|
|
|
|
|
| SFReader Forums > Book, Magazine, and eZine Publishers > Flashing Swords > A question concerning female characters... | Forum Quick Jump
|
| 
TRtheJ
Neophyte
      
Date Joined Apr 2005
Total Posts : 137
|  Posted 3/15/2008 11:54 AM (GMT -5) |   | | Is there still room in this crazy old writing world for a Damsel in Distress? | | Back to Top | | |
 |
MichaelEhart
Sage
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 2336
| Posted 3/15/2008 12:38 PM (GMT -5) | | Sure, but she has to have a PHd in Biochemistry, a black-belt and have gotten into distress by an unforseen consequence of her extreme competence.
Buy my book!
The Servant of the Manthycore from DEP
Illustrated by Rachel Marks, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock
Read me in 2008!
"Without Napier" Every Day Fiction, TBA
"Night of Shadows, Night of Knives" Magic and Mechanica, Ricasso Press, Spring 2008
"To Destroy All Flesh" Return of the Sword, Flashing Swords Press, Spring 2008
"Only His Name" Every Day Fiction, March 30
"An Exorcism Straight, Hold the Elvis" They're Not What They Seem, Cyberwizard, TBA
Still in print!
"The Stars by Law Forbidden" Unparalleled Journeys II, Journey Books, 2007
"Six Zombies Doing That Mick Jagger Strut" Damned in Dixie, Tenoka Press, 2007
| | Back to Top | | |
|
MichaelEhart
Sage
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 2336
| Posted 3/15/2008 2:25 PM (GMT -5) | | Exactly. The days of the cardboard cut-out, fainting-couch rescue object are thankfully behind us.
Strong and smart are much more interesting than passive and helpless.
Buy my book!
The Servant of the Manthycore from DEP
Illustrated by Rachel Marks, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock
Read me in 2008!
"Without Napier" Every Day Fiction, TBA
"Night of Shadows, Night of Knives" Magic and Mechanica, Ricasso Press, Spring 2008
"To Destroy All Flesh" Return of the Sword, Flashing Swords Press, Spring 2008
"Only His Name" Every Day Fiction, March 30
"An Exorcism Straight, Hold the Elvis" They're Not What They Seem, Cyberwizard, TBA
Still in print!
"The Stars by Law Forbidden" Unparalleled Journeys II, Journey Books, 2007
"Six Zombies Doing That Mick Jagger Strut" Damned in Dixie, Tenoka Press, 2007
| | Back to Top | | |
|
Jared Evers
Acolyte
Date Joined Feb 2008
Total Posts : 240
| Posted 3/16/2008 3:02 AM (GMT -5) | | | For me, the important thing is to make the character be who they are. There's nothing wrong with a damsel in distress. The important thing is that she not be a damsel simply because she's in distress. | | Back to Top | | |
|
erazmus
Master
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4539
| Posted 3/16/2008 3:18 AM (GMT -5) | | | | |
|
TRtheJ
Neophyte
Date Joined Apr 2005
Total Posts : 137
| Posted 3/16/2008 2:53 PM (GMT -5) | |
crystalwizard said...
DraperJC said...
Michael's right. Damsels need to be more like Alien's Ripley than Snow White nowadays. They're just more interesting to read about. Case in point, last night I watched an episode of House, M.D. where he treats a woman via teleconference who's stuck in Antarctica. She was a perfect foil for House's crankiness and much more fun to watch because of it. No they don't. They just need to be real people. Nothing wrong with snow white, except that because her character is so thin, when she turns sideways and sticks out her tongue, she looks like a zipper. Same goes for female leads. Please, if the sword wielding hero in your story is female, then MAKE HER FEMALE! Don't make her a guy in a girls body (I hate that. I really hate that).
I must agree with you, Crystalwizard. While it is obvious a "cardboard cutout" or simply characterless, faint at the drop of a hat Damdels are outdated as well as bad fiction, if a Damsel is a full character, offers more than an admiring eye to the hero, it should work without the character having to be butch but with beautiful face and great body.
You bring up an interesting question, too. In my Fiction Writing classes, I wrote a story or two from a woman's point of view which shocked my female classmates in that my character read female to them. The very idea a male writer could do that... Anyway, I am at present working on a project dealing with a female sword wielding hero and am wondering: Can you tell me what you mean by "MAKE HER FEMALE!" in terms of a barbarous era?
Still unpublished. But hard at work trying...
When not reading submissions. | | Back to Top | | |
|
crystalwizard
Forum Moderator
Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5002
| Posted 3/16/2008 3:25 PM (GMT -5) | | >Can you tell me what you mean by "MAKE HER FEMALE!" in terms of a barbarous era?
Sure. Men and Women have different ways of dealing with the same situation.
In broad strokes, guys want to DO things, women want to TALK about things.
Guys tend to face things head on. Women tend to be sneaky.
Women tend to be more emotional, Guys tend to be more level headed and think things through.
Don't anyone flame me. I'm well aware than I'm talking in generalities, and that both men and women can be sneaky, emotional and so on, but for the most part, men and women fit into those sterotypical molds.
Guys bottle up the things that bother them for the most part, and there's a reason that the guy who won't ask for directions is a constant joke.
Women are constantly trying to read between the lines and see what the other person might be hinting at by their words, guys tend to take what's said at face value.
Scenario one:
Guy says: Want to go eat dinner?
Girl thinks: Dinner... he wants something. Wonder what he's planning? Where are we going? Who's going to see me? Dinner... bet he did something he shouldn't have. What is he worried I'll be mad about? That new girl in his office. I'll bet she's been flirting with him. OOOOO! the cad! He's having an affair!
Scenario two:
Guy says: Want to go eat dinner?
Guy's buddy thinks: Dinner. Food. I'm hungery. "Sure, let's go grab a pizza."
Never meddle in the affairs of a wizard unless you are soggy and hard to light!
Managing Editor of Flashing Swords
Visit my art gallery on art wanted
All my books in print | | Back to Top | | |
|
darkbow
Rabbit lord
Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1696
| Posted 3/16/2008 4:27 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
|
crystalwizard
Forum Moderator
Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5002
| Posted 3/16/2008 5:44 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
|
tchernabyelo
Acolyte
Date Joined Oct 2006
Total Posts : 457
| Posted 3/17/2008 6:26 AM (GMT -5) | | One of the reasons Yi Qin is such fun to write is that she doesn't just go "hmm, bad guy, must kick/zap/destroy, game over". She'd far prefer to actually resolve the underlying issue and so that adds a level of complexity to the plots (which would otherwise tend to go "demon/ghost does bad thing; Yi Qin banishes demon/ghost; the end" - there's only so many of those you can write!).
Brian Dolton
Yi Qin stories:
"The Box Of Beautiful Things" - IGMS#3
"The Man Who Was Never Afraid" - Abyss and Apex #20
"At Blue Crane Falls" - Abyss and Apex #25 "Where No Wind Blows" - Staffs & Starships #2
"What The Sea Refuses" - Black Gate (forthcoming)
"What The Heart Bears" - Black Gate (forthcoming)
"Above The Clouds" - Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel (forthcoming)
Other Land Of Wind And Ghosts stories:
"The Dragon Path" - Fictitious Force (forthcoming)
"Three Out Of Four" - Sorcerous Signals Feb-Apr 08
Stories in other settings:
"The Unicorn Hunter" - OG's Speculative Fiction #8
"Call Centre" - Necrotic Tissue #1
"When Winter Came" - ASIM #32
"Cold Fire" - Flashing Swords #9
"St. Saviour And The Devil's Dandy" - Flashing Swords (forthcoming) | | Back to Top | | |
|
erazmus
Master
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4539
| Posted 3/17/2008 11:45 AM (GMT -5) | | Whereas my favorite female character doesn't understand women and tends to think in a linear, problem solving fashion. But then again, its a result of her unique upbringing. Because she's the narrator she does a lot of her talking things out in the narration, and then excersizes her action options in the story with descisiveness. Plus she's rebelling against a mother who isn't there.
Even so she doesn't solve things the way a man would, she only solves them they way a woman trying to solve things like a man would. It gets her into trouble, and out of it. Usually at the same time.
In her first published adventure she encounters a Damsel in Distress and it sort of pisses her off, even though it works out to Her advantage. In a later adventure she's become a role model for a women's movement in another dimension, which has its own problems. If the story ran less than thirty K I might have placed it all ready.
The point is that readers expect all characters to at least try to solve their own problems, even captive princesses and orphaned daughters. You don't have to turn the damsel into something she's not, Rapunzel need not turn into Bradamante to gain the audiences sympathy, but she can't just sit in the tower and mope while combing out her hair, she has to act.
Mike
Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Dutchman Rescue"in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm
"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises:
www.fantasistent.com/books/anthologies/BASH.php
"Stains" in Tales of the Talisman 3-1 www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/index.html
"Morning Coffee" in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/morning-coffee-by-michael-d-turner/
"The Jewel Below" in Flashing Swords
flashingswords.sfreader.com/issues/issue8/vol2-iss8-05.htm
"Happy Landings" in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/happy-landings-by-michael-d-turner/
"Teller of Tales" in Every day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/teller-of-tales-by-michael-d-turner/
Read "Silver Shells" In Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/silver-shells-by-michael-d-turner/ | | Back to Top | | |
|
Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary
Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1729
| Posted 3/18/2008 5:33 PM (GMT -5) | | Yeah. We wants em bootiful!
Angela Lansbury was no prize as a woman, but she seemed to carry off Murder, She Wrote fairly well.
I think it's more a fact that a female has to be - well, like a male hero - remarkable in some way. Physically as well as mentally, skillfully, etc. I'm sorry, but Olivia on SVU is not a pretty woman. But she's as great a female character as I've seen in TV dramas. Look at what's-her-name in The Closer. Not a prize (I've always thought her mouth too pinched and her eyes too squinted and dark). Yes, these are exceptions. Take the brainiac on Bones. She's hot. Funny, it seems to be the crime dramas that give us some of the best female heroes. I don't watch the SciFi channel, so I don't know what's going on there. Can't think of a similar herroine in anything SFF as far as movies and such.
LOL. I'm still in love with Barbie Benton from the original Deathstalker! Okay . . . Grace Jones in C the B. Ugly woman, but she could kick butt!
Read me soon in The Return of the Sword!
Blog: http://bitterhermit.wordpress.com
Buy wine: http://fringemonkey.org
Poetry Blog: http://fringemonkey.wordpress.com | | Back to Top | | |
|
darkbow
Rabbit lord
Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1696
| Posted 3/18/2008 5:56 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
|
crystalwizard
Forum Moderator
Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 5002
| Posted 3/18/2008 8:24 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
| | |