The Woman In The Story

By Helen Jacey

The Woman In The Story by Helen Jacey
But this is not a quick wash and brush-up of the female myth, although those elements are present, rather Jacey explores female characters from several perspectives taking into changes and attitudes in sociology, in psychology, in education and in economics - not just from the female point of view, but from the point of view of people towards women.

The book starts by discussing different types of femininity to establish different types of heroine and then moves swiftly into what Jacey calls the Memorability Factor, or M-Factor for short, where you start to build up traits to create a memorable female character. We then go on to cover female role types from Heroine to Nurturer, Dependant to Believer and so on and here there is some interesting talk about 'acceptable stereotypes' which was a revelation to me as we're normally told to avoid stereotypes like the plague, but it was at this point that I began to realise that the inter-relationships between female characters and other characters are far more complex than I had previously imagined, mother to son, wife to husband, sister to brother, to lover, to friend, to rival and so on and in domestic situations these relationships can occur simultaneously.

There is some work around building theme and finding the core of the story which is not a great deal different from any character analysis you might go through in your writing - although the female perspective can add some layers - and then we are into my favourite sections "A Phase She's Going Through" and "Women In Trouble" that discuss the female psyche in some depth, from girl, to young woman to adult and so on, really bringing up issues around social mores, sexuality, cultural influence, puberty and much more and discussing the various types of conflict - both internal and external - that these things engender; it was so good to read that it actually opened my eyes to the behaviour I see every day watching my daughter grow up, fascinating stuff and rich in writerly detail. We follow this with a good chapter about love and relationships and then there is some work on genre and how to choose the right one while avoiding predictability and finally a brief exploration of unsung heroines and we wrap up with a breakdown of Juno.

All in all this is a fascinating and extremely in-depth book that will make you think differently about women and certainly improve your writing of female characters. Of course each chapter ends with an exercise to help you get to grips with the topic you have just covered and interestingly, as a man, I found a couple of these quite difficult as they require you to step a fair way outside you comfort zone and think like a woman - but that's the whole purpose of The Woman In The Story and if you follow through, you can't help but be a better writer because of it.

The Woman in the Story: Writing Memorable Female Characters is published by Michael Wiese Books and is available fromAmazon, Blackwell and all good book stores.

Helen Jacey's website is here.

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