[Nurumaiel]

There are lots of issues we could discuss, but I am especially interested in the question of what makes a female character "strong" (or for that matter a male character).

Child, Remember Corsairs and Corsets? In another thread (actually about warrior females, I believe) you came up with the idea of making an all-female RPG, but the characters would not be warriors. All the characters were so astoundingly different and each one became 'strong' ('cept the villains, of course; they lost power) without ever picking up a sword. My own character, Adrama, in example. When the game began she was very bitter because she had loved Denethor and she had lost him; she was rather spoiled, she was a bit immature, vain, etc... by the end of the game she had lost her bitterness because she had found herself a good husband who she loved more, she had grown mature through helping the poor good lass who was the sister and daughter of the two villains, and so on. I learned a lot from that RPG.

I do like to make my female character more of stereotypes... not in the sense that they're the same boring old characters that have been played thousands and thousands of times over, but they have the traditional roles. The two main female characters in my current works are Mérali, the sweetheart of the soldier lad who is the main character, and Érsin, a sixteen-year-old girl who came to the village in which the main characters live after leaving the life of the wandering people with her grandmother. Both the latter character and her grandmother wanted a life in a little cottage, sewing and knitting and cleaning house rather than wandering about through dangers.

They had practically no role when I first began to write the story, but just last night they chose one for themselves, causing the book to switch often between what they're doing at home and what the lads are doing on the mainland where the war is being fought. Chirfan, the main character, sets sail for the mainland to fight, taking with him two eleven-year-old boys, Tilaran and Haran (they haven't yet told me how they happened to go to a war at such a young age; all I know is that they do). The two boys leave behind their ten-year-old friend Geran, who naturally is rather lonely without them. Mérali becomes like an older sister to Geran, occupying his time with all sorts of little adventures in the village. Mérali also comes to be in charge of a school for young girls to teach them in studies of things such as history, mathematics, etc. but also in studies of faith. Érsin assists her in that. Later that school develops into a school for boys as well, as the boys have no other teacher; all the men teachers in the village have gone off to fight. And of course Mérali struggles as a teacher!

I begin to see things I didn't see before... Mérali is a warrior on her own little battlefield. She does not fight with a sword and shield, but she does fight. All characters do in the best books. They're all warriors of a sense.

The idea that 'strength' in a character means being a warrior is rather absurd, if you consider. St. Joan of Arc was strong, one must admit. She was a real official warrior. St. Thérèse the Little Flower, however, was a different type of warrior. She was the youngest in a family of five girls, grew up in a very sheltered way, became a Carmelite nun in her teens and died of tuberculosis in her twenties. Her life was extremely simple and 'little.' She did nothing grand and glorious as St. Joan of Arc, but still she was strong. She did the little things that are often so much harder to do than the big things. In example she never grew annoyed with those who spoke sharply to her, but rather treated them with more patience and kindness than anyone else. All things she did she did well, regardless of whether she succeeded or not. She was simple, but strong. She said herself, "I am not a warrior who fought with earthly arms but with 'the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God.'"

Therefore, dwelling on this, a writer should make all their female characters be warriors... yet these warriors do not need to fight with 'earthly arms' to be strong.