Terry Pratchett is amazing at writing women, this isn't a new thing to say. But I was having a think about how he wrote women, and tried to think up what common thread there was between his woman characters (especially because with most authors, especially male authors, you tend to be able to tell the author's 'type' by the way they write woman love interests).
At first I couldn't think of anything, because Pterry wrote such a diverse range of personalities, ages, jobs, body types etc.
And then it hit me. The one prevailing thread in all the Pratchett books I've read so far: Pterry's woman characters are just so opinionated. And I love that.
‘Gytha Ogg, you wouldn’t be a witch if you couldn’t jump to conclusions, right?’
Nanny nodded. ‘Oh, yes.’
There was no shame in it. Sometimes there wasn’t time to do anything else but take a flying leap. Sometimes you had to trust to experience and intuition and general awareness and take a running jump. Nanny herself could clear quite a tall conclusion from a standing start.
aziraphale: "how exactly are we going to be the godfathers to the antichrist, anyway?"
crowley: "well, by some miracle, the parents are looking for both a gardener and a nanny."
aziraphale: "ooh, how clever, crowley! so, who will be--?"
crowley: "you be the gardener, and i'll be your hoe."
aziraphale, who doesn't know how pickup lines work or what the other meaning of 'hoe' is: "crowley, you just said they're looking for a nanny, not a garden hoe-"