# How to cultivate a realistic heroine



## pudding (Aug 16, 2014)

Sooo I think the title just about covers this topic.
As a girl who strangely has more experience writing males, I'm struggling a bit with this one.  Does anybody have tips on how to have my heroine seem more realistic but not your cliche, whiney teen brat?  She's (in my vision) this kick-ass girl who starts out a typical, dull teenager struggling with her home/school-life, but comes to find a hero in herself when thrown into the turmoil of supernatural conflict.  She's the kind of main character who doesn't obtain any cool powers like her fellow friends (more like demonic beings who happen to have more good than bad in them, unlike many others), but still manages to take the lead role as the only human among them who believes they are morally good kids.
Wow, that was a mouth-full.  Hopefully there are ways you guys could help me strengthen her character?


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## Caragula (Aug 16, 2014)

Are we writing the same novel?   Wow, that's pretty close.
All I've found so far regarding my heroine is that I haven't worried too 'consciously' about her being a girl, I've given her a strongly compassionate core that comes from her family, and allowed the natural idealism of her being a teenager to shine through such that she can represent the moral backbone of the story.  If your heroine has strong empathy I think you're a long way there.


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## pudding (Aug 16, 2014)

Caragula said:


> Are we writing the same novel?   Wow, that's pretty close.
> All I've found so far regarding my heroine is that I haven't worried too 'consciously' about her being a girl, I've given her a strongly compassionate core that comes from her family, and allowed the natural idealism of her being a teenager to shine through such that she can represent the moral backbone of the story.  If your heroine has strong empathy I think you're a long way there.


We just might, haha.  But then again my plot is pretty odd and twisted despite the YA theme and morals.
I really like that concept.  I plan on her being a compassionate person who simply has not had anyone to be particularly compassionate about in her life; and then she meets these kids, who seem scary and inhumane at first, but turn out to be a family to her.


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## aj47 (Aug 16, 2014)

I just let characters be themselves.  I write a lot of male characters but my stories tend to occur in settings where males predominate.  I have a female character in one piece who is intelligent, has a sense of humor and genuinely cares about people.  So I've not written any YA kick-ass girls.  But maybe next month.  I seem to be doing a lot of female first-person stuff for the Literary Maneuvers Fiction Challenge.  Ya never know.


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## Morkonan (Aug 16, 2014)

pudding said:


> ...Wow, that was a mouth-full.  Hopefully there are ways you guys could help me strengthen her character?



"Strengthen her character?" As opposed to what? Are you comparing her mundane nature to these super-powers and finding her lacking? Why?

I am a superhero. My power is that anything I touch turns into ice! I can even project ice-shards, blasting holes in walls and taking out aircraft in a single volley! But, since anything I touch turns to ice, I die from starvation a month after my powers are discovered.... 

I am a superhero. I can read minds and I can influence the thoughts of others. I can make people do things, make them see things, even make them think things. However, I am ever unsure of myself and those around me. I can never be sure that people like me because they truly do or because I have unconsciously made them like me... I don't know if my friends are truly my friends and I don't know if anyone's advice is what they would have truly given me or if it's something from my own flawed subconscious. So, in despair, surrounded by mirror-images of myself and my own inner demons, I step out in front of a bus one day...

There are limitations to being endowed with superpowers. Everyone has their own Kryptonite. Superheroes find that the most challenging tasks are dealing with their own humanity, even if they're alien... That is where you should develop your character. She is stongest in those qualities that we don't normally view as "superpowers." She has a strong will, she is intelligent, she has a very firm moral code and truly cares about those around her. She is good, giving, humble, witty, friendly, trustworthy... Don't build up her to be too "super human" with these "super powers."  Still, she "leads" the team not due to strength of arm, but due to strength of will, conviction and the valid trust that her team members put in her judgement.

Captain America...

Captain America is a US comic book hero. Captain America does not have "super powers." Instead, he was given an experimental serum that makes him the "best any human could hope to be." He is as fast as possible for a human being, as strong as a human could possibly be, as intelligent (tactically speaking) as any human being could be. And, due to his strength of character, he turns out to be as honorable, good and trustworthy as we could expect a human being to be.

But, there are any number of other comic-book heroes that could "beat him up." You know what, though? Most would choose not to. Why? Because, it's Captain America and he's too good of a guy to consider trying to beat up like that... "He's a natural leader and I should be listening to his advice rather than putting my mutant fist in his face..." That's not to say that Cap hasn't had his issues nor that others have disagreed with his somewhat lofty and moralistic world-view. But, the point is that this particular Super Hero with supposedly "awesome" powers isn't really THAT super-powerful and his strengths lie elsewhere.

Make your character strong in the areas that we, as mundane humans, value the most. (Or should value the most.) That's how you "strengthen" this character, when comparing her to the "super heroes" in your story.


Now, if your asking how you make your character "stronger" in general, I can't answer unless I have more details. But, my answer would probably be very similar - Challenge her according to things that we believe, or should believe, are important. Challenge her morality. Challenge her own self-image. Challenge her ethics, her charity, her beliefs in herself, her friends or regarding humanity, life, the Universe... everything. Challenge these and then demonstrate where she overcomes adversity or her own shortcomings in order to rise to the occasion. Have her work to overcome her own deficiencies and human frailties in order to truly shine as being "special" in a group of "super heroes."


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## Guy Faukes (Aug 18, 2014)

I'm also trying to write a female protagonist, and having a difficult time. Male protagonists are just too bloody easy. I know how they tick, I know what sort of neuroses they would have and weaknesses (most of which involves where our legs intersect). Females are a bit harder.

There are so many stereotypes and weird formulas that don't feel genuine. Sometimes she (my character) feels like more of a construct of what I want a strong woman to be or still abides by social desires for her (strong but beautiful, emotionally sturdy but still, always, loyal to one man, emotionally or spiritually broken in some level). If I go the other way, it just feels alien. 

From what I know, female strength offers up a slightly different palette then males. Whether it be bubbly, feminine cuteness which invigorates others, having maternal presence and guidance, sexual strength of intricate knowledge of desires and one's own body, knowledge of the "softer" things in life that can be used to solve social conflict, or knowing that they can be sufficiently physically strong and reliable in combat just as their brothers. Men and women overlap a lot, but we do occupy slightly different ends of a spectrum.


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## Nickleby (Aug 18, 2014)

Guy Faukes said:


> From what I know, female strength offers up a slightly different palette then males. Whether it be bubbly, feminine cuteness which invigorates others, having maternal presence and guidance, sexual strength of intricate knowledge of desires and one's own body, knowledge of the "softer" things in life that can be used to solve social conflict, or knowing that they can be sufficiently physically strong and reliable in combat just as their brothers. Men and women overlap a lot, but we do occupy slightly different ends of a spectrum.



Here's a hint. Women in general make decisions on the basis of emotion. Unfortunately, emotions are volatile, meaning they can change at any moment. Women will change their minds, that is, reconsider their decisions, for any reason or for no apparent reason at all. From an interior perspective, you can chart these changes in a character's mood. From the exterior, you may or may not provide clues about her mental state.

For Pudding, think about how a real person, particularly a teenager, would react in your heroine's situation. Teenagers tend to think they know everything. Have her ignore the advice of her comrades, allow her to get overconfident, put her in a dangerous situation, and give her some well-deserved lumps. Make her dependent on her friends, but show how she suffers when she pushes them away. After she fails a few times, have her question her abilities and commitment. Perhaps most important of all, watch how real people behave, not the young people you see on TV.


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## Kevin (Aug 18, 2014)

> Women in general make decisions on the basis of emotion.


 Oh boy... somebody hand him a ten-foot pole, and then tell him not to touch it.


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## Sc0pe (Aug 18, 2014)

I am currently working on a story that have more female than male leads the main being a girl herself. I like to think in a lot of ways boy's and girls are the same but handle things differently. Likt my main was born into a world that was rather cruel but even so she grew up to be warm and caring to others. Being one of the few children who have reached the age of seven and still have both of her parents she was considered lucky by most until they where both taken from her and she was experimented on by her kidnappers. Since it's been about how she's dealt with this sudden loss and this change to her body.

How much of what she use to be is left and what has it been replaced with and just her journey ever since then.

I can imagine I would have done a lot of this different if it was a male lead like maybe toning down some of how he would react to when he first notices these unnatural changes. I guess that imagined that these changes where like a girl first realizing her changes from entering puberty but ten times more shocking and with nobody to enplane them what going on with there bodies. 

So if you story dose contain teen girls then I think looking though how this important change effect them since it is kind of the thing that separates kids from young boys/girls and so on.


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## Laughing Duck 137z (Aug 21, 2014)

I like taking female lead a step further by having her the tough one the the guy a little whiny. I wouldn't put things too over the top but maybe a little masculinity to the girl would be fun.


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## EmmaSohan (Aug 22, 2014)

I am wondering....if you start with a whiny immature teenager, then need her to be strong and mature before the half-way point so she can carry the plot, then you have _huge _personality growth. Could that be part of the problem?


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## TKent (Aug 22, 2014)

Sounds like a the kind of kick-ass main character I connect with the most.  They don't think of themselves as kick-ass, and if you asked them how they'd react to the turmoil before it happened, they'd be the last to think they had it in them.  (Some of my favorites: Katniss in the Hunger Games, Perry Palimino in the Experiment in Terror series.)  What I like about them is that they make me feel that maybe given the right circumstances, I could be kick-ass too.
 So I'd say be sure to capture those insecurities and vulnerabilities and the struggles she'll have overcoming them to rise to challenges you have in store for her.

Of course I love the Lisbeth Salander's of the world too (girl with the dragon tattoo). 

Shucks, I guess I'm pretty much a sucker for kick-ass girls of all kinds


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## Guy Faukes (Aug 26, 2014)

Nickleby said:


> Here's a hint. Women in general make decisions on the basis of emotion. Unfortunately, emotions are volatile, meaning they can change at any moment. Women will change their minds, that is, reconsider their decisions, for any reason or for no apparent reason at all. From an interior perspective, you can chart these changes in a character's mood. From the exterior, you may or may not provide clues about her mental state.



We actually all make decisions based on emotional cues/values and interactions with the cortex. I'm not entirely sure what sort of old school way of thinking that you thought of when writing this post, but I'm hoping to draw on female strength to inspire the next generation of girls to be more than damsels in distress/a pretty thing to look at.


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## Dawson (Sep 12, 2014)

Write her as you would any regular character. 

Just... write a character. 

Who happens to be a female and a lead. 

Simple.

My protag is a 16-year-old girl who, while driven by the emotion of her mother's murder, is gifted with wisdom beyond her years, and uses that as a skill to balance her extreme (but logical- anyone would be incredibly emotionally compromised, regardless of gender) emotional state at the moment. 

She thinks things through. She's a strategist. She's a bit abrasive. She's a bit of a militaristic asshole, especially for somebody who is leading a bunch of loser rebels to overthrow the (literal king) of militaristic assholes. 

She's a complex character. 

Not a strong character. 

My other female characters: 

A nonverbal autistic girl, around 18 years old, who is the rogue for the group. She acts as a spy and shoots down the military leaders for the king before battles with her arrows. She doesn't speak a word throughout the whole book series. Yet she's incredibly strong and complex. Not whiny. Her partner gets killed out of jealousy, and she, naturally, plans revenge, but instead, thinks logically and steps away from the situation. 

A six-year-old orphan who is a necromancer. She's absolutely adorable, and upbeat, and the ray of sunshine in the rebel group. She carries around her parents' shrunken heads and reanimates them when she gets bored or lonely, and plays with them as dolls. She's morbid, but charming, and in battle, she chucks dead bodies across a battlefield. She develops a father-daughter relationship with an ex-executioner with a scarred and haunted past, and brings him out of the gallows and into the real world. 

An executioner who was raised as the product of a forced union, and never knew her family, and was raised as a human weapon. She gets off on killing, and is ruthless in her slaying, taunting her victims as she brings down her sword on their necks. She will do anything for her country- until the corrupt queen asks her to do increasingly dangerous and absolutely creepy things for and with her, that haunt and physically and mentally scar her forever. She's only nineteen at the time, and she has bore two children, who were taken from her arms before she could even feed them herself or name them. You'd be bitter and sadistic too, if you were her. 

Etc etc etc. 

You see, real characters. Diverse characters. Not just "oh hey they're young girls wtf."


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## Greimour (Sep 12, 2014)

Laughing Duck 137z said:


> I like taking female lead a step further by having her the tough one the the guy a little whiny. I wouldn't put things too over the top but maybe a little masculinity to the girl would be fun.



That reminds me of a manga called Otomen.


Pudding, I wasn't going to respond because I liked Morkonan's response so much. But.

Hero, Heroine ... no difference. If you can write a hero you can write a heroine. Just change certain aspects and it comes across exactly the same. Think of wonder-woman or any Amazonian woman.

Cap America was a good example, but it doesn't end with him:

Wonder-Woman could take on superman, though she would lose eventually, she would fight equally for a while. All she was is an Amazonian woman (princess?)

Batman, catwoman, two-face, Lex Luthor, Joan of Arc, Jane Eyre, Amelia Earheart, Mindy Macready (hitgirl in kickass movie), Lucy Pavensie (for bravery above others - Lion Witch and Wardrobe), Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games) ... and even though this wasn't in order, I think it might be best for last with Helen Keller

None of those Heroes, Protagonists or Heroines had 'super powers' ... I was planning on listing a bunch of non-super power heroes, but it somehow became heroines... 

Anyway...

No difference in my opinion. Male or Female... you change 'he' to 'she' and you're almost done.


Otomen (manga) is a great example of it and the #1 reason I actually read it. To my surprise I sort of liked the story, but I originally only read it because it was supposed to be a perfect example of a *male* being the girly character and a *female *being the male. None of it was homosexual. I had problems with parts of it and its not really my cup of tea... but really I don't know any better example of proving it doesn't matter. 

Whether male or female physically doesn't make them male or female as a character.


~Kev.


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