8 Ways Your Writing Reveals that You Don't Understand Women

Comments · 6.5K

• RA

  @ramonarobot · 1 year ago

  I’m watching this as a woman, hoping I got women right lol

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• VI

  @viniciusdeoliveira5869 · 1 year ago

  I asked a woman friend of mine how to write women in a way that makes people notice they're well written. She said "Write a character like any other, eventually make her glad that her clothes have pockets"

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• VI

  @vibinginthecorner · 1 year ago (edited)

  I&apos;m a woman. I agree with all of this and I&apos;d like to add something. Women do worry for their safety, especially when we&apos;re alone. However, we don&apos;t necessarily go around thinking about it in an explicit way. It can be subtle. We are so used to constantly managing our safety that it becomes routine second nature. <br><br>Your character&apos;s internal dialogue might not be literally worrying about her safety. It could be that, while she is thinking about other things related to the plot/scene, she is routinely engaging in certain habits. For example, when she enters a parking garage at night, she looks all around to see if anyone else is lurking. She puts some pepper spray in her purse. She keeps her hand over her drink at the bar so no one can slip something in it. <br><br>She tells her friend she&apos;s going out on a date, giving the friend details like the guy&apos;s name and social media handles, maybe his license plate number or where he works. Anything the police could use to identify him. She tells the friend to expect a text from her by 10PM. If the friend doesn&apos;t get the text, she knows something is wrong and can pursue the matter.<br><br>Personally, I rarely worry about my safety in terms of conscious thoughts. However, I am <b>constantly</b> vigilant. I have numerous habits designed to keep me safe. I am always aware of my surroundings, doubly so at night/when there aren&apos;t a lot of other people around. In a sense, I do worry. It&apos;s just that the worry is so ever-present and integrated into my psyche, I don&apos;t even think about it. <br><br>If you want to create a sense of creepiness or doom in the scene, show how dangerous the setting is, &nbsp;show the character is feeling anxious, or show the personality of this specific character as someone who worries a lot, you could have her thinking conscious, top-of-mind thoughts about her safety. <br><br>But if you want the character to present as relaxed and carefree, or very confident or brave, you could skip those thoughts but still have her taking routine, habitual actions designed to keep her safe. Both of these are realistic and believable, because each woman is different and we each feel differently at different times. <br><br>Think of it this way ... when you put your seatbelt on, are you gripped with fear? Are you consciously worrying about getting into an accident? Probably not, but you put the seatbelt on anyway because you understand the dangers of car accidents. <br><br>I really loved this video, and I&apos;m looking forward to the one on writing men!

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• SC

  @Schlittlenutacus · 1 year ago

  Make em unique regardless of gender while still understanding the finer details and nuance they go through.

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• TH

  @thedoctor6265 · 1 year ago

  the line “she had never washed blood from her clothing” could easily be fixed by adding “ that wasn’t her own”

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• RO

  @rocky_wang · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue3G51hpLSk&amp;t=110">1:50</a> “She has never washed blood out of her clothing before” 😂 As a male human being, I laughed so hard at this point

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• ZI

  @zibingotaeam3716 · 1 year ago

  Everytime someone brings up Reese Witherspoon, I remember that stupid pun<br>&quot;Did you hear about that stabbing in Hollywood recently? Reese whatshername got killed.&quot;<br>&quot;Witherspoon?&quot;<br>&quot;No, with a knife.&quot;

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• EL

  @elwyrick · 1 year ago (edited)

  A little story. My first novel was published by St. Martin’s Press in 1994, but it took about 100 rejections to get there. The book was written in the first-person female voice. The breakthrough came when Ruth Cavin, the legendary mystery editor, called to make an offer. That first rejection from a literary agent was a humdinger. One day, I was chatting with a neighbor and told her I was writing a novel. She edited scientific journals for a living but loved fiction, and she offered to look at the manuscript. She turned out to be invaluable. Along the way, she told me it bothered her that women in novels never had periods. I said, “Write a scene and I’ll put it in.” She wrote a paragraph. I used it. That was the only non-original writing in the book. Then came that first rejection letter. A full page. Single-spaced. Brutal. The heart of the attack? The paragraph that Donna wrote. The agent wrote: “The tampon-in-the-mirror scene convinces me you should not be writing from a female consciousness because, frankly, you haven’t a clue what that is, and any editor worth her salt (which most of them are) would consider this scene in particular ludicrous.” Donna, the neighbor who wrote the scene, was not amused. She got the address and fired off a blistering reply. I didn’t mind, though I worried that agents had some secret blacklist and I’d just been added. Of course, Ruth Cavin ultimately bought the book. I like to think her female consciousness was fully intact. Later, I learned that the first rejection wasn’t exactly typical. I changed my byline to E.L. Wyrick, and every rejection after that was addressed to Ms. Wyrick. Apparently, no one detected I was a man. After the two Tammi Randall mysteries came out, both were well reviewed by major newspapers and publications. The second starred by Kirkus. Only one reviewer ever mentioned I was male. Every now and then, I pull that first rejection letter out as a reminder to keep on chugging.

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  @217Mèl · 1 year ago (edited)

  Women and men are people. And people are all different. The single biggest mistake writers make is not writing their characters as unique individuals regardless of their gender.<br><br>(edit, clarification : what i meant was that individuality was important, not that it was everything. While, of course, you have to take into account your character&apos;s gender, it shouldn&apos;t be the core of your character&apos;s identity. It matters, obviously, but who they are matters more.)

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• BE

  @benedixtify · 1 year ago

  A big problem is using a woman&apos;s hair color as a description of her personality. Screenplays do this too often.

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• IM

  @imapotato8649 · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue3G51hpLSk&amp;t=170">2:50</a> The ovary jiggle physics quote is DIABOLICAL

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• JA

  @JadenLightvale · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue3G51hpLSk&amp;t=480">8:00</a> great example is princess carolyn from bojack horseman

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