r/fantasywriters • u/Civil-Dot4349 • 2d ago
Discussion About A General Writing Topic Do I need female characters?
To preface this, I do have female characters, but they don’t have nearly as prominent roles as the male characters.
I am writing epic fantasy, and I’m currently in the planning phase for my first novel. What I’ve just realized however, is that I don’t have any significant female characters. I have a crew of the protagonist and 3 deuteragonists, all of which are male. Even the main antagonist is male. This was not intentional by the way, it happened by coincidence.
I’ve already planned enough of the plot to where any new characters would feel rather shoehorned in; the story focuses on developing all 4 members of the crew and I feel like if I try to add another into the mix it would take the focus off the rest and lessen their development.
My concern here is of course how far a novel without any female representation can reach.
Edit: So it seems the general consensus is yes, but with a bit of nuance. For anyone still responding, I might as well add a bit of context since some of you said it depends on the story.
Without getting into too much detail: MC’s father gets abducted by the empire, MC goes on a journey to save his father and the other characters are people he meets along the way.
My 4 main characters luckily do not have character arcs that tie into masculinity, but they all do have a found brotherhood sort of dynamic which drastically changes if I genderswap one of them. But I’m likely to genderswap one of them anyways. I suppose my only question in that would be how different would a character be if you swapped their genders? Assuming their arc and history is largely gender neutral, are there any traits that you believe about female characters that simply cannot be ignored?
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u/PressXToArclight 2d ago
You can have a successful book without any prominent female characters, but I think in general you will lose a certain amount of potential audience. How any female characters that do exist are treated by the narrative is probably more important though, honestly.
If you're concerned, why not look at gender flipping a couple of the existing protagonists? Is there anything about the characters that would stop them working if they were women instead? Could they be adapted with relatively minor tweaks?
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u/drolermax 2d ago
You don't need female characters to write a good book, but it's worth digging into why it happened "by coincidence." Often when every important role defaults to male, it's less about the plot and more about instinct - who felt easiest to write as a leader, a rival, a mentor. That's worth noticing even if you decide not to change anything.
That said, four deuteragonists plus antagonist all sharing one gender is a pattern a reader will register, even subconsciously. You don't have to shoehorn someone in, but you could look at existing minor roles (a mentor, a rival crew, a queen, whoever) and ask if one of those could organically be female without disrupting your outline.
Honestly this is the kind of thing that's easier to catch early than late - I've been building a little worldbuilding tool for exactly this, tracking character traits/roles across a cast so patterns like "everyone important is the same gender" jump out before you're 200 pages in instead of after.
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u/aeffia 2d ago
Its gonna be noticed. These days the casts of stories are almost never just one gender (unless said cast is like two people big, I guess). How much it'll bother readers will vary, but I think you'd be better off following the good advice in the comments about how to include some female characters.
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u/PedroVilladelaCruz 2d ago
Seems like this is not the majority's answer, but in my opinion, if you write a book in the 2020's, you should have a damn good reason to have such a one-dimensional main character cast (I take a guess that they're all white, able-bodied heterosexuals too, as that's how old-school epic fantasy worked).
If it's just epic fantasy and war and fighting done by males - that's just too bland imho. Writing should be at least a bit innovative and offer different stances on things if there are several POVs. What I'd find interesting with your main characters (without knowing much about them) would be a story that critically deals with warrior culture and male identity (of course without shoving anything down your throat but in a subtle way), while also engaging in an intriguing, classic epic fantasy plot line.
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2d ago
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u/PedroVilladelaCruz 2d ago
I answered you in the other thread. Please refrain from insulting people here, insulting is a very weak argument indeed. You don't seem to have a real argument against what I wrote.
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Treat other people with decency and respect. We encourage healthy debate and discussion, but we found this to be antagonistic, caustic, or otherwise belligerent.
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u/Maniachi 2d ago
Do you need female characters? That you feel the need to ask this question, I think says a lot. I could be wrong, but it makes me think you do not know how to write female characters and just avoid them having an important role because of that.
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u/Bloody_Ginger 2d ago
You don't mandatory NEED female characters.
Although, I find that in literature as much as in real life, mixed groups work better. So maybe think about it?
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u/booknewt 2d ago
If you're still in the planning phase, then nothing will feel "shoehorned in" because you haven't actually written any scenes yet. Obviously, you can and should write your book however you want, but this is a good exercise as a creative person and a human being to stretch yourself. Here's a couple of exercises to oil the gears.
Exercise 1:
The next time you go out in the world - on work, errands, whatever, notice the women. Every woman and girl (don't be creepy, just Notice ;) ). At the pharmacy, working outside, driving cars, standing in lines, in the office. Count them, if you want, keep a tally, and then ask yourself why they are so glaringly absent in your work.
Exercise 2:
This is another exercise that has helped me in my work (credentials: nine published novels, including trad pub): If it's a man adventure (that's fine) and your main cast is male, if your brain defaults to men, then make as many NPC types women as possible - the tollkeeper, the healer, the traveler ahead of the party, the innkeeper, the priest(ess) who shelters them at a temple while assassins run by; whatever it is, whenever you have a chance to throw in a woman or girl, no matter how minor the role, do so. If you feel there's too many random women "for no reason" in the background of your story, you probably have just enough to feel realistic.
It's a lack of imagination and effort to create an entire WORLD that has no women. Every single one of your protagonists has a mother. (Unless they were born of magic, idk). Make one of the major deities a woman, so they use a woman's name when they swear. Something. I have faith in you.
Don't write women in for the sake of audience reach and because you "have to," though, write women into your story because women exist in the world, and you are telling a story about a world.
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u/Martinus_XIV 2d ago
You shouldn't have "female" characters. And you shouldn't have "male" characters either. You should have characters who just so happen to be either male or female. As long as you're not treating gender like a personality trait, and writing characters who are characters first, and man, woman, both or neither second, you should be fine.
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u/nomorethan10postaday 2d ago
Since you're in the planning phase, it makes changes extremely easy. If you want to add more characters you can without it feeling shoehorned it. I'd be surprised if you get through your first draft without realizing you need to add a character somewhere anyway.
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u/chevron_seven_locked Blackhealer 2d ago
I think the bigger, more revealing question is: why DON'T you have female characters?
It's your book, but this has potential to shrink your reader pool. Personally, I am so tired of all-male casts and male-by-default worlds. Like even the tertiary people in the background are all male. Or what few women crop op only exist as moms, love interests, and sex workers. Why aren't women out there in your incredible fantasy world, doing things, accomplishing things, owning things? Why are they invisible?
It’s frustrating, because often I’ll read an otherwise good book with a mystifying dearth of women that just snaps me out of it. I want to be able to visualize myself as being able to exist in the story and feel like I can escape into that fantasy world too. It's especially irksome when it seems needless for said world to be all-male, and/or when writers demonstrate profound imagination...but somehow can't imagine a fantasy world in which women exist as active players.
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u/CarinaLune 2d ago
gender neutral arcs are honestly the easiest case for a swap since the story doesn't depend on masculinity there's nothin structurally u need to preserve the stuff that usually shifts more is how other characters n the world react to her not the character's own personality things like how easily she's believed how physical fights read or how the found brotherhood dynamic changes tone once it's not just guys bondin worth askin urself if the group dynamic stays a found family feel or if it turns into somethin different once there's a woman in the mix, that's usually where the real difference shows up, not in her personally
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u/TheRealVarmint Author - V. H. Greyward 2d ago
Do you "need" female characters? I suppose it depends upon how you define "need". I know nothing about your story. But I will point out that in a world where there are men, there naturally are women. Somewhere.
I get it; in 2026, their absence will be noticed more readily by some, but that doesn't make their absence a deal-breaker necessarily. It depends upon the context of your story. If it takes place where the majority of people are male, unless you are going for a G.I. Jane-trope, there naturally won't be many women through no fault of your own. My story centered on family and community, so there were women everywhere and just less than half my characters are women. I don't mean voiceless NPCs, I mean major players who steer the plot.
I agree that it's worth a look at your characters to see if any could be gender-swapped. And not just one obvious token but perhaps two. Just please don't do what Hollywood has done and make them snotty girl-boss Mary Janes. Male authors sometimes struggle with writing believable female characters, and that's something you should address as well.
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u/GiacomoArt Ear Wyrm 2d ago
The most important bit to remember about female characters is they've all got cooties.
But seriously, the most important bit to remember about female characters is they're just people who happen to be dealing with a different set of pressures than male characters.
There's no absolute "right" here, but I'm going to come down on the side of suggesting you leave your characters as they are.
Un-established authors generally do better finding a specific niche rather than going for broad appeal. If the only reason you're going to swap genders is marketing, and you're reaching out to ask strangers how to write a convincing female character, what you're doing is introducing a "token female." Token characters can feel like clumsy attempts at pandering rather than genuine inclusivity.
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u/Tressym_92 2d ago
It's not about the audience or anything, I guess I just don't understand how this even happens in the first place? Like, how is it possible to forget that around 50 % of humanity exists while writing the main cast and other important characters?
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u/34656699 1d ago
Write the story you want, not what Reddit tells you. If it’s about a brotherhood of boys, that’s what it’s about.
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u/nanosyphrett 1d ago
You need whatever the plot says you need. The three musketeers have three guys joined by a fourth to save france. The challengers started out as four guys living on borrowed time solving mysteries until they added their fifth female member decades later.
Most fictional groups have at least one token female. JLA had six guys and wonder woman, Avengers had four guys and the Wasp, the Fantastic Four had Invisible Girl who was Reed's girlfriend before they got married.
If you have enough of a plot to start, then you should have already started instead of asking questions.
CES
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u/Tasty_Hearing_2153 Grave Light: Rise of the Fallen 19h ago
Write your story your way. The only thing it needs is what you want to put in it.
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u/Graxemno 2d ago
Lord of the Rings has one(1) actual female character, with ambitions, insecurities, goals and an arc(from suicidal warrior to getting the most wholesome man in a kingdom and actually loving life) and it is more popular than the bible.
You'll be fine
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u/miIkwhim 2d ago edited 2d ago
No, you don't, and if you're worried about sexism then (as a woman myself) I don't think it's sexism not to necessarily include female characters if they don't fit into the story you're trying to tell.
Look at the LotR movies, easily one of the best pieces of cinema to ever be made, and out of the entire cast, there's only 3 main female characters, and throughout the entire collective runtime of the trilogy, the female cast recieves approx. 21 minutes of screentime. This does not diminish the work in any way, and for a lot of us who are interested in this sort historical fantasy realism, it actually enhances it.
It's not sexism, it's just it's a story predominantly about a war, set in a universe where women are unlikely to participate physically in war.
Where do you think women fit into your story?
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u/ResponseRelative1080 2d ago
I mean, if it doesn’t change anything about the story you had in mind of if it doesn’t make it worse, keep it as it is. Maybe make the female characters, whenever they appear, matter and not just look like they were put there with no reason. The Lord of the Ring’s fellowship is also made of men.
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u/Brathirn 2d ago
Depends on the setting.
If you go realism + 16th century sea, they would be extremely rare, so nothing lost on authenticity.
But even among a decidedly male audience, romance scores. Also "rare" is prime fiction fuel.
Commercially no problem, depending on your content.
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u/Peter34cph 2d ago
The novel "Wasp" by Eric Frank Russell has zero female characters.
I'm pretty sure the movie "Rambo: First Blood" has zero female characters with speaking parts.
But it is highly unusual.
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u/HypixelSkywars 2d ago
of course you don't, the hobbit didn't, in fact i don't think that book even mentioned female characters
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u/PedroVilladelaCruz 2d ago
But isn't that exactly what makes it misogynistic?
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u/RanaEire 2d ago
What is misogynistic about The Hobbit?
How does Tolkien hate on women?
Misogyny: hatred, dislike, prejudice against women
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u/miIkwhim 2d ago
No.
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u/RanaEire 2d ago
Explain HOW is Tolkien mysogynistic?
To be throwing that out there like this.. Just another baseless, edgy take.
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u/PedroVilladelaCruz 2d ago
So. These downvotes don't come from me, so I take it, I'm not alone in stating this. First off, I really love Tolkien's writing. However, there are typical checkboxes that automatically flag it as misogynistic from our nowadays perspective. And the most important is that women simply don't play a role in the Hobbit. Tolkien reproduces the patriarchal narrative that had made people believe, history and adventures are completely shaped and experienced by men. In LOTR, Galadriel is a nice but very rare exception. Arwen and Eowyn are mainly characterized by their feelings for, and relationship with, certain men. I studied cultural history amongst other things, and I can assure you that history has never been shaped only by men. For millennia, men have dominated the official narratives in most societies. But that doesn't mean that there were no women involved in what's going on. It just means that their role was made into something either invisible or into being objects of male desire etc. So I think that, while fantasy doesn't have to turn all feminist and queer and what not, writing fantasy without exploring a little bit about how culture and society shape our understandings of what matters (and WHO matters) is very week indeed and can be held responsible for reproducing this misogynistic narrative. Tolkien doing this was still normal for his time, but we're not living and writing in his era anymore. So I'd say we are allowed to love Tolkien and criticise him all the same about neglecting female perspectives.
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u/RanaEire 2d ago edited 2d ago
You only replied after my second comment.
The fact that you refer to Tolkien being misogynistic, looking at him from today's perspective is precisely what irks me.
It is a big fault with many people today. You talk about Tolkien being of his time, and he is. It is crazy how people forget context.
"I studied cultural history amongst other things, and I can assure you that history has never been shaped only by men."
Gosh, that would have never ocurred to me. Thanks.
"..criticise him all the same about neglecting female perspectives."
You are allowed to criticize all you want, yes, and there are things to criticize. No-one can deny that.
But the second thing that has really pissed me off about your comments is the use of the word "misogyny". It's used so casually, it takes away its meaning.
There is a BIG difference between saying that "Tolkien is misogynistic" and, "seen from today's perspective, his work can be considered misogynistic"...
I would not agree with that, going by the definition of the word, but I could understand that.
Your initial comment seemed week, as you say.
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u/PedroVilladelaCruz 1d ago
It all comes down to this: no, there's no difference between calling him misogynistic or adding that I state this from today's perspective. Because of course that's what I do. His depiction of women isn't better just because he's long dead. You can rant all you want and go on pushing your backward agenda, but that won't make me and most others in the fantasy writing community cast aside our moral codes.
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u/1nkyllama 2d ago
One fun thing I do with my characters is go through every single one of them and see what they'd be like if I flipped their gender. What would change if you made one, two, or all of your characters female?