Heroine gets political...writer balks

We all know I had trouble with Chapter 7, as I blabbed (that is, blogged) about it. Chapter 8 (a short one) virtually wrote itself. Chapter 9, in which my heroine must address a political meeting to which "the ladies" have been grudgingly invited, is proving a daunting task. Obviously another case of the schizophrenic writer spending too much time in a character's head. I may as well be standing in front of two hundred men struggling to raise my voice!

Although I focus on the early Victorian period, my heroines are not spoiled little rich girls: pampered artistocrats or darlings of the gentry. They are middle class women forced by circumstance to make their own way in the world. Mary Charlton nearly missed out on love because she feared relinguishing her hard-won independence. My latest heroine, Rhian McAllister, tirelessly champions the cause of temperance (teetotalism) in an attempt to atone for her deceased husband's excesses. Both women embrace philanthropic issues because they themselves feel disadvantaged – firstly, as women. They are decades' away from thinking of their own rights. However, they are more than willing to fight for the rights of others: children, the working man, the poor, prostitutes.

Female philanthropists brought about vast change in the Victorian period: socially, politically and psychologically. My main character is proving to be a true heroine. I just hope I do her justice.