Woman in The Story, 2nd Edition
Woman in The Story, 2nd Edition
This new updated book is packed with creative strategies and case
studies to encourage writers to be gender-mindful in the creation of
complex, compelling, real, and fantastical female characters for film
and television.
2ND EDITION
JACEY
HELEN JACEY
The
Woman
In The
Story
WRITING MEMORABLE FEMALE CHARACTERS
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Susan Cartsonis
Introduction to the Second Edition
vii
x
xiii
38
Making It Personal:
Using Role-Choices
57
98
Women in Trouble:
Conflict and Female Protagonists
137
158
186
205
226
10
vi
237
249
251
258
Jacey
Introduction
xiii
different take on who and what they want to be. Many writers
can relate to the uncanny moment when their characters seem
to behave or speak in ways their creators didnt intend!
Ideally, this book is aimed at every writer who is juggling
and multitasking the nurture and growth of his or her characters to the point of letting go. Wherever you are on your
journey, whether you are a seasoned pro or a student writer,
the book is a resource for your creative path.
Gender Baggage
This book offers a pure and simple focus on thinking about
female protagonists and the ways in which the gender of your
character can and might impact your writing. Can because,
like it or not, gender issues can creep in when we least expect
them; its the world we live in. Might because you, the writer,
might have a specific intention to create certain kinds of female
characters who reflect something you want to say about the
world we live in or the world your character lives in, and how
that world affects girls, boys, men, women, non-binary individuals, robots, mythical creatures, and any other being.
All these cans and the mights affecting or influencing
your choices for your story with a female protagonist could be
called the gender baggage that we often pick up and carry along
the road of development. This book aims to lessen the load.
A Little Herstory
The book came out almost a century after the first how-to on
writing female characters. The problems facing the female
character on screen were even rife in the days of vamps,
vixens, and spunky gals who strutted their stuff in front of the
earliest rolling spools. Lizzie Franckes fascinating book Script
Girls led me to the existence of Elinor Glyn, a novelist turned
xiv
Jacey
xv
that reflect the true diversity of womens lives are all concerns
connected to the books stated purpose of helping writers
develop memorable female protagonists. It is, after all, the
female protagonist who is the ultimate creative embodiment of
so many processes creative and industrial that the writer
has experienced and negotiated. The groundbreaking work
of innumerable institutions and organizations including
Women in Film, the Geena Davis Institute, Miss Representation, WomenandHollywood.com, the Athena Film Festival,
Birds Eye View, the Underwire Festival, the Everyday Sexism
blog, and countless more big and small groups testify to
this. The female protagonist in all her nebulous yet sometimes
fragile glory is like a mothership of debates. Research from the
Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film, University
of San Diego, The Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative,
USCs Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism,
and the Geena Davis Institute tells us that female writers and
female characters remain outnumbered in terms of productions, and female-led teams create different representations
of female characters that are less stereotypical. If you want to
review the research findings and statistics available about diversity issues affecting female characters and stories, the annual
reports these institutions compile reveal the real lowdown.
xvi
Jacey
xvii
Creative Tensions
Evocatively expressing ones feelings about gender can be
the broadest of dilemmas a writer faces when s/he chooses a
female protagonist. The writer will often reflect on the gender
baggage both they and their female protagonists could be
lugging around. Even with the increased focus on female characters, creative anxiety persists. Many writers who have read
this book or attended my Writing the Heroines Story seminar
share similar dilemmas and questions:
<<
I like her, but my producer/director/friend thinks shes unlikable and wants me to change her
<<
<<
I just want to learn some ways of making her really interesting and know Im doing that well
<<
How can I make her believable yet have a seemingly impossible goal (for a woman)?
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
xviii
Jacey
xix
Over to You
The approaches herein may enable you to explore a wide range
of creative paradigms, to trigger ideas, and to push yourself
further and deeper into your character and story world with a
focus on what it means for you, the writer or developer, to have
a female character. If there is any rule of thumb, do what feels
good rather than what feels right!
xx
Jacey
CH A P T E R
efore we get started, sit back and think long and hard
about why you want to choose a female protagonist in
the first place. Hopefully, at the most basic level you want to
further the cause of womanhood with your story, and obviously
you want a female point of view.
Some of your reasons might echo any of these motivations:
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
Its about a woman finding out what she really wants out
of love and life
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
I want to write a thriller/drama/horror with a main character who just happens to be a woman
Jacey
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
To show gender neutrality to treat all your characters exactly the same. None of your characters have any
different experiences or attitudes because of their sex
<<
<<
<<
<<
Jacey
Jacey
Familiar Femininity
<<
Feel-Good Femininity
<<
Fighting Femininity
<<
Fantasy Femininity
<<
Fecund Femininity
<<
Future Femininity
<<
Felonious Femininity
F eminine S upertheme 1:
Familiar Femininity
The Familiar Femininity character and her journey are exactly
that: resoundingly familiar to us. She reflects what most of the
audience would connect with as a pretty believable version
of a female characters real-life experiences. She exhibits
strongly relatable values and attitudes in which her emotional
well-being and those she cares about are central. Thrown off
course, she will do her best to sort herself out eventually by
facing up to her struggles. When the Familiar Femininity character encounters the dark side of life, she may be in trouble
unless the situation enables her to examine who she is, and
change. She aspires to be a functioning human being even if
she starts out or ends up an outsider. She wants to belong, to
make connections and attain stability, even if she goes about
this the wrong way or if aspects of her personality dont help.
She might identify with conventional expectations of a mother,
a wife, and a professional; multitasking and having it all all
too often present her with dilemmas. If her life was perfect,
she would do her best to be caring, nurturing, and non-abandoning to those she loves.
Close relationships are very important to the Familiar
Femininity character because they feature so heavily in her
life; if she hasnt got them, she tends to need them. Significant
others might be her biggest headache, but they can also be
her anchor and her emotional touchstone. Her work and life
outside close relationships can also cause conflict, or put her in
jeopardy. If this threatens her significant others in some way,
it will be up to her to resolve these.
By and large, this character pretty much accepts societys
norms, and lives within them. She may gripe about unfairness,
but there isnt a supremely feminist agenda driving her lifestyle choices. Rocking the boat is not her style, but she needs
to be true to herself and her values for as far and as long as
she can or have these values tested. She wants or needs to
live her life authentically, or else work out what being true to
herself actually is.
Internal conflicts tend to revolve around low self-esteem,
guilt, inadequacy, fear, shame, loss of identity, and other forms
of deeply personal emotional pain. External conflicts tend to be
Jacey
<<
<<
<<
You have a strong motivation to create a female character who you feel is grounded in here and now reality
and feels contemporary.
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
The hugely popular series The Good Wife features fortysomething Alicia Florrick, who returns to practice law at one of
Chicagos leading firms after raising her kids and being a
housewife. The series provides an almost iconic representation of the Familiar Femininity SuperTheme at least in its
first few seasons. The show is a great example of the slow,
meandering arcs that are offered by long-running series, and
that enable writing teams to follow a character as she grows
and develops. Alicia starts out as a woman returner, someone
who needs to become the provider to her kids after husband
Peter Florrick is sentenced to jail, having been found guilty of
corruption as District Attorney. The cases of the week in the
early seasons are handled by Alicia using intuition, compassion, and empathy toward her clients, directly borne out of her
own experience as an outsider.
Primarily identifying as a wife and mother, Alicia has a
vertical learning curve to adapt and survive in her profession.
She is mentored by Diane, the feminist CEO, who has not
10
Jacey
had kids and puts work first. Initially, Alicia wants to above
all be a good mom who genuinely does her best for her kids,
Grace and Zach. The job has to come second. Alicia is loyal
and hardworking, with strong moral values. She stands by her
man for the good of the family, despite his extreme betrayal of
sleeping with hookers. This utter rejection of her core values
by Peter provides the biggest external and internal conflict to
Alicia: How can she adjust to life, and find happiness and selfesteem again? How can she remain a good wife even though
she is married to somebody who doesnt share her moral values
regarding marriage? Alicias hurt and anger is not expressed
by rage, revenge, demand for an instant divorce, or punitively
denying Peter the right to see his kids. Shes a stayer. As something of an introvert, Alicia retreats inwardly, finding it hard to
reach out to others while her wounds slowly heal. She resists
an affair with Will Gardner for as long as she can. Her nickname, given by characters whove come up against Alicias
rock-solid core values, is St. Alicia.
As the seasons progress, continuing to play her part as
the supportive wife to aid Peters rehabilitation as a political
player becomes increasingly fraught for Alicia; it begins to feels
empty and hypocritical. She succumbs to her desire for Will,
and they have a secret affair. The clandestine and seedy side of
life is fundamentally opposed to Alicias moral values, and she
gives Will an ultimatum: commit openly, and face the consequences for family, work, and reputation, or she will end it.
Will wants Alicia, but Peters political strategist Eli Gold sabotages the affair.
Hurt by Wills seeming lack of interest, Alicia throws herself
into her career and continues to publicly fulfill her role as a
good wife. But Wills death, Peters constant affairs, Alicias foiled
attempt at becoming District Attorney, and the loss of her law
firm leave Alicia once again questioning her identity and the
11
meaning of her life shes grieving and broke, publicly humiliated and professionally sabotaged. Alicia has to rebuild her life
yet again, finding meaning and finding herself. Acting the good
wife in public finally becomes intolerable to Alicia, increasingly
allergic to being played. She suffers a breakdown, and finally lets
someone else in on an emotional level a young woman, Lucca
Quinn. Over the course of her long journey, Alicias worldview
develops tinges of Fighting Femininity, although shes never
an out-and-out feminist. Alicia finally chooses her own identity
beyond marriage, beyond self-restraint, beyond always doing
and being the right thing for others to live on her terms. The
very good wife finally wises up and demands a divorce.
Other examples of Familiar Femininity are:
Philomena: Philomena, an elderly woman, wants to find the
baby she once gave up to an orphanage run by nuns. With the
help of a journalist, she travels back to the orphanage to find
out information about him, only to discover that her son died
in adulthood, and that the nuns had actively prevented their
reconnection. Philomena stays true to her values of compassion and forgiveness while experiencing the deepest pain.
The Durrells: Louisa is the mother of four teenagers living in
the gloomy 1930s seaside town of Bournemouth, England.
She is finding it hard to cope since the death of her husband,
hitting the gin every night. On a whim she cashes out and
uproots her children to Corfu in the hope of a better life. Resettling is stressful, but with the help of friendly Greeks and the
beauty of the island, Louisa achieves her dream of making her
children happy.
12
Jacey
F eminine S upertheme 2:
Feel-Good Femininity
Feel-Good Femininity is the driving motivation behind films
with female characters who want to live life on their terms
which often includes self-expression, freedom, hedonism,
and autonomy and are managing to do it just fine, without
needing to aggressively take on the system. Conflicts for this
type of character are largely internal. Shes nobodys victim
but her own, and however bad other people get, they can do
worse than inflaming her dysfunction. If your character has
got issues with men, she will engage in the battle of the sexes
with zeal, but will be learning her own lessons about herself
and her life along the way. Male characters in these stories
are never out-and-out bad guys, oppressing the female lead or
destroying her sense of identity. If they are negative or hostile,
they reflect her own inner problems, the state in which she
might be emotionally stuck. The Feel-Good character might
have emotional wounds, but she will heal them in order to find
the right soulmate or be happily single. She can be described as
postfeminist as she embraces a distinct having it all mentality
without too much strife; she just takes her freedom and pursuit
of life on her terms for granted. She will laugh at whats great
and what sucks about being a woman in equal measure. Her
emotional arc tends to result in an upbeat and conventional
happy ending, reflecting the human desire to feel understood,
to belong, and to find that special person who truly gets her.
Life should be fulfilling, joyous, romantic, sexual, and positive.
Above all, it should feel good!
The widespread appeal of these films and shows for
women is based on their celebration of female empowerment
and a feel good sensibility. Tonally they are light, and may be
comedic or dramedic. They appeal to our emotions in a light
13
<<
<<
<<
You believe love and romance are important for happiness, and they can make life better, even when the chips
are down.
<<
You like the fact that women are able to redefine femininity for themselves in every area of their lives: sex,
romance, relationships, work.
<<
<<
<<
14
Jacey
15
for them. She wont be manipulated into saying shes sorry. Ricki
identifies with Familiar Femininity as she rediscovers new relationships with her children and tries her best to help them work
on their issues. She has a Fighting Femininity moment onstage
in the pub when she angrily lets rip that because shes a woman
and rocker, she experiences a sexual double standard, citing
Mick Jaggers many children by different women and the lack of
public outcry it inspires. In fact, hes revered. Eventually, Ricki
proves her enduring love to her children by giving them the only
thing she has to offer by playing a song at her sons wedding.
She shows gratitude to her husbands second wife, who raised
her kids. Rickis children learn that a mother who leaves to be
true to herself and whose ambitions take her outside the family
can still be a human being who loves them dearly.
Other examples of Feel-Good Femininity are:
Trainwreck: Sexually liberated and commitment-phobic Amy
learns that Father who has raised her to believe that humans
werent meant for monogamy doesnt always know best.
Amy has no positive internal role models to draw upon when
she falls in love with a highly functional sports doctor. She
learns that to earn his trust and have a healthy relationship,
she has to unlearn a lot of negative behavior patterns.
Girls: Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna try to work out
who they are and what they want as young women in vibrant
and artistic contemporary New York.
F eminine S upertheme 3:
Fighting Femininity
Fighting Femininity is exactly how it sounds: the female character is driven to action to confront the worst sides of sexism,
inequality, and the cruelty of The Patriarchy. Patriarchy
16
Jacey
describes the system that a Fighting Femininity female character meets head-on because her core values do not allow her,
or others, to be constrained or subjected to a sexual double
standard, one that benefits men and those who conform to
or uphold the system. Even in the domestic scenario, the
Fighting Femininity female character will break out of oppressive circumstances and relationships to find a life free from the
control of others. Male characters in Fighting Femininity shows
and films can reflect sexism and misogyny benignly or as
instruments of the regime. They can be cruel control freaks or
powerless good guys. Sometimes they are equal partners, giving
solidarity to the female character in her quest for freedom
or justice. Female characters that uphold the system can be
reprehensible to the Fighting Femininity female protagonist.
Conflict in Fighting Femininity stories tends to be external,
deeply layered, and dark. The obstacles to freedom are huge
and challenging. Internal conflict is commonly experienced
by the protagonist in terms of inadequacy and divided loyalties. If she is true to her beliefs, how would those dearest to
her suffer? Consider the abused wife who wants to leave home,
but her culture/friends/family would disapprove. Many films
with female protagonists from world cinema reflect Fighting
Femininity, reminding the audience that many womens lives
in different parts of the world remain unequal and oppressive.
As a writer who depicts Fighting Femininity:
<<
<<
17
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
18
Jacey
a boy her age. She goes to great lengths to obtain and save
enough money, utilizing her considerable skills in coercing,
bluffing, and wheeler-dealing. Her childlike state refuses to
acknowledge that her dream is impossible in a world where
adult women cant leave the house without an escort, and
arent allowed to drive. As Wadjda goes about her quest, she
encounters conflict from the two women central to her life: her
mother, who despairs of her wayward daughter and fears for
her; and her head teacher, the rigid enforcer of societys rules
who torments her pupils with the ever-constant threat of the
religious police.
Wadjdas ambition makes her a Fighting Femininity
heroine as she risks going against the rules of society by voicing
and acting on her desire. The sense that Wadjda will one day
have to comply, at least on the surface, permeates the story, as
does our fear that she might be outcast or punished. The older
female characters display Familiar Femininity identification
by outwardly conforming to the prevailing conditions in their
outer lives, but behind closed doors showing flashes of Fighting
Femininity as they covertly break the rules. When Wadjdas
mother loses her long campaign to prevent her husband from
gaining a second wife (so he gets another chance at getting a
son, a task at which shes always failed), she cuts off her hair,
and banishes him from her life. Now, she can only find joy and
happiness in Wadjda, and she will do all she can for her. At last
she finally glorifies in her daughters defiance, and secretly
buys the bike for Wadjda.
Other examples of Fighting Femininity include:
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night: A female vampire is a feminist angel of death, punishing brutish males and helping
victims and females who are on the wrong path.
19
F eminine S upertheme 4:
Fantasy Femininity
The SuperTheme of Fantasy Femininity is seen in essentially
unreal female characters that belong to other worlds, where
their special powers define their identity and their way of life.
The Fantasy Femininity female protagonist will be able to use
her powers to do good, do bad, or simply follow her whims.
But they can also be her weak spot; they might render her an
outsider, or give her a vulnerability. She might have a dark side
or Achilles heel, but she is essentially a strong female who
isnt looking for love, or to settle down. Frequently however
she might love passionately, sometimes an impossible love, or
one that requires a sacrifice she isnt prepared or able to make.
Fantasy Femininity characters can have plenty of buddies,
allies, friends, and foes. They arent really seen in the domestic
environment; they are out there in the world on magnificent
and thrilling adventures and quests. These female characters
may experience love, loss, desire, and even family ties, but
their otherworldly dimensions give them agency and prowess,
and can make them hugely seductive or alienating. They might
hide their abnormal gifts by living as human a life as possible,
but ultimately, it is the power or the gift that defines their core
identity and how they relate to the world.
20
Jacey
When the story has a male protagonist, Fantasy Femininity female characters can be antagonistic, or they may make
mysterious allies. As female-protagonist leads, they often come
in the form of superheroes, vampires, ghosts, fairies, aliens,
animals, females who have been medicated with something
that takes them beyond the bounds of normality, and even
robotic operating systems. They can be found in family and
adventure genres, which demand the writer create unique,
imaginative, and inspirational worlds.
As a writer who depicts Fantasy Femininity:
<<
<<
To you, a female character should be as noble, sacrificing, and daring as any male hero.
<<
<<
<<
<<
21
<<
22
Jacey
F eminine S upertheme 5:
Fecund Femininity
Fecundity is the natural ability to generate life. Similar to
fertility, at its most literal it applies to the female sexs ability to
gestate and produce offspring. Fecund Femininity is the SuperTheme that links the female protagonist because of her sex (or
acquired sex, in the case of transgender characters) to a belief
system that associates femininity with life giving, nurturing of
young, and all the protective, caring, and life-enhancing energies necessary for healthy growth. She might be in harmony
with the circle of life and the natural world, or she may be a
character who is motivated to nurture and is good at it due to
implied innate factors. At its most literal, Fecund Femininity
is the earth mother in the female protagonist, whether she is
fertile or not. It represents her identification with reproduction and nurturing. It can be seen in a female character who
experiences pregnancy, birth, and/or mothering with an acute
awareness of her hormones, biological drives, and instinctive
love (or hate, or somewhere in between) of the life inside her.
Conversely, it can leave the character exposed to judgment and control by others in misogynistic cultures. Feminism
in all forms has always been consumed with fighting patriarchal structures attempts to control womens bodies and
23
<<
24
Jacey
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
25
26
Jacey
the name of the man on the train is the biggest regret of her life,
but Portia was the best thing to come out of it, Portia finally gets
the nurturing that she needs from her mother.
Portias femininity is part Familiar, part Fecund. Her
attachment to Jeremiah is like a fertility placebo effect
Portias wound has prevented her from giving love to or
nurturing anybody; she channels it into devotion to the applicants to Princeton. Portias arc reveals her maternal instinct
slowly coming to life again, exposing her deep human need
to have children and care for them. Nurturing, or lack of it, is
everywhere in the story; she helps John with a cow in labor,
she tells her mom to feed her starving dogs, she goes into
nurturing overdrive of Jeremiah, she finally contacts the adoption services to say shes be open to contact with her real son.
She forms a family with John and Nelson.
Other Fecund Femininity examples include:
Avatar: The Navi belong to a species that are more advanced
than humans because they respect and live in harmony with
the natural world.
What to Expect When Youre Expecting: The story follows five
couples as they experience pregnancy. Familiar and FeelGood intermingle with Fecund Femininity as the womens
pregnancies affect their bodies and minds (as well as their
relationships) in unexpected ways. The need to create life is a
powerful drive in female characters with a unifying aspect of
Fecund Femininity.
F eminine S upertheme 6:
Future Femininity
Future Femininity is a complex SuperTheme, seen in the
female protagonist who doesnt see her gender as a problem
27
28
<<
<<
<<
<<
Jacey
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
29
30
Jacey
S upertheme 7:
Felonious Femininity
Felonious Femininity is most often found in the female antihero due to her inherent and absolute identification with
criminality and/or dark drives. Rarer than her male counterparts, this female character identifies as a misanthrope who
simply hates the human race, and is somewhat motivated to
do harm to others. As a protagonist, she is the female character
who identifies with nothing but her own needs, obsessions, and
moral code. Her hostility to others may be targeted mainly at
men, but occasionally at women as well. The Felonious Femininity character has no ideals beyond self-gratification and her
private moral code that benefits nobody but herself, and those
she loves. Her love can be maternal, overprotective, compulsive, or controlling of others. She sees no point in fighting the
system for change when she can achieve her own ends by
her own means, however immoral. She is a law unto herself,
a loner, a cynic, and a trickster all in one. In both male and
female-driven films and shows, Felonious Femininity is found
more often in female antagonists. As protagonist, she could
be the female equivalent of Dexter, Tony Soprano, Hannibal,
or Gregory House: charismatic and compulsive misanthropes
with little allegiance to morality who dwell mainly on the dark
side. Why she hasnt yet entered the mainstream in substantial
numbers is largely because this type of femininity presses all
the old buttons of fear about inherently bad women who are
out for themselves and nobody else.
The female character who identifies with Felonious Femininity is everything girls are brought up not to be greedy,
insatiable, cunning, cynical, selfish, go-getting, and twisted. So
she sometimes risks being softened in the writing process by
focusing on her positive attributes, such as loving her children,
31
32
<<
<<
<<
<<
<<
You are up for the fight in defending your female protagonist, and know she is going to push other peoples
buttons.
Jacey
<<
<<
You want to create a female who gets away with it, and
we love her for it. You give her lots of POV!
<<
<<
<<
33
34
Jacey
35
36
Jacey
E xercise
Self-Assessment
37