Dina Sleiman writes stories of passion and grace. Most of the time you will find this Virginia Beach resident reading, biking, dancing, or hanging out with her husband and three children, preferably at the oceanfront. Since finishing her Professional Writing MA in 1994, she has enjoyed many opportunities to teach literature, writing, and the arts. Her debut novel, Dance of the Dandelion with WhiteFire Publishing, won an Honorable Mention in the 2012 Selah Awards. Also look for her novels, Love in Three-Quarter Time, Dance from Deep Within, and her Valiant Hearts series with Bethany House Publishers. Dina serves as an acquisitions editor for WhiteFire Publishing as well, and she loves to teach at writers conferences throughout the US. For more info visit her at her primary website.
The strong and spunky heroine is a popular motif these days, especially in young adult fiction and the many movies being made from YA books. Katniss Everdeen, Tris Prior, and the list goes on. There’s something about a strong young woman that excites people. That makes them say, “If she can make a difference in this world, then so can I.” You can see this on television as well. I’m thinking Sidney Bristow on Alias, Olivia Pope on Scandal, Nikita and The Legend of Korra, but I’m sure you can come up with plenty of your own examples. .
Even if you are a guy who wants to write guy books, strong female sidekicks and minor characters
are hugely popular. If you do a good job with these characters, you will earn a faithful readership among women as well as men. And in case you didn’t know, women buy waaayyy more books than men.
My new YA adventure/romance series, Valiant Hearts with Bethany House Publishers, features strong young medieval women in legendary male roles—which means I’ve spent a lot of time over these last few years contemplating spunky females. So how do you craft a strong heroine? Here are some ideas to get you started.
A woman who is tough merely for the sake of being tough can come off as cold or standoffish. Help us to understand the hardships that formed your character. Give her strong motivations like protecting the weak, standing up for justice, or seeking freedom. Let us see her making sacrifices and using her strength to help others.
Most spunky female characters have some sort of special ability that allows them to stand above the crowd. For example, Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games is an excellent huntress. In my Dauntless, my heroine was trained by traveling acrobats, and in my next book Chivalrous, the heroine learned to fight like a knight alongside her brothers. It could be intelligence or humor or people skills, but give your heroine some special ability that will allow her to take on the world and that will make her strength believable.
One of the important rules of good fiction writing is show don’t tell. Show us your heroine’s strength through the eyes of the people around her. How they treat her, respect her, and look up to her. Show us through dialogue and the inner thoughts of other characters. Make us believe that we should admire her strength as well.
Any hero is only as strong as their adversary. Don’t give us a wishy washy oppositional force just because your hero is a girl. Make your villain a worthy foe, and then allow your heroine (and/or her surrounding team) to overcome them anyway. Depending on your genre this might be a literal villain, or it might be a force of nature or even an internal adversary. But whatever it is, make it a true challenge.
The factor that makes a heroine strong and spunky rather than just tough and cold is her soft side. A woman should have a special sort of vulnerability which underlies and complements her strength. In addition to showing her strength, be sure to show this vulnerability as well. A tear in her eye, a sentimental moment, a gentle stroke over the hair of a child, a brief cuddle with an animal or a beloved doll. Let us know her fears and hurts and weaknesses, and then let us see her overcome them anyway.
Although your heroine should be strong, make sure she still has weaknesses to overcome. It is always important for any main character in your book to undergo a transformation. This is at the heart of good storytelling. Weave your plot in such a way that she has to overcome her weaknesses in order to overcome her foe. That is how a heroine becomes not only interesting and exciting, but inspirational as well.
I say, bring on the strong heroines. Personally, I can’t get enough of them.