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CWA Bulletin 6: Heroines
Welcome to the sixth bulletin. Please can I reiterate my plea dont leave it until the last possible moment before sending in your entry.
If its ready send it. As promised, I thought wed take a look at creating a believable heroine in this bulletin. Heroines are different to heroes. You make think thats pretty obvious, but the difference goes deeper than gender. Remember our old friend the Maverick loner hero? That rarely works for a female lead. Readers like to connect with characters. They can empathise with Mr Maverick loner (hes tough, hes self-assured, he attracts gorgeous females who he loves and leaves and if he gets drunk on his own what the heck). Theyd be happy to spend time with him and maybe get a little (or a lot!) involved with the guy. But create a lonely forty-something female who spends her evenings with a bottle and micro-wave meal for one and youve got problems; no-one really wants to hang out with lonesome-Lola. Thats not to say it cant be done, but go easy on the misery angle; you want to engage your readers not leave them feeling they cant face wading through the next chapter. Give them something to sympathise with, or laugh about, or even hate. Remember if you cant find anything interesting in your heroine, its unlikely your readers will either. The other aspect to be considered when creating a female lead is that women often end up handling the domestic aspects of life. If youve created a realistic heroine you may find her ignoring forensic evidence because the four year old has a vomiting virus, asking a serial killer to tread water until she can sort out an elderly parents central heating crisis, or adopting a basketful of cute, fluffy, kittens that you then need to feed every few hours. I know youre thinking thats okay, my heroine is a childless orphan who hates all dumb creatures. But as I said in previous bulletin, characters have a habit of going off and leading their own lives rather than the one you had planned out for them. (Before anyone accuses me of being sexist yes, Im sure loads of you men reading this do those things too but for some reason it never seems to be such a problem when writing about male characters.) Both the above aspects of creating your heroine
If its ready send it. As promised, I thought wed take a look at creating a believable heroine in this bulletin. Heroines are different to heroes. You make think thats pretty obvious, but the difference goes deeper than gender. Remember our old friend the Maverick loner hero? That rarely works for a female lead. Readers like to connect with characters. They can empathise with Mr Maverick loner (hes tough, hes self-assured, he attracts gorgeous females who he loves and leaves and if he gets drunk on his own what the heck). Theyd be happy to spend time with him and maybe get a little (or a lot!) involved with the guy. But create a lonely forty-something female who spends her evenings with a bottle and micro-wave meal for one and youve got problems; no-one really wants to hang out with lonesome-Lola. Thats not to say it cant be done, but go easy on the misery angle; you want to engage your readers not leave them feeling they cant face wading through the next chapter. Give them something to sympathise with, or laugh about, or even hate. Remember if you cant find anything interesting in your heroine, its unlikely your readers will either. The other aspect to be considered when creating a female lead is that women often end up handling the domestic aspects of life. If youve created a realistic heroine you may find her ignoring forensic evidence because the four year old has a vomiting virus, asking a serial killer to tread water until she can sort out an elderly parents central heating crisis, or adopting a basketful of cute, fluffy, kittens that you then need to feed every few hours. I know youre thinking thats okay, my heroine is a childless orphan who hates all dumb creatures. But as I said in previous bulletin, characters have a habit of going off and leading their own lives rather than the one you had planned out for them. (Before anyone accuses me of being sexist yes, Im sure loads of you men reading this do those things too but for some reason it never seems to be such a problem when writing about male characters.) Both the above aspects of creating your heroine
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