I'm so happy to announce that Lineage, the next book in the awesome Demons of Oblivion series has been released. To celebrate, I've asked the author, Skyla Dawn Cameron to talk a bit about one of my favourite topics.
CREATING BELIEVABLE STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS
When Sarah-Jane suggested this topic, I immediately thought, "Oh, I can write about that no problem!"
And then I thought about it some more.
And some more.
And once again I came back to the question that repeatedly plagues me: How can people not create believable strong female characters?
There's an essay I'd like to point to that makes many points I love—how women, both real and fictional, are expected to be "strong" and save the day but never broken, never a bitch, and how often the real believable characters tend to both be heroines and monsters. That right there is the litmus test, I think: In reality, uncompromising strength in a woman tends to be pathologized, misunderstood, and discouraged. IMO this is why, so often, the "strong female character" trope in fiction doesn't ring true.
A believable strong female character requires the same writing as believable characters period. She needs flaws. She needs a background. She needs to have dark moments and times when she's not all chipper and wins the day. She needs to exist in and fight against a world that doesn't react well to her. She needs to sometimes be not-strong. She needs to make bad decisions.
She needs to be like you and me.
Thus far in my series Demons of Oblivion, I have had three different heroines narrate the books. All of them are strong female characters and yet the voices are vastly different and I defy anyone to say these women the same; they demonstrate that strength comes in many, many forms.
Zara, the narrator of Bloodlines, is physically strong. She's emotionally strong. She's a very old, very damaged vampire. She can tear your face off with words or her nails. And she'll enjoy doing it. She's selfish, she's fucked up, and she really likes shoes. She's also lucky in that many of the people drawn into her orbit in the book are people who respect her strength, in particular her love interest. And anyone who doesn't? Well, she kills them.
Ryann, the demon hunting nun narrator of Hunter, came from a decidedly different place. She has worked hard to be physically strong and skilled, but you know what? She doesn't always win the fight. She gets physically sick the first time she kills a real monster. And her strength comes not from defeating the bad guy, but from her very nature. She gets back up when she's knocked down. She takes an emotional beating and keeps moving forward. In her is a need to do the right thing, no matter the cost—even if it leaves her ostracized, abandoned, and trampled by her family.
Peri, the quarter-demon narrator from my new release Lineage, brings fucked up to a whole other level. I genuinely expect people to dislike her, and it wouldn't be hard: she's not a very likable person. Her kids were killed. She's now a merc and she kills six people on screen in the first chapter. She has trouble with empathy and unlike Zara she seems totally unaware of precisely how self-absorbed she is. She betrays people to get what she wants, she says things with the intent to hurt, and she solves things with violence. Lots and lots of violence. Oh, and she's planning to kill herself.
Good times.
In short, there is strength all over the place, and it's not Halle Berry's Catwoman in leather with a whip and no real character. It's Jane Eyre and her resilience; it's Elizabeth Bennett and her unwillingness to marry unless it's for love; it's Ellen Ripley saving Newt; it's Buffy having to kill her boyfriend to save the world. It's Zara and Ryann and Peri.
And it's you and me.
About the Author: Award-winning author Skyla Dawn Cameron has been writing approximately forever. Her early storytelling days were spent acting out strange horror/fairy tales with the help of her many dolls, and little has changed except that she now keeps those stories on paper. She signed her first book contract at age twenty-one for River, a unique werewolf tale, which was released to critical and reader praise alike and won her the 2007 EPPIE Award for Best Fantasy. She now has multiple series on the go to keep her busy, which is great for her attention deficit disorder.
Skyla lives in Southern Ontario where she dabbles in art, is an avid gamer, and watches Buffy reruns. She's naturally brunette, occasionally a redhead, and will probably go blonde again soon. If she ever becomes a grown-up, she wants to run her own pub, as well as become world dictator. You can visit her on the web at www.skyladawncameron.com for free fiction, book news, and tons of other totally awesome stuff.
Info about the current series she's working on--which begins with Bloodlines--can be found at www.ZaraLain.com
CREATING BELIEVABLE STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS
When Sarah-Jane suggested this topic, I immediately thought, "Oh, I can write about that no problem!"
And then I thought about it some more.
And some more.
And once again I came back to the question that repeatedly plagues me: How can people not create believable strong female characters?
There's an essay I'd like to point to that makes many points I love—how women, both real and fictional, are expected to be "strong" and save the day but never broken, never a bitch, and how often the real believable characters tend to both be heroines and monsters. That right there is the litmus test, I think: In reality, uncompromising strength in a woman tends to be pathologized, misunderstood, and discouraged. IMO this is why, so often, the "strong female character" trope in fiction doesn't ring true.
A believable strong female character requires the same writing as believable characters period. She needs flaws. She needs a background. She needs to have dark moments and times when she's not all chipper and wins the day. She needs to exist in and fight against a world that doesn't react well to her. She needs to sometimes be not-strong. She needs to make bad decisions.
She needs to be like you and me.
Thus far in my series Demons of Oblivion, I have had three different heroines narrate the books. All of them are strong female characters and yet the voices are vastly different and I defy anyone to say these women the same; they demonstrate that strength comes in many, many forms.
Zara, the narrator of Bloodlines, is physically strong. She's emotionally strong. She's a very old, very damaged vampire. She can tear your face off with words or her nails. And she'll enjoy doing it. She's selfish, she's fucked up, and she really likes shoes. She's also lucky in that many of the people drawn into her orbit in the book are people who respect her strength, in particular her love interest. And anyone who doesn't? Well, she kills them.
Ryann, the demon hunting nun narrator of Hunter, came from a decidedly different place. She has worked hard to be physically strong and skilled, but you know what? She doesn't always win the fight. She gets physically sick the first time she kills a real monster. And her strength comes not from defeating the bad guy, but from her very nature. She gets back up when she's knocked down. She takes an emotional beating and keeps moving forward. In her is a need to do the right thing, no matter the cost—even if it leaves her ostracized, abandoned, and trampled by her family.
Peri, the quarter-demon narrator from my new release Lineage, brings fucked up to a whole other level. I genuinely expect people to dislike her, and it wouldn't be hard: she's not a very likable person. Her kids were killed. She's now a merc and she kills six people on screen in the first chapter. She has trouble with empathy and unlike Zara she seems totally unaware of precisely how self-absorbed she is. She betrays people to get what she wants, she says things with the intent to hurt, and she solves things with violence. Lots and lots of violence. Oh, and she's planning to kill herself.
Good times.
In short, there is strength all over the place, and it's not Halle Berry's Catwoman in leather with a whip and no real character. It's Jane Eyre and her resilience; it's Elizabeth Bennett and her unwillingness to marry unless it's for love; it's Ellen Ripley saving Newt; it's Buffy having to kill her boyfriend to save the world. It's Zara and Ryann and Peri.
And it's you and me.
About the Author: Award-winning author Skyla Dawn Cameron has been writing approximately forever. Her early storytelling days were spent acting out strange horror/fairy tales with the help of her many dolls, and little has changed except that she now keeps those stories on paper. She signed her first book contract at age twenty-one for River, a unique werewolf tale, which was released to critical and reader praise alike and won her the 2007 EPPIE Award for Best Fantasy. She now has multiple series on the go to keep her busy, which is great for her attention deficit disorder.
Skyla lives in Southern Ontario where she dabbles in art, is an avid gamer, and watches Buffy reruns. She's naturally brunette, occasionally a redhead, and will probably go blonde again soon. If she ever becomes a grown-up, she wants to run her own pub, as well as become world dictator. You can visit her on the web at www.skyladawncameron.com for free fiction, book news, and tons of other totally awesome stuff.
Info about the current series she's working on--which begins with Bloodlines--can be found at www.ZaraLain.com
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