Creating a Female Hero Readers Will Never Forget

Lessons from 25 Years of Writing Women’s Fiction

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

What makes a female hero unforgettable? It’s a question I’ve been answering, one story at a time, for more than twenty-five years as a romance and women’s fiction author publishing as both Lara Rios and Julia Amante. Across my novels, I’ve written about women navigating heartbreak, cultural identity, second chances, and the weight of family expectations — and I’ve watched these fictional women not just survive, but triumph.

To me, they are not just characters in a book, but living, breathing people. No, I don’t suffer from delusions, but we must see our story people as clearly as we see our friends and neighbors. My female heroes are, in fact, larger than life; they are braver, more powerful, more vibrant than most of us flesh-and-blood women. They are heroic because my goal is to make them unforgettable.

Why female heroes matter now more than ever

I would argue that we need more heroes, period, because we live in a world that lacks people of true character that we can look up to. But I’m focusing on women for this post. Often, we can find those remarkable people in books. People who risk it all. They face challenge after challenge and still push ahead. They admit when they’re…