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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:06:15 AM EDT
[#1]
The first thing / person / character this made me think of was Kendra from one of the Mike Williamson books (spacing on the title). To be honest, I recall that she was a major character in at least part of it, but I can't recall how major, and if any of it was told from her POV.
I know at least a few of the books I've enjoyed have had strong female characters - I just can't place if any of them were the main POV. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:06:57 AM EDT
[#2]
Freehold by Michael Z Williamson is more or less told from the viewpoint of the lead female.
It's one of my favorite books. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:07:22 AM EDT
[#3]
No. Nothing wrong with female characters.
Write her realistically if you can. Don't have her kicking the crap out of 6 special forces soldiers who each out weigh her by 50 pounds like it's nothing. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:08:01 AM EDT
[#4]
I've never had a problem reading a female POV. But Stick with third person, probably? First person always seems less good to me.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:09:04 AM EDT
[#5]
Good point about Freehold. I hadn't thought about that one.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:09:44 AM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
No. Nothing wrong with female characters. Write her realistically if you can. Don't have her kicking the crap out of 6 special forces soldiers who each out weigh her by 50 pounds like it's nothing. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:11:03 AM EDT
[#7]
First off, good to hear, I'm a fan of your work. I don't mind fiction written from a female POV. What annoys the shit out of me is fiction/scifi books written by females.
 A great example would be "The Host". I liked the book, but it was all about her "feels" and emotions, nothing a male author would have mentioned. The movie was hot garbage, too.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:11:08 AM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I've never had a problem reading a female POV. But Stick with third person, probably? First person always seems less good to me. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:12:09 AM EDT
[#9]
Well looking at the entire shelf I have that is nothing but Honor Harrington books, yeah I think a sci-fi story told from a female POV is fine.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:12:22 AM EDT
[#10]
Ha. First two replies are not just a coincidence
If you haven't read it, you should....if you like libertarianism, sex, drugs, little guy ruthlessly kicking the shit out of the big bully, etc. It's kind of like Moon is a Harsh Mistress only the way it should have been. 
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:12:47 AM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
First off, good to hear, I'm a fan of your work. I don't mind fiction written from a female POV. What annoys the shit out of me is fiction/scifi books written by females. A great example would be "The Host". I liked the book, but it was all about her "feels" and emotions, nothing a male author would have mentioned. The movie was hot garbage, too. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:13:21 AM EDT
[#12]
Don't be worried about running a book with a female lead. If you write well, the character will be interesting. See David Weber's Honor Harrington universe.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:13:58 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
First off, good to hear, I'm a fan of your work. I don't mind fiction written from a female POV. What annoys the shit out of me is fiction/scifi books written by females. A great example would be "The Host". I liked the book, but it was all about her "feels" and emotions, nothing a male author would have mentioned. The movie was hot garbage, too.The collaboration of Ringo and the lady (whose name escapes me) was an exception. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:14:15 AM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Ha. First two replies are not just a coincidence
If you haven't read it, you should....if you like libertarianism, sex, drugs, little guy ruthlessly kicking the shit out of the big bully, etc. It's kind of like Moon is a Harsh Mistress only the way it should have been. I'm now thinking that maybe I should. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:14:16 AM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Ha. First two replies are not just a coincidence
If you haven't read it, you should....if you like libertarianism, sex, drugs, little guy ruthlessly kicking the shit out of the big bully, etc. It's kind of like Moon is a Harsh Mistress only the way it should have been. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:14:27 AM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
First off, good to hear, I'm a fan of your work. I don't mind fiction written from a female POV. What annoys the shit out of me is fiction/scifi books written by females. A great example would be "The Host". I liked the book, but it was all about her "feels" and emotions, nothing a male author would have mentioned. The movie was hot garbage, too. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:15:08 AM EDT
[#17]
Freehold was good. I also enjoyed Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars as a kid.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:20:37 AM EDT
[#18]
Anne McCaffrey is the only female writer with lots of female leads I read much of. There is Octavia Butler who did some classic works. Piers Anthony had a number of lead females, though I am not sure they were well written.
There might be female writers under mens names though. There was one fantasy writer that had a series about a female. I only sorta remember the name of the character was "Paxarian" or something like that. Sort of a norse type mythos book. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:21:22 AM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Pretty much every female author I've tired, I find unreadable. The collaboration of Ringo and the lady (whose name escapes me) was an exception. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
First off, good to hear, I'm a fan of your work. I don't mind fiction written from a female POV. What annoys the shit out of me is fiction/scifi books written by females. A great example would be "The Host". I liked the book, but it was all about her "feels" and emotions, nothing a male author would have mentioned. The movie was hot garbage, too.The collaboration of Ringo and the lady (whose name escapes me) was an exception. John Ringo collaborations are hit and miss for me, mostly hits, but some misses. But in general I know I'll like a book "By John Ringo" whereas I'll probably like a "By John Ringo &..." |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:21:45 AM EDT
[#20]
Play to a real woman in a similar current situation's strengths. If she has to kick ass at some point, make sure you've described her character more like Gina Carano's in the movie Haywire than Angelina Jolie in that turd of a movie Salt.
Written well I'd have zero issues with a female protagonist or co-protagonist. 
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:24:38 AM EDT
[#21]
Not at all, as long as the story is good and it is written well.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:25:07 AM EDT
[#22]
OP is going all GRRLLL POWER SJW!
I don't care if a character's reproductive organs are on the inside or outside, make them interesting and I'll read. 
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Posted: 8/16/2017 7:30:28 AM EDT
[#23]
No problem with a female lead. I tend to enjoy third person perspective more simply because you stand a chance of learning each characters perspective however done well I enjoy first person too. I've liked your previous work so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one. If you ever need a sample reader. I'll even read really bad stuff after I start it out of stubbornness.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 8:18:12 AM EDT
[#24]
The problem with female pov characters is.. they suck. Women written by women often end up cliched. Women written by men are often times unbelievable as women. Maybe I need to shut off my brain a lil more when reading, but I think it's hard for an author of one gender to write a truly convincing opposite protagonist.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 8:53:05 AM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
The problem with female pov characters is.. they suck. Women written by women often end up cliched. Women written by men are often times unbelievable as women. Maybe I need to shut off my brain a lil more when reading, but I think it's hard for an author of one gender to write a truly convincing opposite protagonist. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 8:54:05 AM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Freehold was good. I also enjoyed Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars as a kid. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 8:57:02 AM EDT
[#27]
As long as you keep her realistic and not some super human heroin like a Laura Croft fantasy character.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 9:05:11 AM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I've never had a problem reading a female POV. But Stick with third person, probably? First person always seems less good to me. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 9:10:22 AM EDT
[#29]
Write a female character "like a man, but take away all reason and accountability."
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Posted: 8/16/2017 9:15:33 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Write a female character "like a man, but take away all reason and accountability."
Actually, this particular character is something of a screw-loose bitch and knows it. She should be interesting to write. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 9:15:48 AM EDT
[#31]
No problem. Just generally not from most female authors.
Which they might reply, a woman's POV written by a man is unrealistic. Ok. It's fiction. I don't want to be locked into the 14 page internal monologue that is required for every minor decision the character is presented. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 9:20:45 AM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Actually, this particular character is something of a screw-loose bitch and knows it. She should be interesting to write. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Write a female character "like a man, but take away all reason and accountability."
Actually, this particular character is something of a screw-loose bitch and knows it. She should be interesting to write. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 9:44:28 AM EDT
[#33]
There is no one, no one, who can write a female character like John Sandford. His protagonist female characters are Clara Rinker from Certain Prey and Mortal Prey and Anna Batory from The Night Crew. When they prevail, they don't do it by main force; they do it by being smarter, or meaner, or by cornered rat desperation. And there is always a male character who's just as smart and just as mean, if not as desparate. There are also several more secondary female characters sprinkled through his books.
He's also the only author - male or female - who can write about competent men and women interacting in a way that rings true for me, in a way that doesn't make me either roll my eyes or want to puke. ETA: By the way, Sandford's readership is pretty evenly divided between men and women, and he's a very rich man. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 9:49:12 AM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
He's also the only author - male or female - who can write about competent men and women interacting in a way that rings true for me, in a way that doesn't make me either roll my eyes or want to puke. Uh-oh. In that case, I hope you haven't read my stuff!
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Posted: 8/16/2017 9:57:53 AM EDT
[#35]
 How do you write women so well? |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 10:10:00 AM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Uh-oh. In that case, I hope you haven't read my stuff! Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
He's also the only author - male or female - who can write about competent men and women interacting in a way that rings true for me, in a way that doesn't make me either roll my eyes or want to puke.  SF isn't my genre; write a cops-and-robbers, and I'll buy it, I promise.
In the meantime, if you're not a Sandford fan, at least check out CP or MP from the library and skim through the parts dealing with Rinker. Come to think of it, CP has another female character, Carmel Loan, who might suit your purposes better. She's a loose cannon. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 10:18:03 AM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Oh, I've read it. More than once. I'm also friends with Mike on Facebook. I just hadn't thought of that at the time because honestly, my book is going to be much less political than his. It's more a straight SF adventure.
Bought a couple books. He asked how I wanted them signed. I said, "However you'd like to sign them". I'd never had a book signed before. He picks up the second one and said, "How about this one"? I said, "Same as the other". I didn't think anything about it until I got them home. I opened them up and the first one read "However I'd like, MZW". Obviously, the next one read, " Same as the other, MZW".
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Posted: 8/16/2017 10:21:11 AM EDT
[#38]
Man, let me tell you, this tweaks me out. I have read good books with female leads and never thought twice about it. I may not be a woman but I have been around them for awhile now and I even have been known to like a few.
However I challenge you to go to Books a Million and look at the new releases on the scifi fantasy shelf. I swear to you they are almost all being written with a female lead now. It's ridiculous because it is obviously pandering. I am so sick of seeing books with female leads I don't even consider them now. Most are poorly written and from an unrealistic viewpoint. Basically they feel like females in the sense that they have tits only. They are written just like males. I have read your stuff and enjoyed it. Please don't fall into the trap of every other writer out there. But don't take my word for it. seriously go read the new release jacket covers. I think I picked up ten new books before I found one with a male character in the lead. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 10:23:59 AM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Actually, this particular character is something of a screw-loose bitch and knows it. She should be interesting to write. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Write a female character "like a man, but take away all reason and accountability."
Actually, this particular character is something of a screw-loose bitch and knows it. She should be interesting to write.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 10:29:09 AM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Uh-oh, busted! SF isn't my genre; write a cops-and-robbers, and I'll buy it, I promise.
In the meantime, if you're not a Sandford fan, at least check out CP or MP from the library and skim through the parts dealing with Rinker. Come to think of it, CP has another female character, Carmel Loan, who might suit your purposes better. She's a loose cannon. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 10:40:55 AM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Man, let me tell you, this tweaks me out. I have read good books with female leads and never thought twice about it. I may not be a woman but I have been around them for awhile now and I even have been known to like a few. However I challenge you to go to Books a Million and look at the new releases on the scifi fantasy shelf. I swear to you they are almost all being written with a female lead now. It's ridiculous because it is obviously pandering. I am so sick of seeing books with female leads I don't even consider them now. Most are poorly written and from an unrealistic viewpoint. Basically they feel like females in the sense that they have tits only. They are written just like males. I have read your stuff and enjoyed it. Please don't fall into the trap of every other writer out there. But don't take my word for it. seriously go read the new release jacket covers. I think I picked up ten new books before I found one with a male character in the lead. Oh, I totally agree. It's not just the big publishers either, a shitload of indie SF books are cranked out with unrealistic female ninjas in the lead and I have no time for them. If you're going to have a 110lbs woman beating up 200lbs men, you'd better specify that she's wearing some sort of supersuit or has had some kind of physical augmentation to do it. I'm hoping to avoid that sort of shit. I hadn't actually intended for her to be the POV character, but then I realized when I was plotting the book out that most of it is centered on her struggles to fit in to the military, despite her talents as a pilot, so it made sense to tell it from her POV. Maybe I can avoid the clichés. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 10:43:22 AM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Maybe like a female Kildar. A very bad person who does good things sometimes. Sort of. She's talented but damaged, though not quite as damaged as the Kildar. There are going to be NO "Oh John Ringo, no..." moments in these books, I hope.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 10:47:34 AM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Man, let me tell you, this tweaks me out. I have read good books with female leads and never thought twice about it. I may not be a woman but I have been around them for awhile now and I even have been known to like a few. However I challenge you to go to Books a Million and look at the new releases on the scifi fantasy shelf. I swear to you they are almost all being written with a female lead now. It's ridiculous because it is obviously pandering. I am so sick of seeing books with female leads I don't even consider them now. Most are poorly written and from an unrealistic viewpoint. Basically they feel like females in the sense that they have tits only. They are written just like males. I have read your stuff and enjoyed it. Please don't fall into the trap of every other writer out there. But don't take my word for it. seriously go read the new release jacket covers. I think I picked up ten new books before I found one with a male character in the lead. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 11:01:13 AM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
That's what I like though: females written just like males. I hate it when the female characters have to have a bunch of girly BS going on because it's boring and stupid and makes the character seem immature and retarded. My advice is to write a man with tits. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Man, let me tell you, this tweaks me out. I have read good books with female leads and never thought twice about it. I may not be a woman but I have been around them for awhile now and I even have been known to like a few. However I challenge you to go to Books a Million and look at the new releases on the scifi fantasy shelf. I swear to you they are almost all being written with a female lead now. It's ridiculous because it is obviously pandering. I am so sick of seeing books with female leads I don't even consider them now. Most are poorly written and from an unrealistic viewpoint. Basically they feel like females in the sense that they have tits only. They are written just like males. I have read your stuff and enjoyed it. Please don't fall into the trap of every other writer out there. But don't take my word for it. seriously go read the new release jacket covers. I think I picked up ten new books before I found one with a male character in the lead. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 11:07:03 AM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
This is good advice. I read a short story back in the early 80s - I think it was Greg Bear but don't hold me to it - where he wrote a female character and the groaner was that her period started during the course of the story. It added nothing other than an insipid, unnecessary reminder that the protagonist was female. You sure it wasn't John Varley? I seem to remember one of his main characters from Titan that had that happen. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 11:35:28 AM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Uh-oh, busted! SF isn't my genre; write a cops-and-robbers, and I'll buy it, I promise.
In the meantime, if you're not a Sandford fan, at least check out CP or MP from the library and skim through the parts dealing with Rinker. Come to think of it, CP has another female character, Carmel Loan, who might suit your purposes better. She's a loose cannon. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 11:42:42 AM EDT
[#47]
The next Monster Hunters Internaltional book is supposedly going to be written from Julie Shackelford's pov.
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Posted: 8/16/2017 11:44:51 AM EDT
[#48]
No one's quoted Jack Nicholson's character from "As Good As It Gets," yet?
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Posted: 8/16/2017 11:48:31 AM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
This is good advice. I read a short story back in the early 80s - I think it was Greg Bear but don't hold me to it - where he wrote a female character and the groaner was that her period started during the course of the story. It added nothing other than an insipid, unnecessary reminder that the protagonist was female. |
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Posted: 8/16/2017 11:49:48 AM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
No one's quoted Jack Nicholson's character from "As Good As It Gets," yet? |
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