I think it's worth pointing out that Joe didn't create a female character, he created a plot point. Without knowing the character's role, it's hard to fully judge, but adding a love interest because the script needs "more of a female presence" is one of the more obnoxious tropes out there. If the character serves a purpose in your story, by all means, add them in, but I suspect there's an easier route to interesting characters that Joe could take, one that may be staring at him right in the face: Make the lead female and your "added" character male. Now you have a much more uncommon dynamic. Rare is the instance when this would be unrealistic or unreasonable (maybe if the protagonist is a professional baseball player or something), but there are so very few good roles for women in Hollywood that top actresses will sign on to play the standard "girlfriend" or "wife" character that acts as a one-dimensional voice of reason or carrot-on-a-stick for the main character simply because there's nothing else out there. Heck, this might even be your selling point; if it's a juicy role, send the completed script to an actress trying to break out and let her do the work of selling it around town for you. Scott's mentioned this on this site before, but it bears repeating - one of the easiest ways to spark creativity is with a gender switch. If it doesn't work to switch the main character, switch one of the sides. You don't have to add, you can consolidate. How would switching the gender of a prominent character you already have written affect everything? Should it affect anything? Are they a woman in a man's world? Do they overcompensate for having to live against the grain, or do they just go about their business and let everyone else worry about it? And on an on... If your story is great, you can usually and more interestingly create female presence by changing gender than by adding unnecessary characters. I'd suggest starting there - it might help.

Thanks Jim.

Jim, thanks for your comments. Yes, you are absolutely right: One of the quickest and oftentimes best ways to take a flat character and transform them into a compelling one is by switching genders. It works both ways -- male to female, female to male -- but since lead roles and even secondary roles are predominantly males, the thing to consider first and foremost is switch a male to a female role. And those questions you asked, Jim -- Woman in a man's world / overcompensate or go about business -- if the female finds herself as a kind of FOOW (Fish Out Of Water) or an underdog because they are in a male domain, now you've got something interesting to work with. BTW this also works with switching ethnicity and even sexual orientation. While this type of work is best done when breaking a story and developing these characters within the context of everything else going on, it is quite possible to take a preexisting draft with a flat character (or characters) and do a gender switch as part of rewrite process. Yes, that will require retooling the character, but you'd be amazed at how a gender-switch can unlock a character and create lots of narrative possibilities that can fall into place pretty easily. Finally, Jim, you are absolutely right: There are SO MANY GREAT FEMALE ACTORS today. All ages, too: Young, middle-aged, seniors. They are DYING for meaty, interesting roles. And I honestly believe we are in the midst of an attitude change in Hollywood. The numbers do not lie: Years With More Female-Driven Movies Make Much More Money in the Box Office. Studio execs may be stubborn, but they aren't stupid. Well, most of them aren't. They want to make money. And if 51% of the population is women and actually 53% of the movie-going audience is women, it is, I believe starting to dawn on them there is money to be made targeting those audiences. We are seeing more projects get acquired and made featuring female leads and strong female supporting characters. And the more we, as writers, choose to write stories which feature female leads, that can help to spur the development and production of those type of projects. Great suggestion, Jim. Circling back to the original question, an interesting way to create distinctive supporting characters: Change their gender from male to female.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question, Scott! I really appreciate it! Since I emailed you with this question I have revised my outline and rewritten parts of my script and I think that the female character now serves an actual purpose in the story. I am very thankful for your suggestions and I'll try to implement them in my current and future scripts. I know you've previously written about treating every character as if they were the protagonist, and I don't know why but I just haven't done that with this female character so I'll definitely use that. I'll also try fleshing out the specific narrative function of this character, which I'm only now starting to really understand. The good thing is that the more I start to understand and develop her role in the story, the better the story functions. What really resonated with me though was yours and Jim's suggestions/questions about her living in a man's world. Does she try to overcompensate, does she go about business as usual, is she an underdog? Simple as it sounds, I think this might give her a very interesting dynamic and something very interesting for me to work with. Jim, thank you for your thoughts on this as well, and as to your points on changing the gender and why I introduced the female character in my script: I'm aware of Scott's suggestions and thoughts on changing a character's gender and I truly am of the opinion that a move like that can really make the story more dynamic. However, since the script I'm writing at the moment is a gangster movie, swapping the genders of the main characters would turn it into a completely different movie, and ultimately not the one I'm looking for with my current script. I know that the reason why I chose to introduce a female character might seem stupid, but I really believe my script needed a female character to balance out the otherwise male-dominated movie. I am well aware of the serious shortage of good female roles and the generic female characters (the hot girlfriend or wife whose value is determined by their relation to the people they date or marry and so on and so on) so my ambition is of course to write a different and vibrant female character.

Sounds like you're getting on solid footing with the character, Joe. The main thing is to do enough work with each character - male, female, whatever ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc - so they are believable and authentic. In other words, they don't feel like a the writer was trying to fill out some sort of preconceived diversity chart. If you tap into them so the characters come alive in your imagination and on the page, they transition from type to real individuals. Good luck!

Cue James Brown: This is a Man's World