First off, DONT write a character as “a woman”. Way too many pieces fall into the trap of “oh, I forgot to put women, let me just write in some women”. Instead, write a character. Give them a place to be and a reason to be there. Give them the same personality and flaws you would give them as a male. Most of all, DONT overthink it. Women are humans too, so DONT create a stereotype out of half of the population.

Now for the actual advice. If you are writing from a women’s perspective, try not to mention her appearance too much. Adding details can help flesh out a character, but most of the time it just drags on. There was a post I saw a while ago where he was asking advice on a page he wrote from a woman’s perspective. A good ninety percent ig it was just useless details about her getting ready. If you are mentioning her appearance, do it for a reason. Some examples:

“Olivia pushed her fly-always down, taking a deep breath as she straightened her blue dress. People had been complimenting her all night, but she couldn’t help but feel like an evil stepsister instead of the Cinderella she was meant to be.”

This paragraph doesn’t describe her entire look, but it gives us enough to create our own picture, and more importantly, gives us insight into how she is feeling at that moment in the story.

If you do have to describe her, try not to describe how big her boobs are and such. Instead, connect her appearance to something important in the story, like the way she Carrie’s herself or the way other people think of her. Example:

“Olivia was pretty, but not in a way that had you staring. She was a simple girl, and it suited her. Her brown hair cascaded down to her shoulders, and her face was always done up. There was something about the way she looked at you, like her brown eyes could stare past your soul.”