I’ve dubbed my NaNoWriMo project #NaNoRBG, not so much because it has anything to do with Ruth Bader Ginsberg or the Supreme Court particularly.
More because of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s quote: “When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”
More because I’m furious that Brett Kavanaugh got away with every inch of how he behaved in his hearings and still got the Supreme Court nomination, while Serena Williams shows anger and loses her game and her title. (One of the two of these things lasts for life, too.)
More because, when I was early on in exploring professional writing advice online, I came across an article that told me that it’s best to write stories with male protagonists because the publishing industry wants to be better able to market to boys, and I hated that article so much.
More because Shannon Hale is right when she puts the blame on adults for discouraging boys from reading books about girls and gendering books as “boy” books and “girl” books.
More because, when I read The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson for a grad school class, we had a whole discussion about how it felt like there were so many female characters, but even in a story set in a matriarchy, it’s just better than half the named cast.
More because it’s so easy for a website like ScreenRant to come up with a list of fifteen movies that have literally no female characters, but I’m having a hard time finding any with literally no male characters, even in this age of genderbent reboots.
So, I’m writing a novel where all the named characters are female, female-identifying, or nonbinary. Every. Single. One.
It’s a book about a teen psychic who gets abducted by a demon and narrowly avoids getting sacrificed on the table of prophecies by channeling a powerful prophecy of her own. But, once she’s given the demons a window into the future and an opportunity to thwart their human adversaries, the weight of consequence falls heavy on her shoulders. If she doesn’t escape from the depths of the demon library where she’s being held and warn mankind of the impending doom, the world could end–and it would be her fault.
Teen psychic Cassandra is joined by demon hunter in training Kennedy, an orphan trained from birth by the mysterious Hands of the Seers. Kennedy’s mentor was killed in in the same ambush that led to Kennedy getting captured and thrown down in the pits of the demon library. She knows they’ll feed her to the vampires or cut her open and bleed her out for some dark ritual if she doesn’t escape, but she doesn’t see a way out, until Cassie appears, mopping the hallway outside Kennedy’s cell, and the potential collaboration sparks a glimmer of hope in her heart.
Throw in a fossilized gryphon egg that–turns out–isn’t so fossilized for added spice.
That’s my #NaNoWriMo project. If anyone else wants to write (or has) a novel they’re working on with exactly 0 named male characters and wants to borrow the hashtag #NaNoRBG this month, you are welcome to it!
Whatever you’re writing, whether you’re all in for NaNoWriMo or you’re working at your own pace like the rockstar you are, I wish you the best inspiration, motivation, and time to work your writing magic out there.