Sally Mitchell
A Creative Piece
Revision Method: Peer Review/Demolition Exercises.
As a female writer and an avid reader, I have been
disappointed with the ways women are written and characterized in literature.
Female stereotypes are extremely prominent in literature, including archetypes
such as: the damsel in distress, the whore, the career girl, the mother figure,
the wise crone figure, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and many more. It is my
intent to focus my literary energy on creating strong female characters that
can serve as positive role models for adolescents and adults. Many writers in
the process of writing dynamic, strong characters often create characters
without flaws despite the fact that these flaws that make characters more
believable and relatable to their audience. It is not my goal to create
superwomen, but to create women that can stand on their own; to create an
environment where both female and male characters are on equal footing. Part of
my process involves reading several books on topics that include: plot
development, setting the scene, male and female character creation, point of
view, and essays on female writers in general. My reading list includes: Contemporary American Women
Fiction Writers: An A-to-Z Guide by Laurie
Champion, On Writing: 10th Anniversary
Edition: A Memoir of the Craft (10th ed.) by Stephen King, Women Constructing Men: Female Novelists and
Their Male Characters, 1750-2000 by Sarah S. G. Frantz, The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by
Alice LaPlante, and Characters &
Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. Within the confines of a short story, with a
length of approximately nine to ten pages, I will attempt to explore and create
a strong female character. The premise of this short story, entitled Creating a Woman, revolves around a
fictional female character and her fourth wall responses to the audience as a
fictional male writer goes through the process of creating her.
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