a well many people mean with well grounded as mediocre and nothing out of ordinary. Lady Macbeth is one of my favourite characters and one of main inspirations of Mara
One question: How can a character be complex if it is well rounded?
Lets talk about some big time heavy weight complex chracters. Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Rett Butler and Scarlet O’hara from Gone with the Wind, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Hannibal the Cannibal from Silence of the Lambs. These are all the characters that portray a great level of complexity. But, these weren’t well rounded. Their motivations changed along with the acts and situations in the story–turning the whole thing into a largely character driven ride of thrill and joy. These are all Bironic characters. Which means that they don’t have a compass of good or bad. They can do whatever they feel is right or wrong.
Now let me talk about my favourite among these: Lecter from Silence of the lambs. In one of the beginning chapters when Starling is sent to figure out what Lecter is doing in his cell in the asylum and try to get him to help for psychological profiling he says this: “Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling. I happened. You can’t reduce me to a set of influences. You’ve given up good and evil for behaviorism, Officer Starling. You’ve got everyone in moral dignity pants–nothing is ever anybody’s fault. Can you stand to say I’m evil? Am I evil, Officer Starling?”
Now this is coming from a man who has brutally murdered and eaten people. and this man asks if he is evil. That didn’t only just add a great amount of irony to it but, also defined Lecter’s character from a Bironic pov. Because, a man who has committed multiple murders also helps Starling to prove her true potential to all the men in the FBI who treat her inferiorly because she is a woman. But, later on we come to know that helping Starling was the only way Lecter could’ve gotten out of the asylum. Which he does near the third half of the book. And there comes the point when we are thinking again and again: what’s the deal with this guy? That’s the beauty of all the characters who aren’t well rounded. You can never tell if Lecter was a femenist or a manipulator or just a delusional sociopath or all the three. That made him a non-conventional gray character that people think is actually the antagonist. Though, he pushes Starling to her breaking point so she unleashes her best abilities better than she did before. But, only pushing the protagonist to the breaking point doesn’t make an anatgonist.
That is also the difference between Heath Ledger’s Joker and Lex Luthor who is a “well-rounded” villain.
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I think the most important thing is to create a character who’s more than just her looks and her trauma; I’m so over the “crazy/broken hot girl” trope that seems to crop up in the “strong female character” oeuvre. I want to read about female characters with rich and full lives, flaws and vulnerability and rawness, motivations that aren’t centered around men or aesthetics.
So - how does she respond to the “stuff” in her past? How does she protect herself, and how does that shape her character? Is she closed-off and hostile, is she flippant and noncommittal, does she use humor to deflect or does she lay out her boundaries immediately as a way to head off problems before they start?
It’s also important, in my opinion, to have other female characters who are interesting and complex and have some kind of relationship with her; they don’t have to be friends, per se, but I always prefer a story where women interact with each other in ways that aren’t predicated upon their looks or relationships with / desires for men in the story.
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good point . where they either fight over the mc…and if they dont , their role is to go ‘‘Thumb up! You go girl!’’ . 
Actually friendship between womens in stories are rare . And more rare if they don’t get forced in the role of ‘‘You are like mah sister cose you are younger then meh-older then meh , or like the mother I never had’’ . Plain old boring friendship…would be nice 
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I think there’s a big misunderstanding about what I mean when I say “well-rounded.” Well-rounded = “they have the capacity to exhibit both virtuous and evil behaviors.” Characters that only exhibit one or the other without any justifiable reason (i.e. “I am evil because I am) are not well-rounded. A character can be well-rounded and not complex, or complex and not well-rounded, or both, or neither. “Neither” is what we want to avoid, “both” is the ideal (depending on who you ask), and the other options are also good options.
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I challenge your list. First off, all these are from some phantasy fiction while the author here seems to be planning a reality-based story (I hope so or else - no point waisting keystrokes).
Her genuine compasionate support for weak men.
Like caring for a drunkard drug-addicted boyfriend who’s into lots of trouble of all sort, has mental issues and seems about to drop out. The easy path is to just ditch such a partner, it takes a lot of strength, perseverance and dedication to keep supporting them.
Well, off the top of my head, I can tell you that I’m personally extremely over female characters who take pride in having mostly male friends and deride other women as being “shallow” or “weak” or “catty”. Especially if this is done explicitly, but honestly, even if it’s just implied by the character being the only woman in a cast full of men.
Another thing is this: I don’t believe in objective beauty, and I’m immovable on this point. Beauty is a characteristic of a relationship (or a culture), not an individual character. Writing “Alice thinks Bob is beautiful” is almost always more powerful than “everyone agrees that Bob is beautiful (except Bob, usually)”.
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I think by well rounded, the message is they need to be complex enough to seem real. A backstory and motives for what they’re doing that isn’t always in the stereotypes. FLAWS and WEAKNESSES actually make a character MORE well rounded, not less in my opinion. No one is perfect at everything, so someone who is perfectly good or evil and lacking in motivation or backstory will tend to be a flat character.
I’ve linked this before, but I think it still holds. Particularly read down to where they’re talking about needing more flawed female characters in the media.
Edit: Sorry @poison_mara I saw it’s direct replied to you which it wasn’t meant to be, just a general reply 
Why Strong Female Characters Are Bad for Women - Overthinking It
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I do think we need more flawless characters in media. In Spanish our characters in general are far more flaw based than English literature also we tend to be more cynical and humorous. Is a key of Spanish literature and theatre.
Women are always grounded and pragmatic or romantic over the top but with clear defects and all powerful women except Queens are evil .
That of course has been dissolved and our media is plural with lots of open content like Almodovar and his generation of filmmakers and art in general.
However the basic idea persist. There is no a Generic woman or queer action heroe. Someone you could go to film with a kid and the kid could say Oh I want to be like xher their. They are always behind Males or put in away they are less than the males or have mental issues Males don’t. Because a males could be all OP and strong but women of queer (or anything not straight) HAS TO BE REALISTIC because blah blah… no credible. Yeah but straight cis man with super powers and iron muscles are super realistic???
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Honestly? So long as she’s well rounded, and feels like a complete person, then I think you’ll be fine. Too often I’ve seen writers falling into the trap of flawless, physically strong woman = strong female character mentality.
Honestly, I hate it. It feels belittling. Like women aren’t already strong in real life, so caricatures of them have to be made in media. Like an incomplete, ‘perfect’ female character is a better thing to be.
So give her flaws, likes, dislikes, weaknesses and strengths, and have those be acknowledged in the narrative, and you’ll be fine.
And if she is the best/strongest at something, don’t accomplish it by dumbing down the plot or other characters. People will notice, and it will feel cheap.
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I have lost patience for the rhetoric about strong female characters (though that isn’t to criticise anyone who enjoys it!); for me, it’s about compelling and interesting female characters. And to have enough female characters in your fiction that no one woman in it bears the burden of being your only chance of positive representation.
You want to truly write compelling female characters? One of the best pieces of advice I’ve read on this topic is reading fiction written by women, especial women of colour, LGBTQ+, disabled or neuroatypical women -but women in general. Read well written stories where the women are written by women, immerse yourself in those stories, and use a critical eye when going back to fiction where the women might be written poorly by men.
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make them easy to relate to…Instead of trying to paint an amazing portrait for exemple , with a beautiful women that look like an Empress that ruled over a kingdom . Make her look like a women whose job is to do laundry , yet when you look deep in her eyes…you could see that in another life…she was a warrior…a mage…something else .
lol personally , writing a character then make it burn and crash is something I find fun . The perfect character is kinda of a myth . There can be so many sort …your head would spin . But the thing I will never change , is how human they have to be , feel .
Just wanna popping in and say that your character shouldn’t have to be a well-rounded/realistic/relatable person.
By definition, character is quality in the sense of human’s trait and aspect. [1][2][3][4]
I’d go further and say that character is human’s emotion personified.
So, why don’t go from there? Write your female character as the most stereotypical hard-headed person with a tragic backstory.
From there, as the story progress, slowly build her up with believable traits, relatable personality; rise up the curtain and make the reveal satisfying. Something that will make people, “Oh, she’s not your typical stereotype X.”
Or don’t. The design is up to you.
well, I’m not really well read with spanish literature but, I get your point. When I was a kid, I used to watch the cartoon series of Zorro. I always thought Zorro was such a badass（every kid whoever watched him thought that）–he was the good guy kicking the butts of all the baddies. Now when I think about it again. I remember the love interest Lolita who was practically doe eyed for him was a pure damsel in distress. It used to be like she was stuck in the fire and Zorro would come out of nowhere and save her. It was a lot like Lois Lane and Superman. I mean, she falls off the top of the building a million times and Superman is always just there to catch her. If you read the batman v superman comics–when poison ivy has got superman under control catwoman really freaking pushes Lois off a skyscraper and that brings the superman back into his right mind？！ I mean what the…！
Well, I am currently doing just that. I mean my reading list is just stacked with almost every bestselling domestic thriller written by women：Gilliyan Flynn, Paula Hawkins, B.A Paris and the list goes on. Talking of LGBTQ, I am currently reading Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train. This really is helping me. The reason I made this thread was to get some advice on the topic since this community is so vast with so many insightful people. Your advices are just helping me sculpt Olivia’s（that’s her name）character more better.
That was the kinda approach that I had decided to take. To start off with something typical and bring it on an unusual conclusion. That seemed a little difficult to me so I came here with my doubts. I’m glad I did.
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Yeah I want a female Zorro or A queer Zorro or a gay Zorro. A heroe that is just badass and you can go as kid or with your kids and they wants to be like the heroe.
It could be great that heroes be something different from straight white male. And a queer a girl or a gay could seein that character. I am a straight cis girl so you could say you should have as kid lots of references… I haven’t all examples I had were damsels in distress except Ripley and leia the rest are basically put in stories to be rescued and give themselves as trophy. Mybheroes were male because there weren’t any females.
That’s why I think flawless heroes from all spectrum should be a thing to make kids see they can be heroes and they are cool too. That’s a cool thing cog have that you could make your hero and is exactly as awesome as those in films even if you are gay or whatever game let you be.
In fact my love for role-playing come from could express my self as the type of hero the type of women I wanted to be and rp where best way to be myself.
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The best way to make a strong female character to make a strong character and to make it female. That’s it. I feel like being female is the part that’s irrelevant, I don’t want people to think I’m strong for a girl I want people to respect me simply because they respect me as a person.
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I like at female characters (ex: Nami from One Piece) when they are beutiful and they know it, but they are not affraid to use it, i mean don’t give me the crap of what is right or wrong, but i do whatever necesary to achieve my goal, that i think is a strong charactet, hey is just my opinion.
Did people really think “well-rounded” means “incapable of flaws”?
That’s literally the exact opposite. A well-rounded individual is someone who is a jack of all trades. A well-rounded character is one who ticks boxes.
These include, but are not limited to:
*A backstory
*A unique personality
*A unique reason for doing x, y, z
*Flaws - ones that can either be overcome or be their downfall
*A personal story that exists within and without the book.
Some of the most well-rounded characters in history are the villains. That’s why we find them so interesting.
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Beautiful people, talented people and smart people know they are smart. And entirely understand the expectations trusted upon them, I personally think the problem you face is a common one when writing characters in general not just female but males. it’s easy to placecharacters into cookie cutter roles, but what I feel is the most empowering in general for characters are choices characters make my themselves for themselves. They can either live up to the expectations of others loud and proud and screw you I do what’s best for me cliche or not, or go full Rachel Amber and burn it all down. Recognise it, reject it and destroy everything. I hate choosing the middle ground though recognising but doing nothing or faking a rejection but ultimately accepting, but I mean tragic and realistic either way. Or you know a third option, reject everything become original.
I hope my suggestions been helpful.
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