The Woman in the Story Read online

  Heroine healers come from a noble lineage of persecuted women. For several hundred years witches were burnt at the stake for offering alternative remedies that the establishment saw as subversive. The natural healthcare that is big business today ironically has its roots in intolerance and fear.

  Your heroine can’t heal half-heartedly. It’s a job that requires total dedication or her patient will suffer. Sometimes healers ease the transition to death. Hannah in The English Patient nurses her badly burned patient in a bombed Italian ruin so that he won’t suffer the pain of the army trucks bouncing along the mine-infested Italian roads. Juliette, the grieving mother, in I’ve Loved You So Long is a Nurturer and a Believer when she takes her sick son’s life. She then needs the healing love of her devoted sister Lea to help her out of her numb depression.

  Very often Believers’ actions are a consequence of their own wounds. Your heroine’s loss of everything meaningful to her can either result in disillusion or believing. If she believes, it’s because she wants to spare others the misery or pain she has endured. She might throw herself into healing as a way of binding her own wounds. Lily in The Secret Life of Bees is a Dependant — a Child and a Victim — who feels acute pain for killing her mother by accident. She is healed by the sorority of the Boatwright sisters, where August Boatwright becomes a mother figure to her. Even honey is symbolic in the film as a form of herbal medicine.

  Food, although an obvious form of nurture, has a strong healing capacity for some Believer Heroines. Babette in Babette’s Feast heals a barren and cold community using her sumptuous dishes. In The Holiday, Iris puts all her energy into improving an old man’s life. Seeing his lonely half-finished meal on a tray in his sitting room, Iris invites Arthur to a restaurant. Before you know it, she’s healing his loneliness and frailty by throwing dinner parties, organizing exercise regimes, and offering friendship. In return Arthur is healing Iris’s low self-esteem. Healing can often be a reciprocal process.

  Your heroine might briefly stop to heal another during the course of her story. It could be a symbolic gesture of help to another that represents a change in your heroine or foreshadows a greater turning point to come.

  Amazon

  Believer Heroines who fight for the causes of equality and liberty as heroines are Amazons. These women are all about taking a stand for their cause, even if the cause is to live life as women on their own terms. Making this type of Believer role choice usually indicates your heroine is angry about some kind of injustice or oppression. She could take a stand for herself or on behalf of others, such as her family, other women, or another vulnerable group. Amazons tend to be galvanizers who want social change and are prepared to fight for it. Usually family commitments are second to her priority of protesting. Women wouldn’t have the vote if some women hadn’t abandoned their family lives to fight for suffrage. If there’s one adjective to describe an Amazonian Heroine it is “empowered.”

  Outsider Amazons

  Sometimes Amazons have to be Outsider Heroines as well because the world isn’t willing to accept their vision. They can be artists, writers, teachers, or creatives of all kinds. Dian Fossey stood up for gorillas’ rights and ended up being killed in Gorillas in the Mist. Many Amazons are acutely aware of injustice against women, such as Virginia Woolf in The Hours, another Amazon for whom it all became too much. Erin in Freedom Writers empowers at-risk high school kids to raise their expectations beyond a life of gang culture by writing their own stories. Katherine Ann tries to motivate her female students to be far more than 1950s housewives in Mona Lisa Smile.

  Driven Amazons

  Sometimes contemporary Amazons are compensating for an inadequacy they perceived in their family. This might motivate them to become almost invincible, as they go from success to success in the outside world. This can lead them to being unable to express vulnerability or become overstressed as they have too many balls in the air. But remember the high-achieving man who is driven tends not to be judged on his inability to be vulnerable. He is generally admired and his endeavors in the world praised, despite the toll. “They have taken too much on” tends to be used about women more than men. Watch out your film doesn’t collude with these unconscious and sexist expectations of women to fall apart if they are too driven in the work place. Let them succeed and do what they have to do.

  Your heroine with Amazonian tendencies might also be under pressure from her family to do and give less to others. A true Amazon will bring into her relationship all her values and will be alert to her own collusion with double standards. Carrie Bradshaw has a dash of the Amazon by writing her column and exposing the sexual hypocrisy in Manhattan.

  Unwitting Amazons

  A heroine can become an Amazon by chance. Her eyes can slowly be opened to injustice by being plunged into an oppressive situation. In 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Otilia has no choice but to help her Dependant friend Gabi through an illegal abortion during a long, harrowing night in which she becomes a lone Amazon as she faces up to a dangerous side of being a woman. In Volver, heroine Raimunda’s quest is similar, as she has to hide the body of her abusive husband. Her daughter sees new sides to her mother as a fearless and determined protector. In Monster, Aileen is a tragically misguided Amazon as she pathologically murders men for their sexual transgressions. Every woman has something of the Amazon in her, whether she knows it or not. Give your heroine her Amazonian gifts with pride!

  Gorgons

  A stereotypical opposite of the Amazon is the Gorgon. She’s a parody of the strong woman and is characterized as nagging wives, brutal schoolmistresses like Miss Trunchball in Matilda, and psychopaths like Annie Wilkes in Misery. These women are loners and they get a perverse pleasure out of making their victims suffer.

  Lover

  If your heroine is devoted to her love, it makes her a very special kind of Believer. Love will motivate her to make sacrifices, withstand long absences, or even permanently give up her family. Love is a healer, catalyst, and revolution all in one. It can burn and soothe. It will permanently change your heroine’s life, even if it has to end. If a heroine loves, it tends to be the engine driving her entire story.

  Tragic Lovers

  Love for your heroine is tragic when it is doomed, destructive, or dark. If doomed, you might be interested in the obstacles that threaten and ultimately destroy love. These can be external, the stuff of eternal classics like Brief Encounter, The English Patient, and Cold Mountain. Alternatively, it can be the internal and self-destructive sides of a heroine that jeopardize her chance of love. She might be too needy, jealous, insecure, or too controlling, manipulative, and dangerous. No woman really wants to hear “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” but often a heroine’s difficult behavior can often incur such lack of sentiment. In Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Dorothy Parker’s inner demons externally manifest as clinginess, dependency, and self-pity, which lead her to play the victim or repel men in equal measure.

  The kinds of heroines that permanently drive men away are rare creatures. It goes against a prevalent need in our stories to see the heroine come to her senses before she blows it big time. We also like patient heroes, who can offer the undeserving heroine unconditional love. Carrie and Big’s ongoing dramas in Sex and the City edge around this issue, but in the end the writers make both characters equally responsible. But we still follow Carrie’s journey as she works out what she has done. I predict a renaissance in stories in which heroines don’t want redemption, don’t want reunion, and want to get the hell out. It seems the philosophically minded French are the ones who don’t seem to mind their heroines losing it totally. In Leaving, the heroine’s joyous passion for her lover leads her on an unrepentant path of giving everything up: rich husband, kids, and job. It all has to go. Similarly, in Villa Amalia, betrayed Suzanne gives up every aspect of her life she shared with her cheating but repentant long-term partner.

  Sometimes an Amazon heroine falls passionately in love with her male Believe
r counterpart. Their idealism is their primary connection. Together they can change the world! Louise Bryant and John Reed in Reds, and Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera in Frida, are of this mode. This kind of love is electric and creative but not particularly stable or family orientated. These couples are a potent force for change, and if they are disillusioned in the other, it’s because they think the other is selling out. Infidelity can be borne, so long as their loved one still has their ideals in place.

  Darkly loving heroines should be fun to write, and there’s not enough of them; deeply sexual women who love on their terms. Lee Holloway in Secretary must have given a twist to “first act climax” to the writer. Again it’s the French who seem to be setting the standard in sexually exploratory heroines, particularly in the films of Catherine Breillat. If you want to give your heroine a strong interest in her sex life, in a way that doesn’t objectify, demean, or romanticize her, there are some useful rules of thumb.

  Number 1: the missionary position is not great for clitoral stimulation.

  Number 2: so much of sex is about talking, touching, and emotion.

  Number 3: the heroine lying back with a blissful expression is just lazy screenwriting

  We still need to see more realistic versions of female desire, including touching and passionate sex scenes from the heroine’s point of view. As Nora Ephron showed in When Harry Met Sally, faking orgasms is something a woman will do to make her man feel good. Sex doesn’t have to be graphic. In Julie and Julia, Nora Ephron manages to convey a steamy sexuality in her main characters’ relationships by linking their pleasure for good food with impulsive love making! As a writer (particularly if you are a female writer) write sex how you want to see it. And don’t fake it!

  Rival

  Your heroine might set herself up as a Rival to someone else in your story. She might consciously pitch herself against another to prove herself. The role choice of Rival is a galvanizing decision for your heroine, or one that can fuel or reveal her deepest insecurities. Being rivalrous is part of being human and all starts in the family. We are all rivalrous for love, for attention, and to fulfill the needs of our egos. We want to belong, win, and crave recognition for our brilliant selves! For women it is more complex. Much female rivalry originates from many centuries of women being a social minority valued for youth, fertility, and beauty. When it comes to writing your heroine, pay attention to how you develop her as a Rival.

  Acceptable clichés abound in stories in which your heroine is a Rival, particularly in comedies. A woman can be as competitive as any man, but it’s not seen as such a desirable quality in women. Stories can reveal a monumental sexual double standard here. Men go to war, destroy each other’s gangs, and these are glorified. Women have Bride Wars and trouble with their Monster-in-Law. These films are like battle of the estrogen queens, who finally redeem themselves by seeing the error of their ways at the end. Yawn! The Devil Wears Prada explored rivalry between Emily and Andrea with much more comic complexity. Let it set the standard for your comic female-rivalry writing.

  The cat fight is the old familiar scenario of two women at each other’s throats (metaphorically or otherwise) for the love of the same man. This could be a hangover from the past where marrying well was the best achievement in a woman’s life. Having low status equals low self-esteem. Low self-esteem can lead to total indignity, which is often self-imposed. Some women, it’s true, would prefer to blame another woman for stealing her man rather than blame the cheat in the first place, like Elle in Legally Blonde who believes another woman stole her man rather than face up to the fact that he has dumped her. These women would prefer to beg a man to stay with her even if he’s treating her terribly. If it really is your burning goal to have two women pitted against each other in your story, ask yourself how can I do this in a way that brings something new, is psychologically complex, and isn’t too demeaning?

  Sibling Rivalry

  Your heroine might be consumed by rivalrous feelings for her sister. Older sisters frequently resent their younger sisters for having it easier, and younger sisters can resent their big sisters for being able to do more in general. In Her Shoes follows a dysfunctional relationship between sisters whose mother committed suicide. A Ma Soeur! is a warning to all jealous sisters to be careful about what you wish for; if sisterly rivalry interests you then rent it for its shocking denouement. If sibling rivalry is in her backstory, unresolved emotions might play out the way your heroine relates to other women.

  Maternal Rivalry

  Some mothers can resent their daughters on a deep level. It can be complex because, on the one hand, a mother can identify and almost live through her daughter’s experiences, but, on the other hand, her daughter is younger and might have more opportunities than she did. Some mothers are simply threatened by all other women, and that includes their own daughters. Maternal rivalry can make your heroine feel guilty or inadequate, sometimes without really knowing why.

  Battle of the Sexes

  If your heroine is pitted against a guy or a group of guys in your story, you are letting her join a noble tradition of heroines who battle for equal rights. In G. I. Jane, Jordan wants to take on the soldier boys and do it as well if not better.

  Tips for Writing the Believer Role Choice

  We Are What We Think

  When your heroine’s ideals and how she sees the world undergo a transformation, the chances are her outer appearance will as well. She will literally become another person. If it’s due to love, she might glow and feel and look better. If she’s obsessed, she could start losing a grip on her identity.

  Sex Scenes

  Overt sex scenes are currently out of fashion in mainstream movies, but try to write a sex scene from your heroine’s POV. What does she want, feel, and do? How does she express her desires? It’s good to know as an exercise in characterization, anyway. Just in case they do come back in fashion!

  The Believer Role Choice in Close-Up

  Vicky Cristina Barcelona

  Vicky and Cristina sit down with Vicky’s husband Greg and discuss the threesome relationship Cristina had. Greg is totally shocked, clearly thinking it’s unsavoury and unconventional. But Vicky relates to it completely differently, now that she’s had the experience of spontaneous passion. Where she was totally judgmental before her own secret one-night stand, she is now open-minded. She isn’t at all sure about her values anymore, as her own sense of impending doom about her life as Greg’s wife grows.

  This scene nicely demonstrates how direct experience of another kind of love has fundamentally changed Vicky’s worldview. Her marriage is still viable, but for how long? What kind of Believer is she now?

  THE ROLE CHOICE OF CARYATID

  A caryatid is a type of column, in the form of a woman, found in the temples of Ancient Greece. It’s a good term for heroines who are the institution builders of their worlds — women who support and maintain the status quo. These heroines like order and functionality. You see the Caryatid in your heroine when she’s eagerly trying to prove herself on the job by being a loyal wife, running her own business, and generally doing her bit for the establishment.

  When she’s in this mind-set, your heroine is really the opposite of the role choice of Believer in that she doesn’t crave upheaval and transformation. She wants solid foundations and tradition, with the quiet conviction that it’s just the right approach. She’s a safe pair of hands. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t fight to conserve or preserve, but her fights will be through established and legal means if necessary.

  Contemporary heroines rarely have Caryatid as a dominant role choice in their identity. The Caryatid in a heroine’s story is often a supporting character, or even an antagonist. But as a momentary role choice it can give your heroine real backbone when she needs it most. The role choices of Caryatid are Wife, Boss, and Community Pillar.

  Wife

  The role choice of Wife is one of the most powerfully enduring roles for women. Marriage is an institution
that most women don’t want to reject, judging by the large numbers of women who get married. Although feminist thought has heavily criticized marriage as an institution, many women today feel they can be married and be equal. Marriage is sacred, special, and the ultimate form of commitment.

  The Wife role choice can symbolize a woman’s official role in the marriage, which requires a woman to stick to her legal vows and play a part in the fabric of society. In this respect, becoming a wife for your heroine is entering a Caryatid institution, even if she is more of an Amazon at heart. Therefore some heroines’ stories revolve around getting out of a marriage gone wrong, or leaving a marriage that she was forced into or that oppresses her somehow. Your heroine might be thought of as a “bad wife” blamed for the relationship breakdown. If she’s a Believer like an Amazon, she might be forced into having Caryatid values and can’t pull it off. This is a fateful situation. Or she’s a Dependant at heart, someone who has a childlike need to be looked after, and who unconsciously relates to her spouse as if he’s an overcontrolling parent.

  A happily married Amazon heroine will have made a pledge of commitment entirely based on love and devotion. She’s a Believer after all. You can be sure that she will be the first to moan about aspects of being married that seriously get on her nerves. And you can be even more certain that her husband will be the first to hear about it!