Compelling characters come in all shapes and sizes but for a long time writers assumed that shape was generally 176 centimeters, 71 kilos, with a high center of gravity and without the ability to ovulate. In the past few years however, writers have come to realize people are willing to consume literature with conflicts centering around characters who are female. We’ll look at ways to create strong compelling, independent characters that just happen to have large breasts on this edition of Stories’ Matter.

Now, you might be thinking, hey John, why are you doing this video? Haven’t there been many great examples of female characters in hundreds of years of English fiction? Well, yes and no. While you will find some female characters in works by Shakespeare, Milton and Jane Austen, they aren’t what we’d call psychologically complex. Women in these stories were often docile damsels (Elizabeth Bennet), one-dimensional witches (Lady Scottish Play) or nagging shrews (Joan of Arc).

In most of these stories, the female characters weren’t given much to do. The largest conflict they might face is whether or not they should have sex with their cousin. Or they were simply female versions of male characters (Miss Marple) sold to prevent nineteenth and early twentieth century housewives from succumbing to boredom and turning to laudanum.

However, with advances in technology like the birth control pill, the Hitachi vibrator and the iPhone, things have changed. Readers today want complex female protagonists. Some even want women to spend a whole scene with no males present, though personally I find that a bit stifling as a writer. So what does our strong modern female look like?

She should have the following characteristics. First, she should have her own opinions. Not just about what to cook for dinner or which abortion doctor is her favorite, but even for things like battle strategy or which whiskey pairs well with which cigar. Her unique value system should guide her decisions and often times those might take her in the wrong direction, but at least it gets her out of the house.

Second, she should be her own person. That doesn’t mean she should be totally independent necessarily. If you want to give your female protagonist a husband, just make sure she maintains that independence by cheating on him a lot. Or if you go the other way and make her part of a satanic lesbian coven, maybe she manifests her independence by taking a painting class at the learning annex.

Thirdly, she should have a certain level of toughness. And not just the kind of toughness that comes from enduring childbirth or dealing with your clique of friends constantly critiquing your body weight. This kind of toughness could be, for example, a defense attorney building a case for a man she knew to be a pedophile who also was her youth volleyball coach and father. In my espionage thriller, 39 Days to Doomsday, for example, my female protagonist, an intelligence official, has to bear the guilt of blowing up 45 Palestinian villages in her search for the head of Hamas.

Now that we’ve established what a strong female character is, I have four tips to help you create one on your own.

Step One: Give her flaws

Like their male counterparts, flawed females make for compelling protagonists. Try to avoid cliches, like making her bad at pull ups or mentioning she earns 77 percent what her male co-workers do. You could give her a flaw irrespective of gender, one that you’d give any male protagonist. For example, she could get sexual gratification from fighting with or spitting on strangers on public transit. Or you could give her something uniquely female, but with more originality. For example, in my 2003 Western Whither the Roses Blow, my female lead had ovarian cancer.

Step Two: Give her female allies

When I was starting out as a writer and trying to find ways to implement female characters in my writing, it was difficult writing one female surrounded by a cast of males and not have it devolve into a gangbang. The best way around this is to surround her with other females, unless of course your book is about a satanic lesbian coven. Some good pairings include: mother-daughter, sister-sister, grandmother-aunt, first cousin-second cousin once removed, pregnant woman-lamaze instructor. Try to have them talk about things women might discuss in real life that don’t specifically revolve around men, like whaling and how to deal with the threat of Sharia law.

Step Three: Base your female characters on someone you know

The problem a lot of male and even some female writers have is that they try to base their characters on what they’ve seen in movies. But we all know Hollywood actresses and models aren’t exactly emblematic of actual womanhood. In real life, most women are fat, old, decrepit, missing teeth, and just generally unpleasant to look at.

Mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers are a great place to start. But if you’re like me and all of those have died, you still have options. You can hire prostitutes, for example, not for sexual services but for interesting anecdotes. Normal rates still apply, but you’ll be amazed at how the depth of human despair becomes a goldmine for you as a writer. If money is an issue, you can consider joining support groups under false pretenses and only listening to the women.

Step Four: If you have to dwell on her body parts, make it integral to the story

In my first 100 novels, I bestowed all 25 women with speaking parts double-d breasts and I hadn’t even realized it until a female friend pointed it out. As a male writer, it was an honest and understandable mistake, but something you should consciously try to avoid.

However, if you’re too far along in the story and you’ve already got some wonderfully vivid prose depicting your heroine’s mammary abundance that you don’t want to delete, find a way to make it pay off in the third act. Perhaps her d cups take a bullet for a friend. Or perhaps they lead to her downfall, for instance, a refusal to get breast reduction surgery makes her not able escape the villain’s lair.