THE HEROINES BEHIND THE HEROINES

by Helen Hollick, with Anna Belfrage and Alison Morton

March is Women's History Month...

Anna Belfrage

Alison Morton

Author Anna Belfrage, during a recent online conversation, mentioned a thought about the real heroines behind the fictional heroines, another friend, Alison Morton had a joined the debate. I wondered if heroes should also be included, but March is Women’s History Month, so let’s stick to the ladies here. (We can spotlight the men another time to balance the books. Is that a bit of a pun?) In this instance, Anna was referring to the writer as the heroine - the author, the person tapping away at a keyboard or scribbling with a pen on paper (remember those?)

Anna and Helen at HNS Denver 2014

The fictional heroine usually goes through hell and back in a story, or at least some sort of trauma or disaster or romantic upheaval, or complication or… well, you get the picture. But what about the writer who is creating that character, that scene, that story? Is it a case of sitting down at a desk from 9-5 Monday to Friday, bashing out a few thousand words a day, Other Half supplying a cup of tea/coffee/wine/gin on the hour every hour? Those several thousand words flowing freely, the plot flashing along, scene after scene with no wavering? Novel finished well before the deadline date, a dutiful re-write, check for the occasional missed blooper, then off to the editor for a quick once-over?

Oh I wish!

The only bit of the above that is mildly true for me personally is the tea/coffee appearing a couple of times a day in between countless re-runs of Westerns on the TV which my husband watches with avid fascination, apparently completely unaware that he watched the same John Wayne/Jimmy Stewart et al movie the day before.

Meanwhile, I struggle during the dark, miserable, drizzly days of winter. Even the effort to get out of bed some dank, dark mornings is hard work for those of us who suffer from S.A.D. (Seasonal Affected Disorder – basically a desire to hibernate during winter.) To be creative, to find the words to write when I can’t even remember the cat’s name (I am not joking!) is hard work.

Then there is the research, particularly for historical fiction writers who need to know the facts of a period or event before they can even start writing chapter one. All genres need a certain amount of research, even fantasy and science fiction – possibly even more so, because to make the unbelievable believable the facts have to be correct, otherwise all the believability goes out the window.

For writers, meeting our new characters – male or female – is not always a walk in the park, although for me, I did meet my pirate hero, JesamiahAcorne, on a drizzly-day Dorset beach. Long story cut short: I was walking on the beach thinking up ideas for Sea Witch. Looked up and saw a vision of Jesamiah. Might have been my imagination, might have been a spirit from the past – no matter, I saw him. In full pirate regalia. And immediately fell in love.

Alison says hers have been swishing around in her head for decades ever since she trod on a Roman mosaic floor at age eleven. Firmly gripped by the Romans, she started wondering what the world would have been like if a tiny part of Rome had survived… The result is her thriller series, Roma Nova

As for Anna, she blames it all on her husband. It was all because of his family history, which involved fleeing Scotland in 1624 due to religious persecution. She started reading up on the 17^th century and fell in love. (Why the 17^th century? A declaration of love.) One day, Matthew Graham stepped out of her murky imagination and demanded she tell his story, which she has done, over several books in the Graham Saga..

Our characters get under our skin, into our hearts, minds, lives and very being. When it is time to finish the book, or a series – oh, the heartache of saying goodbye and letting them go! To create believable characters, to bring them alive, to make them look, feel, behave, sound real, to do real (even if they are impossibly over-the-top real) things takes dedication, skill, determination and courage.

Yes. Courage.

Writing can be a hard taskmaster. We slog away in our studies, corner of a room, spare-bedroom or wherever trying to get a paragraph – a sentence – right. We edit, re-edit and edit again and again. We spend hours writing a scene, then delete it because it isn’t good enough. I have deleted entire chapters. We wake up with our characters, walk, live, play, think of, go to bed with them (no not that sort of ‘go to bed’!) They are there with us 24/7 because if these fictional people are real to us, then they will become as real to our readers. In theory.

I am not being sexist here, but I do think women writers have a tougher time of it than do the men. Admitted I am talking in general, but many women writers already have a full-time job plus the responsibility of bringing up children and organising the family, at least this was so thirty years ago when I gave up the ‘hobby’ of scribbling my ideas and got on with attempting to do it properly with the end goal of being published in mind. Usually (OK not always) it is the woman who gets the kids off to school, does the housework, the shopping, the laundry,  goes to her own job, collects the kids from school, cooks the dinner, gets the kids to bed… We grab coffee breaks or the bliss of a quiet hour in the evening to get that next paragraph written. I’m not saying that the blokes in between work and chores also have to snatch those golden moments where they can sit and write, but I’d wager that many an established male writer wanders off to his study in the morning, saunters out at lunchtime, strolls back to his desk to emerge around six-ish to watch TV. Lunch, dinner, clean shirts and a tidy house happening via the Magic House Fairy. (Come on chaps - tell me I'm wrong!) 

At least, now, women writers can create our stories under our own name. How many of our great female writers from the past had to invent a male pseudonym to be heard let alone published? I think the term ‘heroine’ definitely applies to these brave and determined ladies of the past.

So why do we do it? Why do we spend hours doing this darn silly job of writing fiction? It’s not for the money that’s for sure. Very few writers outside the top-listers make enough to equal a suitable annual wage. So why?

Ever heard the answer to a question put to Sir Edmund Hilary when he had successfully climbed Everest in 1953? “Why did you want to climb it?”

His answer? “Because it’s there.”

Well, for us, for fiction authors, we write our words because they are not there…

(Which is why I wrote Sea Witch - I couldn't find the book I wanted to read, so I wrote it myself.)

(IndieBRAG Honoree)

The Three Musketeers um, 'Authoreers'?

So who is your favourite, or respected, or even most disliked, female writer of historical fiction? Do you agree with some of what I’ve said above – or disagree? Voice your views below  and you could win a giveaway prize! Read on...

Order Alison's latest novel published April 2017

Alison Morton has written an excellent post on Seasonal Affected Disorder and how it effects writers in particular. Then Click here to go to her blog to read why she felt it was important that the main characters in her Roma Nova series of thrillers lived an egalitarian society.

Order Anna latest novel published April 2017

And go to Anna’s Blog to meet Alex and Kit – her female heroines.

 Helen Hollick  www.helenhollick.net

Alison Morton go to her blog post
she says: 'To celebrate Women's History Month, and to show you what we actually produce, I'm giving away a signed paperback copy of my latest book, INSURRECTIO, featuring the ever brave (and ever fallible) Aurelia Mitela as she tries to battle the rising tide of a populist demagogue. Of course, the struggle is always personal as well as political.'

Buying link for Alison’s latest book INSURRECTIO (multiple retailers/formats)

or for all her books on Amazon

Anna Belfrage go to her blog post

To buy the books:
Amazon

The Graham Saga

The King’s Greatest Enemy

Giveaway CLOSED
the winner of one of my books was
Roland Clarke