Cat Fight In The Kitchen-Wattpad Rant

Things Writers Should Do with their Female Characters

My best friend told me one time you never really know a person until you've seen them express and extreme emotion and I actually believe that. I want to know your character, so I want to see them go through these range of emotions. And I want everyone to realize that it's okay.

4. Make other girls the friends.

Seriously, I say this all the time too, but anymore, girls, we are our own worst enemy. We talk a lot about how guys think we're slutty if we dress in skimpy clothing, but honestly, I hardly hear a guy say slut when I hear girls say it constantly.

We're always belittling each other and I don't think that's right. But, naturally, a lot of the stories here have that one queen bee (Regina George-esque of course, with her minions) that is always after the poor little MC. I know I'm guilty of not having a lot of female friends in my stories, but it's something I've been working on.

I'd like to see a story where there isn't the one girl bully that is the only antagonist. I don't want the blonde cheerleader to be the bully. (If we're being honest, I want the conflict to be something besides a person, to be honest). I want to see girls standing up for each other and being friends.

I will just throw this in here to clarify something that I know a lot of you have probably experienced. I don't want to generalize either, but a lot of teenage girls will hate you if you have a guy for a best friend. I went through all of high school not having a lot of real, close girlfriends, because they all hated I had a guy for a best friend, so I can see that.

Teenage girls are so wrapped up in boys that they tend to forsake friendship for petty things, but that's another rant for another time. I just want to clarify that, yes, more often than not, it is realistic for teenage girls to have problems with other teenage girls.

5. Making fear okay

You ever noticed that in order for a female MC to be "strong" she can't be afraid of anything? I want to call bullshit on that. It's okay to be afraid of things. It's completely unrealistic to have no fear at all. C'mon.

I have the worst arachnophobia most of you have probably ever seen. It's bad. It's gotten waaay worse over the years, too. A few years ago my brother put a little spider on me as a joke and I had a horrible, horrible panic attack (and I don't have them too often, so he'd never seen it before) and it was horrific. I've gotten to the point where I can't even look at pictures of spiders without getting freaked out now. Just talking about it makes me cringe.

About six months ago there was a tarantula in my house (yeah, my fucking house) and I called my best friend in an intense panic and all he literally told me, "I'm eight hours away, Addy. If you can hold out that long, I'll gladly come take care of it, but right now, it's do or die. You got this".

So I called my brother (at work) and he just told me he'd come when he got off (which was four hours). Then I called my dad and I remember almost crying and saying something like "But daddy, it's huge." But he was at work as well and I was all alone.

And I've never been so proud of myself for getting it out of the house, even though it took nearly three hours and a lot of screaming and cowering, and I'm not going to even be ashamed of saying crying. But I did it and it was a moment of sincere triumph. When I got over my intense shock, I called everyone back and told them what a badass I am.

Fear is one of the strongest motivators for people, so I don't know why we're not utilizing this as writers. Nothing can inspire as much action and drama as fear, so stop saying fear is for the weak and start realizing that fear is normal and something we shouldn't avoid. Nothing will make your reader sit on the edge of their seat or sigh in relief as watching a character face their fear and overcome it.

6. Realize that needing help isn't being weak

Yet another thing I've had to learn over the years: it's okay to ask for help. My best friend always gets so mad at me, because I always wait until I'm just in too deep and stressed out that I have a breakdown before I ask for help. Don' do that.

You can't always be the chosen one. You can't always do everything by yourself.

Use your supporting characters! It's not weak to have your female MC need extra help from a friend. If male MCs can do it, so can female ones. That's why I think girls should be friends. And girls and guys should be friends. And guys should be friends. Your MC should have friends and those friends should be helpful, because that's what friends do.

It takes a strong person to admit they need help, sometimes. There's nothing wrong with getting help.

If you have so much on your plate (like looking amazing while you try to save the world and still have valuable relationships with you friends and family) you're going to get stressed out. You're going to need a helping hand.

7. Realize that not everything has to be perfect

I think I was trying to touch on this in the "So Beautiful" rant, but not everything has to happen the way your MC dreams of it happening. I read so many stories where the MC dreams about getting the guy and literally everything she wants to happen happens. He asks her to the big dance. She finds the perfect dress. She does her hair and makeup just right. He kisses her on the dance floor in the middle of everyone and they're all staring and cheering. Then he says something snarky about his old girlfriends and the queen bitch.

Bored. I'm bored of that. You guys know how much I love unconventional things. I love when things don't turn out perfectly. Those are my favorite moments in books and real life.

Sometimes I wish the MC would say all the dreams she has and then I wish every one of them would become something totally different.

Like, I want her to go to the dance with a huge group of girlfriends. And I want her to get her dress ripped and her makeup smudged. And I want him to kiss her in a parking lot with no one else around. I don't want it to be perfect. I want it to be epic. I want it to be the one "aww" moment in a twisted, crazy tale.

And can I just tell you another cliché you can add to my list of life failures? When I was elected to the homecoming court my senior year, the basketball team got me flowers for always helping them out (and putting together the tapes that got four of them kickass scholarships) and they gave it to me at the evening ceremony.

Well, my best friend being he captain, walked out to the middle of the court as my dad was escorting me (because that's how we did it. Players were escorts at the school ceremony, and parents were escorts at the night one). And the thing at my school was they always yelled at the players "kiss her!" at school, so they did that to my best friend when he went to give me the flowers. And all I can say is having a public kiss like the ones girls dream about isn't fun. It was rather horrifying, actually. Lots of pressure and lots of critiques.

(Good thing I looked okay. But we were sanding next to my dad and I just remember him shouting "that's my daughter!". It's funny now. Horrible at the time).

I want you to write out the character's fantasies and goals. Then I want all her fantasies to play out the opposite of what she expected. But I do want her to reach her goals and be successful. I just want her to have to go through a mess beforehand.

Seriously, it's boring if you've already planned out every moment. You know how to deal with conflicts. All the twists and turns have been planned for. But when nothing goes as planned it's a lot more fun. You should do that more often.

And that's all I have for now. Maybe we'll revisit this. Maybe we won't.

And since you guys seem to enjoy hearing about my cat, I have to tell you her new trick. I taught her the coolest new trick. I just stick my hand out and say "gimme a five" and she slaps it like she's high fiving me! It's the greatest thing ever. My best friend is sick of receiving videos of me doing it, but it cracks me up.

But that's not important. What do you guys think about the rant topic? What do you want to see more female character doing more of/ less of? Lemme know!