In novels sometimes friendships between female characters are either over-simplified or over-dramatized. One author who always strikes the right balance and makes me grateful for the precious friends in my life is Nora Roberts. It’s obvious she has amazing girlfriends and she knows how to translate those varied and beautiful personalities to the page.
While her recent Bride Quartet might be the most obvious choice, Roberts writes quirky, supportive, and compassionate girlfriends into nearly all of her novels. After all, female heroines on arduous thriller or romantic journeys need the support of good friends.
It rings true on the page, because it’s a universal truth that we all needs friends.
Friendships have dramatic moments. Friendships have boring, quiet moments. Female heroines and their friends have both too (although any boring moments are hopefully glossed over in fiction). Female heroines don’t always have the fast answer or the right solution. That’s why we keep reading, to see how they grow and overcome their challenges.
In reality as well as fiction, good friends lift up one another whether the moment is dramatic or quiet or somewhere in between.
This weekend I enjoyed a wonderful visit from a girlfriend I don’t see often enough, but it makes our time together all the more special. We had big plans, which were interrupted by several unexpected challenges. I’d like to say the challenges were novel-worthy but sometimes reality is waaay too unbelievable for fiction.
Such was our weekend.
We used liberal amounts of wine and snark and humor to overcome emergency calls about the dog under the house (literally), my sudden crying jag while shopping for a new Christmas tree, and an education in light fixture repair. (despite the alcohol, I learned a new skill!)
What’s your favorite girlfriend moment (real life or fiction)?
Live the adventure!
