A bit of a follow along, if you want.
Making Your Own Fantasy Hero
A few posts back, I mentioned how I had been trying to concoct a fantasy character based on my life.
I figured if she was fantasy anyway, she could be everything I would ever dream of being. I started by listing out all of the hobbies and skills my favorite female characters seem to have, or any other notable trait.
Reader, She’s Making More Lists
The large mess of words stressed me out, so I sorted my list into categories. I think you could skip this step if you wanted, but it made it easier for me to make sense of it all. Your categories might be different from mine based on the kinds of characters that inspired you.
Step One: Categories
I came up with the following: transportation, survival, defense, charm, self-care, and craft. Some are more self-explanatory than others, so let me elaborate.
Transportation includes the things they primarily do to get from point A to point B. Survival includes skills that keep them alive in nature, while defense includes skills that keep them alive from intentional threats. Charm includes the skills they have that help them navigate society, whether to impress, seduce, or entertain. Self-care includes the things they seem to do for themselves, little indulgences. Craft includes the skills they seem to develop for themselves to help them get by somehow.
Transportation: hiking, walking, horseback riding, sailing
Survival: fishing/hunting, camping, swimming, plant/animal identification, cooking, navigation
Defense: swords, knives, archery, running, mindfulness/meditation
Charm: dancing, card games, instruments, culture, history, politics
Self-Care: reading, personal style, beauty
Craft: art, magic
Thoughts & Reflections
After writing this out, I realized something. I didn’t want to just write about a character doing all this cool stuff, I wanted to be the character doing the cool stuff.
Initially, I felt like it simply wasn’t possible. Between working a full time job, social obligations, and one day a future family, I’d never have the time to do these things.
This led me down a rabbit hole of realizations, which I’ll save for another post, but I did come to one conclusion. The average life is pretty long, and now I will never get bored. Now I have a whole long list of things to try, skills to learn, and goals to reach.
I could spend my whole life becoming this person.
The list just needed a little tweaking, a little modernizing to make it more practical.
Step Two: Additions
If you wanted to make this more of a bucket list, I think you could add in the modern things that these ladies (or whoever) would do if it existed in their fantasy worlds. This is also a good time to consider the habits of urban fantasy heroines.
I am not going to do that because I already have a more comprehensive bucket list, but I’ll give some examples.
Remember, we aren’t necessarily writing everything a fantasy character could or would do. We’re writing what the dream character you’d base off yourself would do.
Transportation
I would add an electric bicycle, personally, because I like the blend of nature with modern efficiency. I could see fantasy characters on super bikes/motorcycles and race cars, or flying planes.
Survival
For sure some of these girls would be van-lifers. Everything they need, right there and ready to go.
Defense
I think the obvious answer here is an LTC; whether or not they agree with it as a concept, they would for sure be able to use the same weapons the bad guys have. Perhaps a less obvious answer is yoga. Yoga helps the nervous system, balance, strength, flexibility- all things that would be so useful in combat.
Charm
When I think of charm, I immediately think of blending, of social masking. These ladies can fit into high society or into questionable company. For dodgy dive bars, I think karaoke. For high society, I think a solid knowledge of food & wine.
Craft
As far as magic, I can’t do the kind of magic in fantasy novels (at least not yet, never say never) but I can do what feels a bit like magic. Things that feel like magic to me are tarot, astrology, archetype work, herbalism, aromatherapy, visualization, etc.
I think you could add any sort of craft here, too, like leather-work, woodworking, stained glass, etc. Anything creative. I could even imagine some urban fantasy heroine being a hacker type of girl.
And we can’t forget the authors who love the instant pregnancy trope; homemaking and motherhood is certainly an option.
Step Three: Rearranging
Now, to make it practical. I think everything on my list could be integrated into my life somehow, but with a little rearranging.
I’m not fighting to save the world so my priorities and needs are a bit different. At the end of the day, my goal is to live a full, balanced, and interesting life.
Making It Make Sense
Regularly
Exercise: walking
Habits: read the news, daily history facts
Hobbies: reading, piano, cooking, personal style, art
Self-Care: mindfulness, dancing, beauty
Spirituality: meditation, new age practices
Occasionally
Socializing: card games
Vacation Ideas: horseback riding, hiking to beautiful scenery, places with pools, glamping, travel to new locations, kayaking, deep sea fishing trip
Do/Learn It Once & I’m Good To Go
Accomplishments: run a road race
Survival Skills: fishing, animal tracking, plant/animal identification, navigation
Party Tricks: throwing knives, fencing, archery
Thoughts & Explanations
You, Reader, might put dancing under socializing- perhaps you want to go to weekly dance nights at a local center. I would rather have late night dance parties alone in my house. It’s like free therapy; it’s relaxing, it helps me get in tune with my body, and it makes me happy. The end result is the same- we both check dancing off our list.
Maybe you want to pick up horseback riding as a hobby. I already know how to ride and I know that I don’t have the money to own a horse, but riding on vacations as a special treat would satisfy the urge.
Cooking could be self-care for you; learning how to cook delicious and nutritious meals at home. I love to cook and have fun doing it, so for me it’s more of a hobby.
I know myself and I know that camping is highly unlikely to become a favorite pastime, but I still want the feeling of sleeping under the stars. Compromise: glamping! Similarly, I can’t imagine any future in which I regularly go hunting, but I do like how hunters are able to track animals; I think that’s cool.
I think the point of all of this, for me, was to make my life a little more magical. Romanticize it, if you will. It’s totally possible for me to live like the characters I cherish. I can have that fantasy life, too, but with the added benefit of not having to be queen or fight magical bad guys.
Anything that you dream about, thinking how cool it would be- I promise you that with some creative thinking, there is a way to make it a reality.
Conclusion
With that, Reader, I will leave you with one final piece of advice. If you’re ever out somewhere and you see a piece of art that you immediately love, buy it. I know this has absolutely nothing to do with what I wrote about today. It’s just that one time, almost a decade ago, I was in this little small town art gallery, and there was this abstract print of a fat tabby cat.
I haven’t stopped thinking about this freaking cat. I should have bought it. At the time, I was like “well, where am I going to put it? I don’t need it, I can just appreciate it for what it is.” Wrong. So wrong. Should have bought the fat cat. I have spent hours over YEARS trying to track down the artist to see if I could still get the print.
So, Reader, don’t be like me. Buy the fat cat.