[Son of Númenor]

When I write a short story, I almost exclusively use men as main characters. I am not confident in my ability to create a believable female heroine, since my writing is most often based on or inspired by personal experiences & I generally try to have my characters reflect how my thought process would be in the situation I am writing about. Having never been a woman or thus having never seen if there are any major internal differences in the thought processes of women & men, I do not really feel qualified to attempt to write from the vantage point of a woman.

To tie this back in with Professor Tolkien somehow:

I think J.R.R. Tolkien probably felt the same way to an extent, which is why his important female characters tended to represent ideals - Eowyn desires to take an equal part in war as men, no visible motivations are ascribed to Lúthien besides her immense love for Beren, Galadriel is a wise matriarchal leader, & Arwen is a beautiful princess party to a mysterious love with one of The Lord of the Rings' main protagonists . I am not saying that these characters are shallow or that they necessarily lack depth of personality, but merely that they come across as, to a degree, representing different points on the spectrum of female literary creations of Tolkien's time period, rather than as characters that Tolkien is comfortable describing in their everyday lives like Frodo & Bilbo. This (& it is just my own interpretation, & not necessarily the right one) seems attributable to the fact that Tolkien was a man, & did not possess a high degree of confidence in creating unique, subtle female characters whose personas & motivations could blend seamlessly with the plot of his stories in lead-role capacities.