{"id":39640,"date":"2021-10-28T06:30:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T17:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=39640"},"modified":"2021-10-25T18:18:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T05:18:40","slug":"from-the-blog-backlist-writing-epic-heroines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2021\/10\/28\/from-the-blog-backlist-writing-epic-heroines\/","title":{"rendered":"From The Blog Backlist: Writing Epic Heroines"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a few months since we’ve had one of these, plus heroines have been on my mind recently, so I thought it could be timely to have another look at this post from July 2015.<\/p>\n

I’ll also have a spinoff post for you next Monday, relevant to the theme: something to look forward to (I hope. \ud83d\ude09 )<\/p>\n

In the meantime, and without further ado:<\/p>\n

~*~<\/p>\n

Writing Epic Heroines — from July 23, 2015<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"\"

UK\/AU\/NZ<\/p><\/div>\n

The Heir Of Night<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0The Gathering Of The Lost<\/em><\/strong>, the first two novels in my epic fantasy quartet,\u00a0The Wall Of Night<\/a>, have been recognized for the fact that the leading character, Malian, is a young woman, as well as for the number of strong and important female characters in the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am really pleased that readers appreciate this aspect of the story, but I never sat down and thought:\u00a0\u201cI think I\u2019ll write a story that\u2019s full of strong female characters.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The story just evolved that way\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking below the surface, I believe it was important that I was\u00a0open<\/em>\u00a0to the potential of the story to evolve in that way. Malian is a character who was with me for a long time before I began to write.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vision for the character was always of a young girl, later a young woman (there\u2019s a five year gap between the events in\u00a0The Heir Of Night<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and those in\u00a0The Gathering Of The Lost<\/em><\/strong>) in a (literally) dark world.<\/span><\/p>\n

It never occurred to me that she could not be the centre of the epic events taking place, or that there was anything ground breaking or unusual in her being so. After all, there are precedents that remain some of my favourite epic fantasies, including Mara of the Acoma in Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts\u2019 Empire series and Morgaine in CJ Cherryh\u2019s series of the same name.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"UK<\/a><\/p>\n

UK cover<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The difference, if difference there is, may be that the secondary characters surrounding Malian include as many female as male characters, many occupying important roles in both the story and the society. To be honest, again I never planned this: the characters simply evolved with the development of the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Wall of Night world, Malian\u2019s people, the Derai, have a considerable number of issues: they\u2019re militaristic, xenophobic, hidebound, and still nursing the bitter divisions of a civil war.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there is no male\/female divide (possibly because the women, in this warrior society, are physically as strong as the men.) So \u201cof course\u201d women will occupy the full gamut of occupations in the society, with considerable numbers in positions of authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, I did not sit down before I began writing, and think:\u00a0\u201cthis is the way the society will be and operate.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Rather, as the story progressed, I realized it \u201cjust was\u201d that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also very much enjoyed the way the characters stepped forward to take their place in the tale \u2013 whether it was Asantir, the captain of the Earl of Night\u2019s elite guard and later Commander of Night, or Jehane Mor, a herald of the mysterious Guild, or Lady Sarifa, a demonhunter from fabled Ishnapur.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

UK cover revealed last week!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Listening to the story and being open to possibility are always key to developing characters. The other key, on this ring of three, is actually focusing on writing\u00a0character<\/em>. The primary question I address is never, what kind of woman is this? Or, what kind of man is that?<\/span><\/p>\n

What I ask is, what kind of personality am I dealing with? How does this particular character function within the society? What role does she or he play in the story and the world? How will she or he respond to the events that arise through the course of the book?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answers to those questions, far more than gender, shape both who the character is, and the part she or he plays in the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

If readers find my female characters diverse, compelling and strongly conceived, I believe it is largely because of this focus on authentic character. I am certainly pleased if I am seen as having achieved this in the Wall Of Night series.<\/span><\/p>\n

The goal I will always strive for though, is to write\u00a0human<\/em>\u00a0characters in all their \u201csorts and conditions\u201d \u2013 so as 50% (ca.) of the human population, women are likely always going to play a big part in my storytelling. Why the heck not?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a few months since we’ve had one of these, plus heroines have been on my mind recently, so I thought it could be timely to have another look at this post from July 2015. I’ll also have a spinoff post for you next Monday, relevant to the theme: something to look forward to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,50,30,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-about-writing","category-epicfantasy","category-funstuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39640"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39643,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39640\/revisions\/39643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}