Guest Post: In Defense of the Good Girl
I wrote a guest post for the Shadowspinners blog the other day. Those of you who’ve been following me for a while might recognize some of my ongoing issues with Janna. 🙂
Let’s face it- bad girls are a lot of fun to write. They’re interesting, they break the rules, they make things happen. And it’s a great time for creating empowered female characters. Readers love them.
I’m writing an epic fantasy based on the Thirty Years War (1618-48), set in an alternate early modern Europe. My world had a considerable amount of gender equality, so my female characters have few limitations. There’s a pragmatic, diplomatically astute princess, a vicious marauder, a talented young cavalry officer, a Machiavellian cleric (or three), an intelligent, ruthless empress and a megalomaniacal military genius, among others. And yes, it is a lot of fun to write all of these bad-ass women.
But my biggest problem is a character who is essential to the plot, but also demonstrates the human cost of war. She is a good girl. A refugee who’s lost her home, who’s trying to keep herself and her children safe. She’s done nothing wrong. She’s not feisty, strong or resourceful, and is just pretty enough to attract the attention of predators.
I spent a long time thinking of ways she might plausibly develop into a ninja, but couldn’t make it work. She is a frustrating character. I’ve brainstormed ways to make her more awesome with a few of my beta readers, who also find her frustrating. And yet, as I go through the final edits of this manuscript, I’ve decided to stand behind her non-awesomeness.
This is why.
Read the rest at Shadowspinners. And check out the other posts while you’re there. It’s a great blog!
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Awesome article, GF! Still wondering what to do with Janna, then?
Thanks! I think I’m just going to tweak her a bit- make her more traumatized without increasing her whininess, if I can. 🙂
I couldn’t leave a comment on the full guest post, but I wanted to let you know it was a great point to bring up! I also think that writing a “good girl” is a bit difficult because people are fairly prone to being good; good is so common (being good because it’s the right thing to do, or the humane thing to do) that you have to make your character believable in that sense, too. A stereotypical good person is boring and readers can be unforgiving. Good job on finding your way to a better Janna. 🙂
Yes, good is default mode for most people, so there’s nothing particularly interesting about it. Even those who rise to saintliness can be boring, though if they’re heroic, that’s something else. But then they become awesome, and I can’t have that. 🙂 It’s definitely been an interesting challenge!