This article is going to be very short because there is a lot to unpack with this rule. In a future article series, I want to go over in more detail what this rule means and how to actually implement it.
The ninth rule is "If you Can Draw Pretty Girls, You’ll Never Go Hungry". Again, I'm borrowing this rule from Tom Bancroft (Tony's twin) who mentioned this quote in his book Character Mentor. He, in turn, attributes the quote to Chareles Dana Gibson.
Once again, don't be fooled; the only people who believe that the "Girls Show Ghetto" is a thing are either misogynist Studio executives or radical feminists. The truth is that having an appealing (normally human) female lead character, or major characters, significantly improves a story.
In a nutshell, a pretty girl means a female characters (usually from a girl child to a young woman or early middle-age woman age) with generally appealing physical features (i.e. doesn't have to be an albino supermodel, but at least somewhat and universally attractive) who has a genuinely likeable and relatable feminine personality.
Long story short, people can relate and root for an attractive female lead as your main character then they would some burly adult male. This rule also applies to Children (both boys and girls) as much as it does to young women. I believe this is because both women and children represent underdogs in our culture; and everyone can relate to and root for an underdog.
This is one of the reasons why most of my characters are either female or children (and usually both).
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