Not sure if it’s to ask this here I’m sorry if it isn’t.

Which color scheme do you like the most on my OC Safira?

Here's some brief lore to aid you:

At 22, Safira lives for the day. Not that she's the type to just go with the flow, like most people – she simply lost all hope for the future. A dancer by vocation, she's relegated to dancing in the streets, instead of on the most renowned stages as she always dreamed.

Thrown out of the orphanage into the world, she spent the last 4 years alone and out of place, surviving on the little her parents left her. After pawning almost everything she owns, she counts the days until the precariousness of her street performances and the brevity of her failed odd jobs make her lose what little she has left – a place to live.

It is at that moment that she meets the eccentric cat trainer, part-time vigilante, Gigante. Needing more energy to ignore him than to go along with his delusions and plans, Safira ends up doing what she would never do alone, until she discovers what she's really made of. Alongside Gigante, Nina, and Lírio, her flaws, failures, and anguish may, after all, be the necessary weapons, not only to turn her meaningless, purposeless life around but to turn an entire society upside down.

Thanks!

I have a silly little short comic about shenanigans in my character's backround, it's about a moment where he asks his dad what makes someone a "Real man?"

I have something for his dad to say, but i don't entirely like it. So in something completely not serious, what do you think makes someone a real man?

It doesn't have to be good anyway lol, his dad doesn't know what the hell to say either X3

I’m a male writer working on a story with a woman as the main protagonist, and I’m trying to be thoughtful about how I write her.

I don’t want to write her as a cardboard “strong female character,” a flawless Mary Sue, a trauma machine, a male character with a woman’s name slapped on, or someone whose whole personality revolves around romance, beauty, or proving she is “not like other girls.”

I know women are not a monolith, so I’m not looking for one universal answer. I’m more interested in patterns you’ve noticed in fiction.

For women readers, writers, and anyone who thinks about character development a lot:

What are things male writers often do when writing women that immediately make you roll your eyes?

What do you wish male writers did more often when creating female protagonists?

What kinds of flaws feel believable and human without making her unlikeable in a lazy way?

Where is the line between writing a capable woman and accidentally making her feel too perfect?

How do you feel about female protagonists written around combat, leadership, ambition, anger, sexuality, motherhood, trauma, or emotional guardedness?

What are some smaller details, habits, fears, pressures, social dynamics, or inner thoughts that male writers often miss?

Are there any tropes you are tired of seeing attached to female leads?

Are there examples of female protagonists you think were written especially well, and what made them work?

Mostly, I want her to feel like a full person first. Not a statement. Not a fantasy. Not a checklist. A person with wants, contradictions, bad habits, strengths, blind spots, humor, fear, and agency.

Any advice, warnings, examples, or brutally honest “please stop doing this” comments would be appreciated.

Edit : For context, I’m already aware of some of the more obvious pitfalls. I’m not describing her breasts every time she walks into a room. Her attractiveness isn’t treated like one of her primary character traits. Romance isn’t her reason for existing or the inevitable solution to her emotional problems. She isn’t effortlessly better than everyone around her, universally desired, or automatically right because she’s the protagonist. She doesn’t hate femininity or other women to prove how tough she is. And I’m trying not to use sexual violence, pregnancy, motherhood, or trauma as shortcuts for giving her depth.

I’m also not trying to make her “strong” by removing vulnerability, fear, tenderness, stupidity, selfishness, insecurity, or the ability to make spectacularly bad decisions. Some of those things are actually important parts of who she is.

So I’m hoping to get beyond the obvious stuff and into the things male writers might not even realize they’re missing.

I need help naming a few of the familiars in my current WIP.
The first is a northeastern ermine. It is the familiar of a middle-aged Italian American widow witch, the time and place is the mid 1960s Boston.
ideas please..

http://thelabotomyofawriter.blogspot.com/2010/04/epic-character-questionairre-part-one.html

As I started working on revisions for my novel, I realized that my character development was choppy and disjointed. While my characters had a strong background and I had done copious amounts of planning, it wasn't coming across well. So I went in search of a new questionnaire to fuel my character development process.

This above link leads to the most comprehensive interview for a character I have ever seen. It's insane. Very long, but very detailed. When I began to answer these questions as my character, I felt like a new writer again, eager and inspired. I've found out so many new things about my character and at least three new angles to explore so far.

I hope you all find this as helpful as I have!

So I was fucking about the internet today when I found this test somewhere. Unfortunately I lost the link to the original site but I remembered the questions. Try to comment how much your own female characters pass this test. The questions are:

Does the character shape her own destiny? Does she actively try to change her situation and if not, why not?

Does she have her own goals, beliefs and hobbies? Did she come up with them on her own?

Is her character consistent? Do her personality or skills change as the plot demands?

Can you describe her in one short sentence without mentioning her love life, her physical appearance, or the words ‘strong female character’?

Does she make decisions that aren’t influenced by her love life?

Does she develop over the course of the story?

Does she have a weakness?

Does she influence the plot without getting captured or killed?

How does she relate to stereotypes about gender?

How does she relate to other female characters?

Well it's not really an ancient civilization, she's from the minecraft universe and lives lives in a plains village. A lot of things are not decided about the universe yet (religion, village organization, races etc) But i know this character is from a family where they're all successful people and are looked up to by the village, while she's not and feels out of place, useless compared to her family. I planned on making this character self harm, making her feel even more distanced and misunderstood by the village. How was the act of self harming throughout history?? Even if i know that, I need to make it a little different, since it's definitely not the same universe, but they're obviously very similar. Any advice is helpful!!!

Ok so I’m writing sun and moon characters and I want the sun god to seem kind but is actually scary and is the bad guy. I wanna lean more he’s cultish and he’s giving his members the sun and letting them be happy but it’s slowly killing them or smth. (I need other ideas that’s just the first one that came to my head) and then the moon character is a scary looking lad, but they are actually kind and are the “good guy” in the story. I also wanna figure out names for them so if there are any ideas, tell me! Another thing is I don’t want them to look human. Like it’s ok if they look a little human but I want them to look other-worldly. I also don’t wanna lean into stereotypes with sun and moon characters so I don’t want them to date or even like each other. I do want the sun to be manipulative and I want the moon guy to still have flaws. Like how the diamonds do in Steven universe. Anyways this is getting long but yeah

I'd like some advice on what I can say to him. Sorry if this isn't the right place for it. If it isn't, I'd appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

He's said multiple times that he's afraid that people will send him death threats if he ever confirms that his characters are straight. He mentions that the creator of MHA, Horikoshi, was harassed and even received death threats for not making gay ships canon, and he's afraid that the same thing will happen to him.

Personally, I thought this anxiety over making characters straight was a bit... absured for lack of a better word. The media has been comprised of almost exclusively straight characters for decades without any creators receiving backlash and I feel one is more likely to receive backlash for creating gay characters than straight ones. But when I tried to explain this to him, he became upset and felt like his feelings were being brushed off as invalid.

I have a character who’s immortal not in a “can’t die at all” way, but more like he always heals or revives eventually. He’s a companion of the main character and plays a major role in the story, but I’m struggling with how to make him still feel at risk or make his team genuinely worry about him in battle.

If he can’t die, I’m afraid readers will stop caring when he’s in danger. I still want him to experience fear or vulnerability that feels believable. What are some ways to make an immortal character emotionally or narratively tense to follow without just taking away his immortality?