The world is ending. Again. So what role do your female characters play in a crisis and how can you avoid one of the most common male-written pitfalls out there? Once you read this, you will see it over and over again in movies and serialised dramas. It’s so prevalent it’s almost standard… and it’s about as far from reality as it’s possible to be.

I’m talking about the moment in the story when the woman looks at the man and asks… 

“What are we going to do?!”

Gents, in this series I’ve been providing non-judgemental tips and tricks to ensure your female characters score highly on depth and integrity.

This time I’m looking at the subject of how women view men, the things we notice and the thoughts we have but don’t necessarily verbalise. If you’re writing from a female perspective you may struggle to inject these realistic focal points. This is totally understandable… and fixable…

It’s understandable when tired tropes find their way into your writing, but there are good reasons to be aware of them. Introducing nuance to your villainous women will help you to give your writing credibility while maintaining your female readership. It’s all about integrity, which is something most, if not all, writers aspire to.

I see a lot of posts highlighting examples of male writers getting descriptions of female characters wrong. Of male writers falling back on tired sexist tropes that place women as props in the male MC’s storyline. But in a world where it’s quite possible to read works only written by men… and I must stress here the importance of diversifying if you haven’t already… it can be difficult to know how NOT to do those things.

The self-interview is a very useful exercise. As a writer you’re creating something that others will hopefully one day consume. Whatever you choose to do to your characters, you should have a ready answer for the inevitable questions that will spring up on social media, on your Discord server, or during an author event.

As far as I’m concerned this is very simple. A dragon is a dragon, a wyvern is a wyvern. We have names for these things that are long-established. It is simply what they are called.

BUT

There are a few good reasons for authors to call wyverns dragons, and these come down to accessibility and marketing.

While writing my epic trilogy of novels I adopted a “lighting of the beacons” approach, discovering the path between set moments, always with a clear destination in mind. And you might think that writing a series would follow a similar format, with every episode focusing on a key moment. But the truth is episodic dramas improve with better planning. They also improve when you know the complete journey from the start.

TW - violence in narrative including killing, dying, sexual assault, loss

In a previous blog post I talked about how character actions should be supported by an appropriate amount of context. i.e.:

Is the context of X and Y enough to plausibly support the action of Z?

In this blog, I’m going to address how some contexts require a reaction:

Written for Pen-To-Print and later published by the Writers & Artists Yearbook in June 2023

Emily Inkpen talks us through the process of turning her sci-fi drama, The Dex Legacy, into a successful audio series, and funding Season Two via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

I set out with good intentions, reached a middle point of intense self-doubt and existential dread… and kept going.

Episodic writing has changed dramatically since the late noughties.

The reason for this is simple: writers can now, more or less, guarantee that viewers and listeners will consume their show from start to finish and in order, at their own pace, without missing anything…

When it comes to world building, you need a process that will lead you down the rabbit hole. You need to get lost in it, because if your world isn’t big enough or complicated enough to get lost in, you’ve got work to do.

…Indeed, the very structure of the opening episode helps the listener to understand the scale of the universe we’re about to enter. The unjust bureaucratic system that’s destroying Arthur Dent’s house to make way for a new motorway, is extrapolated to the extreme when the Vogon Constructor Fleet turns up to demolish Earth to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.

And here we are again! You wouldn't think 12,000 people could creep up on a gal, but you did! And as we hit that round number it's time for another Q&A. So here I am, getting animated in response to all your questions and thoroughly enjoying myself.

The InkWalker Collective was born when Adrian Walker (The End of the World Running Club, The Human Son, etc) and myself got talking about how music influences our writing. We decided to set out on a writer’s side quest, gathered a group of fellow authors, and collaborated on a series of themed playlists. We’ve been releasing these to the writing community one by one.

I managed to catch up with horror and speculative fiction writer, Dan Soule, a while ago. He’s been a big contributor, and as a lecturer and writing coach, he knows a thing or two about getting the most out of your writing time…

Enjoy my first (and probably last) unboxing video of an exclusive pre-release copy of Rab Ferguson's Landfill Mountains!

When I was 10 or 11 years old I wrote a collection of stories for children, featuring farmyard animals. They cover hilariously heavy subjects for the target audience, which I think was one of the many reasons behind the polite rejections I received from the top publishers I submitted to!

In this video I read the standout story in the collection, Wayne.

Watch, enjoy, and have a giggle or two on me!

I first met Allen after publishing a general call-out on twitter and facebook asking for possible soundtracks for The Dex Legacy audio drama. I had a number of interested parties respond, which was completely unexpected, among them this really nice guy who shared a love of audio drama in general, a penchant for Vangelis, and an academic angle into sci-fi and fantasy that was fascinating and refreshing in equal measure.

It was after myself and producer, Chris Gregory, agreed Allen’s musical entry hit the mark, that I noticed Allen’s email signature carried the words: “Dr Allen Stroud, Chair of the British Science Fiction Association”. I almost spat out my tea.

11,000 Twitter followers is immense and honestly I never thought I’d make it to 10,000, so this is just amazing. The least I can do to show my gratitude is answer your questions.

In this one I talk a lot about finishing my trilogy, the editing process and using real-life elements in my stories... I also chat about Star Trek and reveal details about my struggles with epilepsy. There's a lot in there and I hope some of it is useful!

Gareth Powell is an author who needs no introduction. His works include Silversands, The Recollection, and the highly acclaimed trilogies; Ack Ack Macaque and Embers of War. He’s won the BSFA award for Best Novel, twice, and he’s been nominated for the Locus, British Fantasy and Seiun Awards.

Recently, Gareth announced his second Seiun Award nomination in the category of Best Translated Novel. The translation of novels isn’t something we talk much about in the Writing Community, and I decided to ask a few questions.