Strong Female Characters (and just strong characters in general)

You may have heard this story before.

Clarabella is a beautiful maiden, ward of King Henry in the land of Lamania. She’s simply gorgeous, elegant, refined, and her rippling golden hair shimmers in the light of the stars. All the knights are madly in love with her. Her sole purpose is to haunt the castle awaiting her true love’s return, swoon when in deep distress or shock, and hang around to be kidnapped by the dreaded Dark Knight and either die at his hands or be rescued by Sir Malfus the Noblehearted, who the story is really about.

Clarabella is a unique, one-of-a-kind maiden- except she isn’t. Brittany the scullery maid (secretly a king’s daughter!) is also beautiful, delicate, and essentially useless in taking care of herself. So is Maid Katherine, who is a pretty village girl, very swoon-ish, and also useless at taking care of herself. And Maid Elsie. And Maid Morticia. And Lady Estelle. In fact, the only female character who does NOT fit this mold is the evil, ugly witch Brick-a-Brack and Maid Katherine’s evil stepsisters.

Yep, it’s the classic medieval novel stereotype of beautiful damsels in distress. The story usually centers on the males, with the heroines stepping in only to make Sir Keith look good when he saves them or wins their love. Again. Thankfully, the popularity of writing women such as this has faded out, but now writers have shifted to the other extreme, which is, in my humble opinion, much worse. Perhaps you’ve heard the following story as well?

Meg is a princess, heir to the throne as long as she marries Prince Rhubarb in three days. Except Meg is not your typical soft princess. She’s bad, she’s tough, and she wields a sword better than any man in the kingdom. Also she has the amazing ability to tackle a full grown man and take him down with just one punch. Incredible, right? Caged behind stone walls, rigid rules, and the fine dresses her maids wrestle her into, Meg yearns to be free and will fight tooth and claw to get herself outside. She is bold, she is brave, and she’s unique. Except..

Well, she’s not. Becky, the pirate captain is also bad, tough, and can take down a full grown man. Meg’s mother (who wasn’t dead after all!) is bad, tough, and has a battle axe and a sword. Jessica, a runaway slave girl looks soft and sweet, but under Meg’s guidance she discovers how strong and fierce and brave she is, as well as possessing the ability to take down a full grown man. Bonus points if every female character has, at some point, gone into a passionate speech about how she doesn’t need a man and how corsets and the traditional female roles are confining and demeaning.

(The only man Meg does in fact care for is Demetrius Jones, a stunningly handsome peasant boy who is secretly a king. His kisses taste like broken dreams or something)

So what is the problem in both only slightly exaggerated scenarios? In one we have weak, delicate women whose only purpose to the plot is to help the men look good. In the other there are girls who shun all traces of soft emotions and replace them with hard steel, battle cries, and taking down full grown men with spinning kicks and punches to the jaw. As a reader I encounter this a lot, and after reading more classical novels compared with YA fantasy and fiction, things started to line up.

The problem is diversity and reasons for personalities. Not the diversity of including everyone single type of person to avoid offending every single type of reader; diversity as in not all people are the same, and therefore shouldn’t have the same goals and personalities.

For diversity there needs to be a realistic mix of personalities and desires. Some of those might be more adventure driven, while others might be softer and gentler. Feminine desires are too often villainized in YA stories. Let’s go back to Clarabella. What if Clarabella was still a delicate damsel in distress, but only when it came to swords and fistfights? She could have a powerful talent in speaking to people's hearts through poetry and speeches; perhaps she only seems meek and passive but is running an underground organization to help runaway slaves and rebels. Or maybe she’s just very passive without the secret talents, yet Maid Katherine is the one with the sword and knack for using it, and Lady Estelle is the passionate speaker.

When there are different types of female characters it gives the story a more realistic feel. I can’t explain the amount of books I’ve read where every single girl was sarcastic, strong, and reckless. Unless it’s a story set in a group of Amazon warriors or Valkyries, not everyone is going to be able to take on an army without blinking, and that is okay. Even if all of your female characters are brave and ready to fight for their country, give them differences in their levels of pain tolerance, courage, and interests. Some girls enjoy running through fields of flowers and others like jumping out of airplanes. For Meg’s and Clarabella’s story to be realistic and engaging there needs to be a realistic and engaging amount of diversity among the personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of the characters. And if you have a character who just doesn’t want to fight and would rather be a nun or poet instead, hey, you go for it!

Quick Character Exercise:

LiAnne, Josephine, and Amaya. Three warrior girls on the run from a tyrant government, trying to avoid death and look extremely cool in the process. Write in your notebook or comment below how you would make the girls diverse in strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, etc. How would they work together to accomplish their goal of survival? How do these details make them more interesting characters?

The next thing is reasons for personalities. Going back to Meg, the super tough girl with her zero tolerance for men and their shenanigans. Let’s say we kept her like this, switching up the other female characters’ personalities, but wanted to give Miss Meg more depth. We want fighting, we want sarcasm, we want her to take down the full grown man with just one punch (slightly skeptical if she could but for the sake of argument let’s just say she can). But why is she this way? If she’s like many YA fiction heroines, it’s simply because she was born that way and has always yearned for freedom and chance to prove herself, along with all the other tough girls who are simply tough for the sake of being a “strong female character”.

What happened in Meg’s past that caused her to be this way? What if she was once very passive and weak but one day saw the effects of evil in the kingdom; a burned village or a group of innocents killed? Maybe it woke up her protectiveness for her people and she wanted to train herself so she could protect herself and others. Or what if she had been hurt by someone stronger and from that day on vowed to never be caught weak again? Maybe her motive is to track the offender down and go after him with a blade. Maybe she grew up watching the soldiers sparring in their training grounds and fell in love with their speed, strength, and skill; perhaps one of the soldiers was her brother figure, father figure, or just a friend who thought the princess had potential and secretly taught her how to fight. Maybe Meg grew up reading about strong women that she wanted to imitate. What if her father never thought much of her and she thought if she was stronger like one of her brothers she would win his approval? Maybe she saw her mother constantly being pushed around and bossed, and Meg grew determined to always be free and able to take care of herself. There’s a thousand more reasons why Meg could be the way she is that go beyond merely waking up one morning and thinking, “Well, time to fight for my freedom and be the ultimate sword master!”

Another Quick Character exercise:

Lucia is a quiet girl with a whispery voice and a love of music and knife throwing. Why is she like this and how come she’s drawn to these activities? What kind of music does she enjoy specifically?

Jasmine is basically a gremlin in her personality; she’s full of energy and chaos, would break your kneecaps if she thought you were getting too close, and she’s definitely carrying a weapon under her puffy polka dot jacket. What are some reasons as to why she’s like this? What kind of weapon is she carrying? Does she have any people who she’s okay with getting close? Why does she trust them?

Nina lives in the forest with a group of rebels attempting to overthrow the kingdom and build their own reign. She’s the leader, and in her free time she likes fishing and climbing trees. How did she become the leader above the others? What caused her to join this group? Why is she able to take on the responsibility of this huge task? Are her motives pure or corrupted?

One last thing before signing off: It’s definitely okay to give a character a personality trait without a reason. Meg likes yodeling; Clarabella can make a superb turnip-cheese casserole. Otherwise with dozens of traits we would all be up to our eyeballs in pages and pages of reasons. But everyone is the way they are for a reason, whether a wallflower or a spear-wielding Valkyrie. To write a strong female character, she doesn’t have to be physically strong. She has to be believable for her actions. I saw a quote once that said something along the lines of, “A strong female character doesn’t mean physically strong. It means a female character who is well written.” And that, my friends, sums it all up pretty well.

Let me know the results of your character exercise if you were able to do it! Have a fabulous day, y’all!

-Sincerely, Serena Stellington