Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33696
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33696
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

As a female reader of SF/F who enjoys fantasy books with protagonists of whatever gender and plot, my advice is:

## Make it interesting.

- It doesn't matter if the basic plot structure is older than dirt. Your details are what make it fresh.
- Make the characters people I can believe in, and care about. Don't just write "a strong female protagonist." Write an _interesting_female protagonist. Write a protagonist with flaws. With bad habits. With a weird hobby. With a string of past loves. With one or more children/pets/familiars/personalities/personal deities.
- She doesn't have to be a warrior, leader, sorceress, etc. so long as she has agency in her own story. She can be totally happy to be a wife and mother if _that's what she wants_ and the plot rewards her for it. 
- Make her somebody I enjoy hanging out with, even if I wouldn't make her choices or do the things she does. Give me something to like about her, something to root for. She doesn't have to be perfect. She can make stupid decisions and rash mistakes. But make her decisions understandable.
- If she's the protagonist, she needs her own agenda which isn't driven by a third party (of whatever gender). She needs her own plot, her own drives.

The Hero's Journey is the archetypal fantasy plot, so by all means use that if you want, but I don't pick up a "fantasy book with a female protagonist" and only expect a Hero's Journey.

What I expect is someone I will want to spend three or four hours of reading with.

Original score: 42