When you sit down to write a female character, the goal isn’t to simply create someone who checks the “strong” box. It’s about creating a person, someone layered, complicated, and, most importantly, human. A character who embodies strength not because they can fight or outsmart everyone around them, but because they’re a fully realised individual with thoughts, desires, vulnerabilities, and contradictions.
For me, Antonia and Kara, the protagonists of my novel, N-Word, embody that complexity. Two women with distinct backgrounds, experiences, and paths, but whose stories intersect in ways that challenge both their sense of identity and control over their own lives. Their power isn’t about dominance or infallibility—it’s about their ability to navigate chaos, make mistakes that almost break them in two, but still push forward regardless.
Kara: Defying Expectations
Let’s start with Kara, the woman whose body gets taken over by Antonia. Kara’s a Black OnlyFans and Instagram model, which is important—not because it defines her, but because it’s a reflection of how she navigates her world. She’s someone who has figured out how to reclaim a sense of control over how she’s viewed and desired, and basically profits from it. She’s not some victim of circumstance. She’s made deliberate choices and uses her platform to assert agency in a world that constantly tries to define her by her body.
But like I said, Kara’s much more than just the sublime contours of her immaculate physical form. She’s an avid gamer, passionately dedicated to honing her yoga practice, eats an impeccably healthy diet, regularly takes psilocybin mushrooms for her personal development, and is heavily involved in charity work.
While she has chosen to monetise her body, she hasn’t done so from a lack of alternative options. Far from it. She’s incredibly intelligent and switched on.
Loosely put, Kara may be sexier than the average bear, but she’s smarter than it too.
But anyway, once Antonia takes over, suddenly, Kara’s now in the background, reduced to a mere vessel for someone else’s consciousness, raising all kinds of questions about autonomy and identity.
How much control do we have over our own stories when someone else steps in? When someone else starts making decisions in our lives?
Kara’s story, in that sense, becomes about what happens when your power, your very self, is compromised.
But like I’ve said, Kara isn’t written to be powerless. Her profession, her choices, and the way she’s built a life for herself aren’t dismissed just because Antonia enters the picture. In fact, that’s where her real strength comes into play. Her narrative is about more than being an object of desire or a passive bystander in her own life. She remains a presence, even as Antonia assumes control, and her identity matters, especially in the midst of the perpetually rising tension between the two women.
Antonia: A Different Kind of Strength
Then there’s Antonia, an 85-year old white woman whose strength comes from her intensely traumatic experiences. She’s older and someone who’s been through far more pain than any human being should. However, Antonia isn’t some passive character who reacts to her world, she shapes it.
But here’s the thing: when she enters Kara’s body, she’s thrown into a world she doesn’t fully understand. It’s not just about inhabiting a younger woman’s body, but about navigating the complexities of Kara’s glamorous life, one that’s drastically different from her own.
What I love about Antonia is that she’s someone who is powerful because of her contradictions. She’s got wisdom, but she doesn’t always have the answers. She’s resourceful, but not invincible. She’s intensely loving to those she cares about but capable of wreaking unforgettable harm on those she does not.
That’s not an exaggeration, by the way, it’s a fact. If you don’t have a strong stomach then some of the things Antonia does in this book will chill you to your core.
Anyway, the tension between the two women isn’t just about Antonia taking over Kara’s body; it’s about both of them learning something from each other. Antonia’s strength isn’t diminished by the fact that she struggles in Kara’s world—it’s enhanced by it. The fact that she’s willing to adapt, to learn, and to challenge her own perspectives is where her power comes from.
Strength Through Vulnerability
What makes Kara and Antonia powerful characters isn’t their ability to dominate or win. It’s their ability to be vulnerable. Kara’s strength lies in the fact that she’s built a life for herself in a world that often tries to define her by her body and colour. Antonia’s strength comes from her ability to adapt, survive, and fight for what she knows is right, even to the detriment of her own safety.
But vulnerability doesn’t mean weakness.
There’s this misconception that strong characters, especially women, have to be invulnerable or perfect, and that’s where lots of writers go wrong. If your character is perfect, then what the freak is the point of their journey? What are they going to learn? What’s going to challenge them?
Kara’s strength comes from the fact that she had a story before Antonia ever enters her life, a story shaped by choices she made to assert control over her image and her body. However; when Antonia takes over, it doesn’t erase that. If anything, it highlights just how much strength Kara has in a world that tries to strip that away.
The same goes for Antonia. Her journey isn’t about being some all-knowing, perfect figure. She’s deeply flawed. She’s human. She makes major mistakes. And those mistakes are what make her relatable, what give her depth. Antonia’s power isn’t in being right all the time—it’s in her ability to learn, to change, and to confront her own limitations.
In fact, a significant part of this novel is spent with Antonia starting deep into the darkness of her own soul to confront elements of psyche she wished didn’t exist.
Writing Women Who Don’t Fit the Mould
What I set out to do with Antonia and Kara was to create characters who don’t fit neatly into the near boxes we see for female protagonists. They’re not just “strong” because they can fight or outsmart people. They’re strong because they are human—flawed, layered, and real.
Antonia is a woman with a painful history, someone who carries the crushing weight of her past into every decision she makes. Kara, on the other hand, is navigating a world that constantly tries to strip her of her agency, and yet she finds ways to reclaim it. Neither is perfect but they’re not supposed to be. Like I said, what makes them powerful is that they evolve, they learn, and they refuse to quit when things get hard.
At the end of the day, that’s what writing powerful female characters is all about. It’s not about making them invincible or flawless. It’s about letting them be completely, totally, utterly, and undeniably human. And when you do that, when you let your characters be vulnerable, make mistakes, and still push forward, that’s where the real magic happens.
Excelsior!
