Creating Great Female Characters

Of all the memorable female characters in stories, it seems the ones that are the most dramatic would be most likely candidates.  I feel that that is only partly true.  While it used to be that most women in books and films were rarely characters of action, much less warriors, times have changed.  No longer is the damsel in distress very popular.  In her place is often a daredevil, active, female lead, who is more than capable of protecting herself.  A great example of this kind of character is Commander Lin Mae portrayed by actress Jing Tian in the action film The Great Wall.  She is a powerful warrior and leader and has no shortage of death deifying moments in this highly action-packed flick.

Contrast this to the other side of the spectrum.  In the historical western fiction Escape to Exile, by author B. N. Rundell we are introduced to a young woman named Persis. When she is kidnapped, late in the climax of the story the lead male character rushed to her rescue. After he catches up with her captor, he drops his gun and the two engage in a knife fight. Even though his gun is just lying there, Persis simply watches the entire fight without even trying to help by shooting the bad guy. The hero is nearly killed and is about to be stabbed until suddenly his sidekick friend arrives and shoots the enemy saving his life. While I thought both of these characters were not terrible by any means, they could have been far better. Persis did have some good qualities but was completely helpless. Lin Mae was certainly a better character than Persis in my opinion but still had some issues. For one she was almost always far too clean looking with well-groomed hair, despite the fact that she was fighting intense battles throughout the film. She also deified the rule of cool way too many times.  

It is easy to sway too far one way with women in fiction. Either they are a damsel in distress or invincible amazon. To make a really good character, sometimes we need to meet somewhere in the middle. Looking into a more all-around realistic approach is key to success in any character development. This can be incredibly difficult, but something that can help is by looking into real historical heroines rather than going to the flashy, annoying, 21st century Mary Sue. Every character male or female needs to be someone with balance. It usually is not a wise idea to have a woman in fiction behave differently than a real living person would.