#womens writing

[elizalona]

“I think of how keenly I've been wrong. I think of all the gods I have made out of feeble men.”

Luster by Raven Leilani

#womens quotes #womens writing #luster #fuck men #love quote #unhinged women #books #book blog #book recommendations #womens books

[ikilledholofernes]

poem #2

my mother had a Jesus phase before

she had a Richard Dawkins phase and

before all of that, even,

a lawful husband phase.

I tell you that she is just as insufferable 

of an atheist as she was of a Christian;

as I clench my fists over the dinner table,

my stiff collar keeps me from screaming:

there is meaning, there has to be.

I tell you how I believe in God,

not in a Biblical sense but a metaphorical one

and that the words and the colors are what keeps me alive

like Duffy, like Lorde, like Sexton

—but I wonder if all the things lovely and eternal

will pass me by like they did my mother,

that my faith will not stop me from becoming her,

and I pray pray pray that God does not find herself

manifested in the ugly heart of a man;

that I do not find myself,

knees bruised in worship,

arteries strung across the pews,

eyes stared bloodshot at the petal-thin verse. 

#i think this may be the best poem i've ever written #poetry #confessional poetry #god #religion #faith #belief #feminist poetry #womens writing #mothers and daughters #my mother

[crimeronan]

i think about this tweet Every Time i see people scared to write women with flaws bc they think it'll come off as sexist. cannot believe this is nearly a decade old. Ahead Of Its Time.....

#not just fandom writers. this also includes some very sweet very anxious people in irl writing group #clutching you by the shoulders. Make Your Women Crazier. #For Your Health And Mine Alike .

[going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi]

things to ask yourself when designing a female character:

how much blood is she covered in

are her eyes filled with madness

can she rip things to shreds with her fingernails

#female characters #female character design #character design #feral women #writing #writer #writing things #writer things #unhinged women #writerblr #writingblr #writeblr #writblr #writing community #creative writing #writers of tumblr #writer stuff #writing stuff #writing women

[noperopesaredope]

I wish we had more female characters like Eleanor Shellstrop. One of the most unlikable people you've ever met. Read a Buzzfeed article on most rude things you can do on a daily basis and decided to use that as a list of goals. Makes everyone's day worse just by being there. Dropped a margarita mix on the ground and tried to pick it up, only to get hit by a row of shopping carts which pushed her into the road where she was hit by a boner pill delivery truck, killing her instantly. Cannot keep a romantic partner despite being bisexual. Had a terrible childhood but will die before she gets therapy. Best employee at a scam company. Just the worst but also can't help but root for her to improve.

Absolute loser. Girl-failure. Bad at almost everything. Literally perfect female character.

#eleanor shellstrop #you know i was thinking about how we hold female characters to such high standards #and severely criticize bitchy female characters while praising asshole male characters #and then i remembered eleanor and realized that she is the perfect example of how to write an asshole woman that the audience likes #the worse she is the more i'm drawn to her (and honestly same for tahani) #we need more cringe-fail women who nobody likes (for good reason) #the good place #female characters #writing women #girl failure #girl loser #she's so mean #i love her #my favorite #fucking asshole #iconic #the good place eleanor #tgp #tgp eleanor #kristen bell

[bernard-the-rabbit]

Oh alice..you would have loved Tim pls don't end up like him <3

#design might change as we go on!!! #also “jonathan sims pls stop writing hot women challenge” #he is losing #my trashy art #tmagp #tmagp fanart #the magnus protocol fanart #the magnus protocol #alice dyer #alice dyer fanart #alice tmagp #alice tmagp fanart

[suzannahnatters]

all RIGHT:

Why You're Writing Medieval (and Medieval-Coded) Women Wrong: A RANT

(Or, For the Love of God, People, Stop Pretending Victorian Style Gender Roles Applied to All of History)

This is a problem I see alllll over the place - I'll be reading a medieval-coded book and the women will be told they aren't allowed to fight or learn or work, that they are only supposed to get married, keep house and have babies, &c &c.

If I point this out ppl will be like "yes but there was misogyny back then! women were treated terribly!" and OK. Stop right there.

By & large, what we as a culture think of as misogyny & patriarchy is the expression prevalent in Victorian times - not medieval. (And NO, this is not me blaming Victorians for their theme park version of "medieval history". This is me blaming 21st century people for being ignorant & refusing to do their homework).

Yes, there was misogyny in medieval times, but 1) in many ways it was actually markedly less severe than Victorian misogyny, tyvm - and 2) it was of a quite different type. (Disclaimer: I am speaking specifically of Frankish, Western European medieval women rather than those in other parts of the world. This applies to a lesser extent in Byzantium and I am still learning about women in the medieval Islamic world.)

So, here are the 2 vital things to remember about women when writing medieval or medieval-coded societies

FIRST. Where in Victorian times the primary axes of prejudice were gender and race - so that a male labourer had more rights than a female of the higher classes, and a middle class white man would be treated with more respect than an African or Indian dignitary - In medieval times, the primary axis of prejudice was, overwhelmingly, class. Thus, Frankish crusader knights arguably felt more solidarity with their Muslim opponents of knightly status, than they did their own peasants. Faith and age were also medieval axes of prejudice - children and young people were exploited ruthlessly, sent into war or marriage at 15 (boys) or 12 (girls). Gender was less important.

What this meant was that a medieval woman could expect - indeed demand - to be treated more or less the same way the men of her class were. Where no ancient legal obstacle existed, such as Salic law, a king's daughter could and did expect to rule, even after marriage.

Women of the knightly class could & did arm & fight - something that required a MASSIVE outlay of money, which was obviously at their discretion & disposal. See: Sichelgaita, Isabel de Conches, the unnamed women fighting in armour as knights during the Third Crusade, as recorded by Muslim chroniclers.

Tolkien's Eowyn is a great example of this medieval attitude to class trumping race: complaining that she's being told not to fight, she stresses her class: "I am of the house of Eorl & not a serving woman". She claims her rights, not as a woman, but as a member of the warrior class and the ruling family. Similarly in Renaissance Venice a doge protested the practice which saw 80% of noble women locked into convents for life: if these had been men they would have been "born to command & govern the world". Their class ought to have exempted them from discrimination on the basis of sex.

So, tip #1 for writing medieval women: remember that their class always outweighed their gender. They might be subordinate to the men within their own class, but not to those below.

SECOND. Whereas Victorians saw women's highest calling as marriage & children - the "angel in the house" ennobling & improving their men on a spiritual but rarely practical level - Medievals by contrast prized virginity/celibacy above marriage, seeing it as a way for women to transcend their sex. Often as nuns, saints, mystics; sometimes as warriors, queens, & ladies; always as businesswomen & merchants, women could & did forge their own paths in life

When Elizabeth I claimed to have "the heart & stomach of a king" & adopted the persona of the virgin queen, this was the norm she appealed to. Women could do things; they just had to prove they were Not Like Other Girls. By Elizabeth's time things were already changing: it was the Reformation that switched the ideal to marriage, & the Enlightenment that divorced femininity from reason, aggression & public life.

For more on this topic, read Katherine Hager's article "Endowed With Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat" on women who transcended gender to occupy a liminal space as warrior/virgin/saint.

So, tip #2: remember that for medieval women, wife and mother wasn't the ideal, virgin saint was the ideal. By proving yourself "not like other girls" you could gain significant autonomy & freedom.

Finally a bonus tip: if writing about medieval women, be sure to read writing on women's issues from the time so as to understand the terms in which these women spoke about & defended their ambitions. Start with Christine de Pisan.

I learned all this doing the reading for WATCHERS OF OUTREMER, my series of historical fantasy novels set in the medieval crusader states, which were dominated by strong medieval women! Book 5, THE HOUSE OF MOURNING (forthcoming 2023) will focus, to a greater extent than any other novel I've ever yet read or written, on the experience of women during the crusades - as warriors, captives, and political leaders. I can't wait to share it with you all!

#watchers of outremer #medieval history #the lady of kingdoms #the house of mourning #writing #writing fantasy #female characters #medieval women #eowyn #the lord of the rings #lotr #history #historical fiction #fantasy #writing tip #writing advice

[sirobvious]

“You just wrote your medieval fantasy setting to have medieval gender roles and homophobia and prejudice because you secretly fantasize about being able to be sexist and homophobic in a land with no PoC without any pushback! It’s fantasy, there’s dragons and wizards, it doesn’t have to have prejudice unless you, the writer, want it like that! In *my* D&D setting, there’s no sexism or homophobia, so that gay transgender women of all races can be holy knights fighting to protect the good kingdom from the endless hordes of the evil dark race that has threatened its borders for a thousand years!”

#writing #medieval fantasy #medieval women #fantasy #d&d #d&d 5e #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #books #novels #worldbuilding

[genderqueerdykes]

my trans girlfriend tells me about how they don't experience bottom dysphoria with her penis because she doesn't view it as a "male" organ and feels like it's a part of her womanhood. i love them for that, she's right; that is simply just a part of her, and she is a woman, so that makes it part of her womanhood. being trans is beautiful, i love her

#trans #transgender #lgbtqia #lgbtq #lgbt #queer #mtf #trans woman #trans women #trans girl #transsexual #nonbinary #enby #non binary #genderqueer #our writing

[lesbicosmos]

when hozier said "if im a pagan of the good times, my lover's the sunlight" and when hozier said "no grave can hold my body down, i'll crawl home to her" and when hozier said "i slithered here from eden just to sit outside your door" and when hozier said "heaven is not fit to house a love like you and i" and when hozier said-

#this man just writes about women like women write about women yk #also yes ive used two of these lyrics as sapphic fic titles #hozier #take me to church #work song #from eden #francesca #unreal unearth #sapphic #lesbian #sarahs having a Lesbian Moment

[mournfulroses]

Sylvia Plath, from The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath; "Three Women,"

#lit #sylvia plath #poetry #writings #words #typography #fragments #three women #selections #p

[deer-time]

people will write think pieces on why they can't enjoy female characters or f/f because they aren't fuckable to them or crack "hates women so much he's gay jokes" but if someone even cracks a joke about hating men people start having a nuclear meltdown

#like just scrooooll past and quit talking about how you cant invest yourself in women and MUST write on the one guy who appeared for 3 min

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

The more "empowered" Disney tries to write their heroines as, the less interesting and charismatic they become, ironically.

#disney #disney heroines #txt #@ disney: can y'all pls go back to writing women like people again? #ironically though disney heroines have gradually become a punching back for their asses #specifically the princess characters. they have been more disrespected and disregarded than any other set of characters #i mean they will put all that ✊🏼 bullshit with them and have a phrase like “be strong and brave” #but then be completely missing the point of their original stories and characters #i mean the ralph breaks the internet scene highlights how low they think of them in the modern era #modern disney is waging a war on disney princesses. they are trying to distort what made them so special and shift focuses

[everysongineverykey]

ok alphys was a character ahead of her time and too good for this damn fandom honestly. she isn't some evil gaslighting lying cringey manipulator who only exists as comic relief for the love of god look at her with eyes less poisoned by cynicism and irony. she is a love letter to... well, a lot of things. a love letter to "cringey" people, to video game fans, to people who try to drown their sadness in fiction. she's so achingly relatable to so many of us that it really feels like toby knows his demographic like the back of his hand. we've all met someone like alphys. maybe we are that someone- awkward, nerdy, can't get over their past mistakes, terrible at phone calls, far more eloquent online than in person, only wants to make people like them to distract them from the fact that they don't like themself. normally, this character archetype is the butt of a great deal of jokes- just a gross nerd who needs to touch grass. but alphys is different. she is, as i said, a love letter. she is one of the best-developed and most complex characters in the game. her nerdiness isn't "fixed" or mocked, it's celebrated. her unabashed love for her interests and her 100% attitude is a big reason why undyne loves her. games, especially in 2015 and before, are not often so genuinely kind to characters like alphys! and in deltarune, too- alphys is still a nerd, despite not being nearly as traumatized as her undertale counterpart. her rambling about shows she loves is a constant across all universes, a fundamental and important and good part of who she is.

and i just think that's very kind, and very important.

#undertale #deltarune #alphys undertale #having some thoughts about certain utdr women tonight💙 this makes me wanna try rewriting that undyne and gaster fic #i tried to write a while ago and got sidetracked

[urfriendlywriter]

20 "we are each other's safe place" romance prompts:

(feeling emo now that I'm officially back :') feel free to useee and tag me when yall write!!)

holding each other close in silence

yearning for just one hug after being separated for so so long... </3

"i can't seem to take neither my eyes, nor my mind off of you, [name]." :'')

noticing that bright smile of theirs after you compliment them. [my heart. omds]

them rushing into your embrace after a long day

"let me ask my partner." or,

"oh, my partner at home is waiting for me, i better get going :)"

being ur partner's mum's favorite, hehehe

^ "ma... how come they're getting head rubs from you often while i rarely do?"

sulking to get attention from them and they get cuteness aggression over you (> < my cuteness aggress. for mr. japan goes crazy guys!!)

being you comes easy with them ♡

being emotionally available to one another, and having each other and knowing you're not alone <3

when they're affirmative and expect affirmations from you <communication is the best trope>

cuddling and cozying up together, being all physical but not sexual ツ✰

them wrapping their hand around yours whenever walking together

when it's their smile, that's just enough to brighten your day :')

loving and living and actually looking forward to tomorrow with them,

^ "you make me want to be a better person."

"smile for me" or, "twirl for me" :))

searching for each other in a crowded rooms, finding each other everywhere (this is just love guys, top tier.)

#writer prompts #otp prompts #dialogue prompts #romance writing #imagine your otp #writeblr #urfriendlywriter #writing prompts #writing inspiration #romance prompts writing #angsty romance #writing romance #romance prompts #soft prompts for lovers #soft dialogue prompts #soft prompts #soft gestures #gestures that says i love you #couple prompts #writing prompt #prompt list #writers of tumblr #writers on tumblr #writing inspo #writing ideas #otp writing #otp things #otp ideas #women writers #otp drabble prompts

[whendidmythoughtsgocrazy]

“You’re an actress, right?”, ”All women are actresses, dear. I’m just clever enough to get paid for it.”

k.b. // murder mystery - netflix

#k.b. #quotes #poets on tumblr #writers on tumblr #quote #words #cute #deep thoughts #life #life quotes #life lesson #life lesson quotes #writers #poetry #poem #writing #women #womenempowerment #international women's day #netflix show #netflix #netflix quotes #netflix murder mystery #actress #actors #movie quotes #movies