A problematic heroine

[Caged Maiden]

Why does he have so much contact with her? Why can't he have locked her away and someone else is the person she interacts with mostly, an old woman servant or priest or something. Maybe that's what keeps her strong, faith she can be saved.

I think if he's abusing her daily, it might be a little over the top. Especially if you are writing several beat-her-up scenes. One or two will have a greater impact, and if they don't have constant contact, it will help a reader sympathize with her when she sees him coming.

It's really hard, and I do want to help, but it's details you are looking for when I don't even know the skeleton of the story. I can help with the sort of details like, "What kind of (insert item, garment, food, etc.) would she have had access to? What might the church have done if (insert incident here)? What kinds of laws would have been broken if (insert incident here)?

But as for how they're relationship develops... it's hard to help with that if we don't know what led up to it. I can only give sort of stock answers, like faith keeps her strong, she lies and tries to escape.... that sort of thing, and I think you probably want a better answer than that.

 

[Phin Scardaw]

Having such a character as my heroine, and trying to make her at once realistic and likable, is going to be tough. It would be unheard of for a woman of that time period to stand up to her husband for any reason, let alone abuse of any sort. I want her to be a strong character, but that's tricky when she's constantly being beaten down and stripped of all self-esteem; having her rely on Vincent's influence to gain her inner strength seems like a not-so-appropriate message. So what can I do?

I think that a strong female character in such adverse conditions makes for a compelling character. There's no reason why Diana can't derive her strength from herself, or from some other positive personage from her past. I do think that she would need some source of positive affirmation at some point in her history to be strong - even if her strength is malformed and lopsided by abuse she might later suffer. A happy childhood does a lot for someone's integrity.

Also, I really like to see in period books and films how clever and cunning women in times past could be, and how they would manipulate the men around them, who always thought they were the real ones lording over everything. A woman's arts are subtle and often irresistible. In my life I have known several strong women and they have always amazed me with their wit and keen insight. Men are very stupid about a lot of things, Medieval men doubly so. Your character might have to spend a lot of time pondering and scheming over how she can achieve her ends, and this is fun because then you get to know her so much better as a writer, and relate the pertinent parts of her nature to your readers. Also, the things that she receives as gratification might be compelling as well. What if she enjoys the abuse sometimes because she knows that she can provoke her man in just the right way, and so feels she has control. A superiority complex. Not very healthy, but a really fun place for a character to begin her story.

Good luck!

 

[Ireth]

I think if he's abusing her daily, it might be a little over the top. Especially if you are writing several beat-her-up scenes. One or two will have a greater impact, and if they don't have constant contact, it will help a reader sympathize with her when she sees him coming.

I don't think the physical abuse would be there so much as the emotional abuse -- calling her dehumanizing names, playing at being the nice guy only to snarl at her moments later, that kind of thing. Though on second thought, that might not be the best way for Martin to go about things, no matter how badly he thinks he needs Diana.

I'm kinda thinking of Frollo and Quasimodo, or maybe Rapunzel and Mother Gothel, especially the Disney versions of both. Both were abusive to their adopted children under the guise of love and protection; they both manipulated their charges into never leaving their respective towers, claiming that "the world is dark and cruel". It wouldn't be exactly the same for Diana, since her imprisonment starts later in life and not from infancy, but it's the same basic idea.

It's really hard, and I do want to help, but it's details you are looking for when I don't even know the skeleton of the story. I can help with the sort of details like, "What kind of (insert item, garment, food, etc.) would she have had access to? What might the church have done if (insert incident here)? What kinds of laws would have been broken if (insert incident here)?

But as for how they're relationship develops... it's hard to help with that if we don't know what led up to it. I can only give sort of stock answers, like faith keeps her strong, she lies and tries to escape.... that sort of thing, and I think you probably want a better answer than that.

Well, I can give you a very basic skeleton of the story, but I'm still trying to work out the more intricate plot details myself, like the main characters' exact backgrounds. All I know is that Diana and Vincent are laypeople, and Martin is a clergyman or some other authoritative person. :/ I'll just give you an outline in point form, it's easier to read.

- Diana and Martin grow up together, become friends, eventually court and get engaged
- Diana is attacked and bitten by a rogue werewolf; said werewolf is killed, and Diana is tended to
- Diana realizes what she is and hides it from Martin, who soon finds out anyway and breaks off their engagement, locking her in the belltower of the Leeds Parish Church (details of why and how still being worked out)
- Martin is obsessed with finding where the werewolves are hiding; he thinks Diana can tell him where their lair is, but she can't
- Diana sneaks down from the tower to attend church one day and is spotted by Vincent, who follows her up to her tower when she leaves
- Vincent and Diana try to overcome the linguistic barrier between them. Vincent realizes that Diana is a werewolf who knows nothing about the other werewolves
- Vincent meets Diana in secret over the next several months, and their relationship blossoms as they learn how to communicate. Vincent teaches Diana some self-defense in case Martin ever tries to hurt her
- Martin hears Vincent singing in church and talks with him; he soon falls in lust with Vincent
- Martin finds out that Vincent is a mage, and has him burned at the stake for "witchcraft" (or heresy, possibly)
- Diana escapes the tower and saves Vincent, bringing him back to the church for safety
- Martin follows Diana to the church and tries to kill her; Diana fights back and kills him instead
- Vincent recovers from almost being killed, and he and Diana marry and live happily ever after

That's pretty much the basic gist of it. I'm debating involving a subplot with a conflicting love interest for Vincent (not too sure about it yet), and I need to work out various things about werewolves and mages which will no doubt come into play and shape the story. But those are issues for other threads.

 

[Ireth]

I think that a strong female character in such adverse conditions makes for a compelling character. There's no reason why Diana can't derive her strength from herself, or from some other positive personage from her past. I do think that she would need some source of positive affirmation at some point in her history to be strong - even if her strength is malformed and lopsided by abuse she might later suffer. A happy childhood does a lot for someone's integrity.

That's a very good point; I think something like that would help her a lot.

Your character might have to spend a lot of time pondering and scheming over how she can achieve her ends, and this is fun because then you get to know her so much better as a writer, and relate the pertinent parts of her nature to your readers.

Oh, definitely. That's going to be loads of fun. Feminine wiles for the win. XDDD

Also, the things that she receives as gratification might be compelling as well. What if she enjoys the abuse sometimes because she knows that she can provoke her man in just the right way, and so feels she has control. A superiority complex. Not very healthy, but a really fun place for a character to begin her story.

I'm not too sure I want to turn her into a masochist to any degree. :/

 

[Amanita]

The fact that your heroine is living in a male-dominated societed shouldn't pose a problem in and of itself. Most fantasy authors go this path after all. Some people, including myself, aren't overly fond of this, but the majority seems to prefer it.
Other things do seem problematic, not because they would offend me, but from a storytelling point of view. Abuse scenes can be highly impressive but for this, they have to be done well and they should have an impact such as torture for important information or a situation that actually makes the character change something if this is possible.

A character suffering through abuse doesn't make a plot on its own, it should be part of the plot and have a meaning there. Suffering poured over suffering with no hope of escape doesn't make for a very intriguing read.
I've only seen it in fanfic, it can surely be done better, but in these cases, I doubt the stories would interest anyone besides people who like to read about a pretty main character being abused by an attractive male. That's surely not what your going for I assume.
As others have suggested, limiting the number of abuse scenes and have other events as well would surely help with this. Given that your writing in an alternative world with werevoles and other magical beings, it wouldn't be impossible to think of a way for ther to escape even if she wouldn't have had it in real life, but if you don't want to go there, it's your choice.

Suffering female characters being saved by a male love interest have been a staple of literature for a long time and have been popular enough. Therefore you shouldn't have too much trouble finding readers because of this. Political correctness geared towards women is much weaker than against for example other ethnic groups anyway. Depicting women as weak (if that's what your doing, I don't know) should give you much less trouble than doing the same with say, black people. I don't approve of this as you might be able to read betwee the lines, but that doesn't mean I'd think badly about an author writing something like that. I wouldn't necessarily buy that book in question, however. Wouldn't take me from taking a look at other ones, especially given the fact that you obviously don't mean to make a statement about women being weak and helpless.

 

[Ireth]

Well, I definitely didn't set out to write a woman-abused-by-man story; I just had these characters in my head and needed a story to plunk them down into, and an adaptation sounded like fun. I chose Diana for the bellringer role because of her deafness, since the original Quasimodo was also deaf (though his was a result of close proximity with huge tolling bells on a daily basis, not genetics). Diana isn't deformed or anything like Quasimodo, but she sees herself as an inhuman monster because of the abuse Martin has been drilling into her. Vincent is the one with scars across his face, though he doesn't really see himself as ugly because of it. It's like, "life is tough, I've been in fights but am still alive, so it's good."