The Urban Fantasy genre seems to have brought about a ton of Bad Girl heroines – but I’m here to tell you that the true bad girls aren’t limited to that genre. To any genre.
I want to talk about what I think makes a kick ass bad girl. It’s more than giving her magical powers, a sword or a gun, and some tattooes. For me, as an author and as a reader, talking the talk isn’t enough. The character needs to walk the walk. In other words, the character development must be there so that when the actions follow the talk, I believe it’s true to the character, and not just a scene put into make her look like a bad girl, or a bad ass.
I like to write Bad Girls occasionally, admittidly my bad girls tend to be more wild and wicked than kick ass shoot-em up…but there are some things I think that are needed no matter if you want a kick ass bad girl, or a shoot em up bad girl.
This next part of the post is pulled from a workshop author Vivi Anna and I did a couple years ago on Bad Girl Heroines Done Right. (and let me tell you, Vivi Anna’s HELL KAT is a bad girl heroine done right!)
It all starts at the beginning of the story. How the author introduces the heroine to the reader is a big deal. The readers don’t need to love her right away, but they do need to be intrigued – to be interested. So I say get their interest with action. Bad Girl action.
In my novella Sex As A Weapon the reader meets Vanessa (the BG heroine) in the first chapter, when she’s tying up a man, and robbing his safe. The scene itself is intriguing, and it shows how she does what she does. The very next scene explains why she does what she does. It has her speaking on the phone to her friend and, her thoughts show her true vulnerability. She does what she does because her friend asked it of her. Because she basically has no family, and her friend took her off the streets when she was a teenager, and gave her a solid career. So Vanessa feels loyalty, and obligation.
Readers don’t have to like what the BG does, but they need to understand why she does it. She doesn’t always have to be doing it for good reasons either. Money, stability, a tendency toward violence – those are reasons. Say your heroine is a CIA operative specializing in wet work. An assassin. Maybe she does it because she needs an outlet for the anger inside her. Killing bad guys gives her that outlet. But then you need to give her a history to explain why she has such killing anger.
A Bad Girl Heroine can be anyone from an assassin to a girl who loves to party and break all the rules. It’s up to the author to create her, and give her a reason for being the way she is. As long as there is a reason, and the author can covey it to the reader, the Bad Girl Heroine will kick ass.
My Formula for a bad girl. (Any genre)
1. Intelligence ~ Bag Girls are smart. There is no way around it. They might not be schooled, or book smart, but they are smart. You will not have a “too stupid to live” bad girl heroine. This heroine has brains and she uses them. You can show it in actions, or in witty and sharp dialogue, or a wicked combination. But your BG Heroine is always intelligent!
2. Attitude ~ She has to have attitude. It can be confidence, or cockiness that is used to cover up her own insecurities, but there has to be attitude. The Key to keeping her likeable, even with the attitude, is a friend, or family member, or even a pet who she talks to, where she loses the attitude. There has to be someone/something that sees and knows her as she is so the readers can do so.
3. Desire ~ She has to have a burning desire or goal. Something she goes after, and is willing to kick ass for. It could be a Home of her own, money, a job, or revenge of some sort. (And you need to give a valid reason for this desire)
4. Heart ~ She has her reasons for doing what she does and being who she is. The biggest thing to remember is you need to show the reader those reasons – and they have to be valid. She’s not a likable bad girl if she’s a car thief just because she enjoys it. Why does she steal? Why Cars? You need to give the reader a reason to cheer for her.
5. Skills ~ Bad Girls have skills. They are intelligent and inventive. The skills can be anything from fighting skills, to lock-picking or hotwiring cars. Believe it or not, lying successfully can be a skill, as can reading people. (Not supernaturally, but just reading faces and body language). She needs skills, and it’s second nature to use them to get what she wants
Now, to be clear, I’m not saying that any character who has these qualities is automatically a Bad Girl, but that in order to create a real Bad Girl, she has to have these qualities. Being smart or independent doesn’t make a bad girl, but real bad girl is smart and often independent.
Look at Sydney Bristow of ALIAS. She was kick ass, tough and smart, but IMO she wasn’t a Bad Girl Heroine. She didn’t have the attitude for a bad girl. She didn’t own it enough. Then there’s Mira Sorvino’s Meg Colburn in THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS. She’s a forger who just wants to be alone and do the job she’s paid to do, until trouble comes knocking on her door, and she can’t walk away. She shoots, fights, and swears, and despite her good heart shining though, she’s still a kick ass Bad Girl.
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Bad Girls I love.
Mercy Thompson – Tattooed mechanic Tough, smart, and independent, this walker takes a beating, and keeps on going. The Mercy Thompson stories are paranormal/urban fantasy, but they’ve been around for a while, and I’ve yet to find a magical BG who matches this character.
Cat Dupree – Sharon Salas heroine from Nine Lives, CutThroat, and Bad Penny.
Eve Dallas – Sure she’s a cop, but that is a true Bad Girl heroine. She’s tough, smart, and she kicks ass!
Julie Collins – Lori G Armstrong has created a real Bad Girl with her secretary turned PI Julie Collins. She smokes, she drinks, she fucks, and she cares about people.
Zoe- Gina Torres in Firefly and Serenity is a true Bad Girl. An ex soldier who is now an outlaw with a heart of gold. She curses and shoots’em up. But she’s smart, and loyal to those she loves.
Who’s your favorite Bad Girl Heroine?
