A Hero Story for Women

A female actor interviewed in THE NEW YORKER made some comments I found interesting. She said that “we” have not yet evolved a hero story that’s female. She said we tend to fit women’s stories into male structures: rising action, powerful conflict, falling action, which to me is the standard arc of most adventure stories.

Perhaps she’s right. My first novel, A FALSE DAWN, certainly fits the structure this actor describes: if it is indeed a male structure, I definitely followed it. In my own defense, I avoided doing what so many screenwriters do with women now: drape them in superhero costumes and let them kick butt, or give them guns and let the women-heroes shoot their enemies.

Of course, novelists should work to different (if not higher) standards than screenwriters, if they’re trying to tell interesting and timely stories with women as the heroes. I can think of a few books where that traditional, “male” structure works well for female heroes. Perhaps my favorite example is Ayla in CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR.

I do like keeping this actor’s words in mind, however. Why not look for other structures, perhaps more “female” structures, for our women heroes in fiction? I’m sure many novelists have already found such structures. I think I did a better job of this in my sequel to A FALSE DAWN, SUNRISING, which I have not published yet.

First reads among my informal “editorial” board indicate that these readers are indeed happier with the sequel than they were with the first book, so I’m encouraged. Were these early reader happy with SUNRISING because I found a more “female” structure for my hero, Louise? I don’t know.

But I am looking forward to the response I get from readers once this book is published.