Is your heroine this:
A little on the weak side?
Begging for someone not to steal her man.
Or is your heroine this:
Completely sure of herself.
Willing to kick your ass if you mess with her man?
Someone who will fight for love till the death?
Is your heroine Bella Swan or Hermione Granger.
Here's the thing...
There is no perfect heroine.
They're both flawed.
They both have character flaws they have to deal with and journeys they must follow.
And those flaws don't always have to include a hero.
Let's face it, if your heroine handled everything perfectly, then she wouldn't be entertaining to read.
There would be no black moment.
And there definitely would NEVER be any character redemption.
It's not wrong to have a weak heroine, if in the end she finds some strength in herself.
It's not wrong to have a kick-ass heroine either, as long as she has to admit she has some vulnerable element to her make up.
The key to amazing heroines, weak or strong, is that you stay true to the character you're creating. You make them confront the very things we, as readers, are screaming at them to fix!
As a writer, you have to stand by every bad decision they make because that’s where they grow.
That's where they become the heroine worth saving.
And THAT is where your reader is entertained.
I hope you don't mind. I riffed off your blog post topic here: karensandler.wordpress.com. I pointed back to your post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the HUGE compliment, Karen. I loved your post!
ReplyDeleteOhh, I love this! My very favorite thing about books are the characters! They absolutely make or break a story for me. A good heroine, like you pointed out, is a flawed one. Someone you can look at and relate to. A girl who messes up and makes the wrong choice from time to time. BUT she always bounces back. She stands and unashamedly admits, "I messed up, but I'm not *giving* up!"
ReplyDeleteAwesome post, chica!