collapse?

A new slave arrives and has a story about a livable place beyond the wasteland.

James, That is absolute best answer I've heard yet. I like the way you think, my man.