Today I want to talk about some admirable qualities in fictional women. If you were to write down a list of qualities you would like to see displayed in your fictional women, it might look something like this:
I would like to talk about a few of my own fictional women/girls with the specific intention of investigating how they measure up against my own list.
I would argue that Brenda, in my story from Explorations entitled ‘Wherever You Go’, shows great courage in the face of opposition in the form of her neighbour, Paul, when she is faced with the reality of moving to another city.
Brenda has lived for a long time in Johannesburg, and has had a close friendship with her neighbour, Paul. However, when he finds out that she is moving to Durban, he spitefully does everything he can to make her miserable about her ‘desertion’. In his mind, she is leaving him behind, so he won’t forgive her for that.
So he tells her nasty stories about the place where he lived before. His motive is not really to make her miserable, but it has that effect. His motive is really to make himself feel better, but his nasty words about her move only make both of them more miserable. However, despite his unexpected behaviour, Brenda decides, graciously, to say goodbye to him when the movers finally arrive even though his nasty words have stung her.
She does more than saying goodbye; she gives him an open invitation to come and visit her in Durban – she wants to remain friends with him even though he has been so nasty to her. She has indeed shown great resilience and courage. It is she who should be comforted by Paul, not the other way around. After all, she has never moved anywhere in her life before, so she is bound to be feeling anxious. But instead of crumbling under the pressure, she decides to offer Paul a hand of friendship; she shows she is a genuine friend who is not going to desert him whatever he says to her. Her unselfish attitude makes reconciliation possible.
Then in my story, ‘A Better Plan’, from the same anthology, Selena, the most popular girl in the school, doesn’t like it at all when Gemma starts to ‘steal’ some of her limelight. It seems that she wants to be the only star in the sky. So she does everything in her power to discredit Gemma so that everyone in the school will be attracted to her own light.
For a while, it appears that her spiteful tactics are working, until a series of events occur that unmask Selena for who she is.
This is where Gemma’s remarkable character really comes into play. The tables are turned now and everyone wants to follow Gemma instead of Selena, but Gemma opts for forgiveness, for reconciliation and for inclusivity, so ultimately, as a result of Gemma’s quiet but determined example, equilibrium is restored and Selena, once again, becomes popular – she no longer has to back-bite, scrape and scrimmage in the popularity stakes. Had it not been for Gemma’s forgiving nature, Selena would have been out in the cold. Because of her nasty attitude and her spitefulness, she would have no friends left – had it not been for Gemma.
It is in my Young Adult novel, Surrounded, that my protagonist, Margaret, shows true resilience. I would like to quote a short extract from the beginning of the novel to demonstrate the type of hurdles she has to overcome during the course of the novel. Everything appears to be going wrong for her:
"Until yesterday, Margaret had been soaring on eagle’s wings, blissfully unaware of the strategic attack from her greatest rival; the attack that would scatter her friends and destroy her joy. Yesterday, she was still in the swimming team, her break-time group was going well and Mary had invited her to sing for the youth group.
~ Extract from Surrounded, Gillian Leggat (Author)
But that was yesterday!
Today, Margaret had plummeted to earth. She had been thrown out of the swimming team by Jacky, not one person had pitched for her break-time bible study and even Gabriella, her staunchest ally, had let her down. Her words to Mary had really stung: “Margaret’s voice sounds like an out-of-tune violin!” Was she really that screechy?
Margaret was far too introspective – and perhaps a little naïve – to blame Jacky for her brand-new misfortunes. Instead, when blow after blow had battered her, she began asking questions about herself. Plenty of them. Had she put in enough training in the pool? How many more lengths of backstroke would have made the difference? Was she too serious in those bible study sessions? Could she have been more fun … introduced some games … provided hot chocolate … included some more exciting music? And the most painful reflection of all … could she even sing? Did Mary feel sorry for her? Was that why she had been asked to sing at youth group. The invitation had only come after the nil break-time attendance at her bible study.
So, Margaret is at rock bottom at the beginning of the novel. How many rungs of the ladder does she have to climb in order to make everything right again?"
As you can see, I try to lay many seeds at the beginning of my novels in order to interest my readers so that they will persevere with reading to the end. What will happen to Margaret? What will happen to Jacky? I’m hoping that I’ve intrigued even you, if you’re an adult, enough to investigate.
It turns out that Margaret shows her true mettle by the end of this novel. Resilience. Courage. Perseverance. She shows some of those qualities I referenced at the beginning of this blog as we were searching for the qualities we would like to see in our fictional women!
Happy reading everyone, especially about courageous women during this Women’s month.
I want to challenge you to make your own list of admirable qualities in fictional women.
~ Gillian Leggat
Why not take this opportunity to do just that.
Make yourself a favourite beverage and take a moment to enjoy this exercise.
You can use a notepad or list-making app on your phone.
Or if you prefer, you can write your list on some paper.
Now go ahead and make a list of some of the qualities you would like to see in women.
It would be interesting to see what your list looks like. It would be fascinating to make comparisons.