Cat Fight In The Kitchen-Wattpad Rant

Things Writers Should Do with their Female Characters

Guys, I'm exhausted, but you know me. There's never a good enough reason to not try something (except, like, drugs...you know?) so here I am trying to make an important, coherent rant. Whatever, here are some Things Writers Should Do with their Female Characters

1. Make them confident.

Do you know how many times I've seen a character that was literally nothing but self-loathing? Too many. Now, if you know me (and unfortunately for you guys, some of you do) you know this is really hypocritical of me, because I literally have zero self-confidence, but the difference between me and these characters is that I fake it.

I don't run around telling everyone how sorry I feel about myself and blah blah. Fake it, 'til you make it, baby. So it's okay if they aren't always confident about what they have to do, but it's not okay if all they ever do is say "I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't. I can't. I can't." That drives me crazy.

No, I don't want them breathing down my neck telling me how perfect they are. But it's okay for them to be confronted with a task and say "yes. I can do this." Because if there is one thing I've learned in the last twenty whatever years it's this: there is no can and can't. It's a matter of will and won't. So will your character or won't she?

2. Make them talented.

Literally, the only talent some of these girls is being a nerd. And when they do have a talent, it's something unheard of. Usually, they can just magically pick up an instrument and play it, or they can take up dance and a week later stand on pointe (I read that once and was no happy), or they can accomplish photorealism in an hour.

Why can't they be good at something, but also work at it. People don't realize that "natural talent" is not the tame as actually being talented. Saying someone is "naturally talented" is taking the lazy way out and also telling me that they are beatable.

My coach always, always told me that and so far it's been true. I ran against this girl in high school who was "naturally talented" and very well known in my state for cross country and my freshman year I beat her. Why? Because she got so wrapped up in her "natural" talent she stopped practicing. I ran every. Single. Day.

It wasn't even hard for me to win against a senior my freshman year. I worked my ass off and I'm never not going to be proud of that. So I take back what I said earlier about having no confidence. You put me in a race and I'm confident I could still beat over 95% of the other runners. Because I train constantly. It's okay to be proud of something you work for. Make your girls work and make them proud of it.

(And yes, if they spend hours in their room reading and studying, they should be damn proud of those perfect grades).

3. Make emotions okay.

This is something I think a lot of us struggle with in real life. I know I definitely do, but I'm working on it (and it's something I say in my rants constantly). If your girl cries, she isn't weak. If she gets angry she isn't a bitch. I hate when I see comments like that from readers, especially.

You know how many times I've seen someone say "she was so badass, why did she have to start crying?" I dunno, maybe because she's been incredibly stressed out, the entirety of the plot centers on her reaction, she's trying to save the world, and being a badass doesn't mean you can't cry. Seriously.

And any time a girl gets so much as annoyed it's because she's a bitch. That's not right at all. Aggression is a natural emotion. So what if sometimes you want to blow off some steam? Your characters probably need to do it too.

Nothing bothers me more than a character that is one flat emotion. No I don't want them to cry all the time. I don't want them to be angry all the time. I don't want them to constantly be happy or giggle. I want to get whiplash from the way they go back and forth. I want to see how they handle all kinds of emotions.