*glances in mirror*

This week has been fun, hasn’t it? I’ve really been enjoying this series, as I’m sure you all can tell. It’s really a joy to talk about characters, especially while I’m playing around with some new novel ideas.

So.

This week we’ve talked about the Dainty Girl and the Balanced Woman, two characters who define realism in writing, but today we’re going to talk about a character who I’ve really only ever seen in a few stories, and one who I wish would pop up more often, cause she’s a lot of fun to write.

The Real Woman (who everyone still seems to want)

Remember last week, I talked about the Vanilla Girl (who everyone still seems to want)? Well, this is her opposite, or perhaps, who she should really be.

And who is she, you ask?

Well, the Real Woman (who everyone still seems to want) is just that. See, the vanilla girl is plain. She’s the plainest of them all, to the point that she doesn’t even make sense because even she can’t see anything remarkable in herself. Boring. The real woman isn’t like that. Sure, she might be a little plain, but she has some redeeming quality.

Take Eliza, from Pride and Prejudice. She’s described I don’t know how many times as being plain, but she has a few things going for her (like her fine eyes, and wit), and she knows it. 

That, my friends, is how a lot of women are.

I don’t know why, but a good portion of us consider ourselves plain, even though we aren’t, but we do consider one or two of our features as being remarkable. Me, when I was younger, I always thought I was the plainest girl of them all, but that my eyes were stunning. I had a friend who thought she couldn’t get any plainer, but that her bum was quite lovely. Another said she had nice legs, but that was it. We just do that, for some reason, and that’s what the Real Woman is.

At that point…

Why should we read her?

What’s her main purpose in life?

What is her draw, for the reader?

Personally, I believe that we should read her, and that we should write her, so women understand that they’re not the only ones who do this. I believe readers enjoy her because they relate to her, because we’ve all been there, where someone has called us boring to look at, but we remind ourselves of the thing we have going for us.

Her purpose is to shed light on that, on the reality of things around her, on the reality of her self-image. And that, I think, is her draw. That’s what the world has been talking about lately, when it comes to women and their image of themselves.

So why not write her, why not read her, and remind ourselves that we might not be as plain as we think?

Next week, my friends, we discuss some male characters. I’m looking forward to it!

[love]

{Rani Divine}