Probably not the best time for it, but this is just bugging me.
When I go looking at 1-2 star reviews of other books in my field, I try to find weaknesses that people don’t like seeing, to see if I can avoid those. One of the most common complaints I see of men’s adventure harem type stories, like I write, are that the female characters are weak, one-dimensional, cardboard-cutout types who aren’t characters so much as props.
I’ve always tried to make good, if not interesting, female characters. For a number of reasons, but also just because I want to have more interesting characters for the protagonist to interact with. To me, bland, one-dimensional female characters are kind of like super over-produced porn where the women look like CGI-perfected dolls. It’s too detached, too unnatural, too bland. I’ve always found that homemade, imperfect porn way better, because it feels real. It feels like actual people in a real life situation. It just feels more compelling.
But more than that, writing these characters feels realistic. A lot of people have trust issues. A lot of people have anger issues. Especially if they’ve been through traumatizing events. I get that I’m not going for perfect realism here, but I do feel like the line has to be drawn somewhere. And on top of that, characters can change. They can start out hostile and mistrusting, and gradually change that as they get to know the protagonist better. Not to mention, isn’t this the ‘drama’ that everyone raves about so much?
I’ve had people complain about Ellie in Haven, Elizabeth in Like A Fine Wine, and now Megan in A Warm Place. They’re ‘playing headgames’ and are ‘too difficult’. And it’s like, WTF? You think they should just immediately roll onto their backs and open their legs? Personally, I feel like the narrative would have suffered a lot if Megan had just immediately fucked Chris after everything that had happened to her. If anything, I feel like it happened too quickly, but you can’t keep people in suspense forever when they want sex scenes.
So….yeah, that’s it really. Will people fucking make up their minds?
Do you hate vapid, one-dimension female companions or do you hate female companions with a bit more depth and complexity that challenge the protagonist even just a little?
You can’t have it both ways.