Tag Archives: Heroines

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Character Traits for Heroines


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I’m tweaking this week’s prompt a little bit so I can take a meta approach to the topic. Heroines come in all shapes and sizes, of course, but the reader’s expectations of how she should behave probably wouldn’t be the same in the historical romance genre as in a contemporary horror novel or a cozy mystery set on a lunar space station 500 years in the future.

With that being said, here are some character traits I love to see in heroines across many different genres and settings.

 

Black and white photo of a white woman wearing a black one-piece bathing suit. She’s crouching on a barren rock that’s surrounded by water and placing a black flag on the rock. The waves around her are gentle, and it appears to be a nice day outside although the sky is not visible. 1. Healthy Boundaries

Here in North America, girls and women tend to be socialized to be peacemakers and endlessly accommodating to other people’s needs and wishes.  This can encourage some of us to have trouble setting and recognizing appropriate boundaries, so I love seeing examples of characters who can both set boundaries and respect other people’s limits, too.

2. Meaningful Flaws 

No one is perfect. I like it when heroines have flaws that make a meaningful difference to the plot and to their daily lives. That is to say, I prefer realistic protagonists who procrastinate too much, or who have a bad temper, or who give too much unsolicited advice (or what have you) over ones whose biggest problem is that they’re a clumsy dancer but are otherwise pretty perfect.

3. Common Sense and Street Smarts

I  prefer heroines who remain aware of their surroundings and take reasonable precautions before rushing into an unknown situation. It’s one thing to be caught off guard after doing everything right but quite another for a heroine (or a hero) to ignore multiple red flags for the sake of plot development.

 

4. Frugal 

As much fun as it can be to read about characters with limitless budgets, I find it easier to relate to the ones who know that they only have so much money to last until the end of the month. There’s something comforting about seeing characters juggle bills and figure out how to afford what they need when the plot requires it.

 

5. Calm and Quiet

This is not to say I expect characters to behave this way all of the time, only that I think we need more characters who have easygoing personalities and aren’t the life of the party. Think of all of the interesting things that happen in the corners of a room and out of the attention range of the loudest and flashiest partygoers. There are so many folks hanging out quietly on the perimeter who are worth getting to know, and I’d love to have more stories about their lives.

 

 

60 Comments

Filed under Blog Hops

My Favourite Scifi Heroines

This month I’m participating in the Scifi Month challenge that was created by the bloggers at One More. Click on the link in that last sentence for more information or to sign up yourself.

There is still time to pick a few of their prompts and join in if you’re interested.

Today’s prompt was pretty self explanatory: kickass heroines. Here are a few of my many favourite heroines from various science fiction universes.  It was tricky to keep this post to a manageable length. I could have easily written a full post about every single character on this list.

Not everything on this list has been turned into a TV show or film yet. (Here’s looking at you, Feed and Wild Seed.) Whenever possible, I provided a photo of the character in question, but there are a few book covers as well.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in the film poster for The Hunger Games. She is shooting an arrow straight ahead of her at whoever is looking at the poster.  

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. 

Why She’s Admirable: She volunteered to take her sister’s place in The Hunger Games despite knowing that only one of the twenty four contestants will survive each year. There were many other things she did in this series that make me look up to her, but her willingness to die in her sibling’s place in the beginning of book one endeared her to me forever.

Book cover for Feed by Mira Grant. Image on it is of an Internet signal painted in blood (or red paint) on a concrete wall.

Georgia Mason from Feed by Mira Grant 

Why She’s Admirable: Going out to wander around in a world filled with zombies is the last thing I’d do in a zombiepocalypse. The fact that this character did that so regularly impressed me. Her work as a blogger only made me look up to her more.

Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhugra from Star Trek: Into Darkness

Nyota Uhura from Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness

Why She’s Admirable: While I can find something to like about nearly any character from the rebooted Star Trek universe, Uhura is the cream of the crop. She was a highly intelligent linguist. More importantly, she had common sense. This is something that every spaceship crew member needs a copious amount of in order to have any hope of survival.

Gina Torres as Zoe Washburne from Firefly. She's standing by a chair in this photo.

Zoe Washburne from Firefly 

Why She’s Admirable: Nothing stands between her and her goals in life. From fighting for freedom in a war that couldn’t be won to falling in love to making a new life for herself over and over again, Zoe knows how to get back up and try again.

Dana Scully from The X-Files 

Why She’s Admirable: She never stopped searching for scientific explanations for the bizarre things that she and her partner discovered during their many investigations. There’s something to be said for being that tenacious!

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler book cover. Image on cover is of woman holding a glowing root.

Anyanwu from Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

Why She’s Admirable: What’s not to admire about a demigod who used her powers to make the lives of ordinary people better? Not only that, but she did so quietly and behind the scenes without expecting any sort of reward for it. This was a very different approach to having powers than certain other characters in this universe had, and it made me appreciate how careful she was about using her abilities.

21 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy