Thoughts on what I’m writing?

[Historyguy]

I am trying to write a novel but it’s pissing off two women I know.

The problem they have is my villain, Abigail Williams (she’s a real person who was used in the Crucible, but given the fact that she really did exist, she’s fair game).

She will be 40 because the novel is set in 1720, as she was only 11 or 12 in the real witch trials.

At this point, the money she stole will have gotten her far in life and now she’s a wealthy widow of a merchant in Barbados.

She continues to do what she did as a child, create moral panics and mass hysteria to get innocents killed (now they are her enemies she’s framing as pirates).

her greatest nemesis is a fictional daughter of Sarah Osborne that I invented. Abigail will try to get her hung for piracy.

Thoughts?

Dude - do what you want. You don’t need anyone’s permission. If it’s crap you won’t get a publisher/sales. If it’s good - great. If it’s a load of sexist twaddle and gets you a fuckton of criticism - own it.

Why are you even posting here?

‘Give me feedback on my book idea’

’No, not that feedback’

This is so weird. Just write the blimmin book!

If the characterisation is bad and sexist it will tick feminists off. If it isn't, it won't, especially if no one reads it, which is the fate of most novels.

Oh I would read that!

This. The Crucible is very male. Teenage girls are evil and it’s the fine upstanding family men and a beloved white haired old lady who bear the brunt. It doesn’t even touch on witch trials as a means of controlling women. I’d be concerned that your narrative simply extends this patriarchal re-reading to ‘bad girls grow into bad women’. It isn’t far from that to misogyny. Yes you are in danger of crossing this line.

<books tickets to see the crucible in order to gain context for a thread on mumsnet>

Me too!

I don't see that Abigail is vindictive, only manipulated by adults around her who have various axes to grind and are using a witchcraft panic to grind them. I don't see why she would re-enact a part which she played as a child. Unless you are depicting her as a psychopath - a possible interpretation from what Miller did, not historical afaik - which is fine if that's what you want to do.
I don't get the idea at all that making a woman an unpleasant villain is misogynistic. Saying it is appears to me of the same ilk as saying all ethnic minorities (except one, I suspect) must always be portrayed as the good guys. It is misogynistic to suggest women cannot be unpleasant villains IMHO (I have one who is murderous - is that misogynistic?).
Ignore your friends. Write what you want to write - it sounds fun.