Anyone here excited for NaNoWriMo?

So for my first planned novella for this, I'm writing a story called Tales of Formerly London. For the more interested, I've included a short blurb below:

London never saw another dawn-break.

Its last foggy eve was in June 1866, during the reign of the Traitorous Queen, when the Sun disappeared underneath the white cliffs of Dover for the last time.

The last kerosene lamp snuffed out two hours after midnight. By the third hour, London belonged to the bats.
In moonless night, men’s hearts hide darker secrets still, and it was only after the last light from the world had left the city did its true darkness emerge, a darkness much deeper than mere shadow.

For decades the tales of Formerly London have been kept hidden by the darkness -- most have been lost to the abyss, forgotten, others have ascended to legend. And then there are those secrets. Secrets so powerful that they break free, secrets that need to be told.

This is one of them.

This is the first tale that precedes the Schism, a tale that resonates with mice-mongers and eldritch kind and every walk of life. A tale of hope, bravery and one person who remembered who he was. Live in the darkness long enough and soon you'll forget how to walk in the light.

This is the tale of Formerly London that belongs to the boy known as Glenn Eyre, and it will hide in the darkness no longer. This is how he restored London.

The story depicts Christian morals and characters in a pagan pseudo-London setting, complete with a cameo by the detective of Baker Street himself, along with talking sewer rats, a calcified Lord Nelson and Cthulhu.

However, a very important theme in Tales of Formerly London: The Last Light is its depiction of women. There are several strong female characters in there that break the mould of what Victorian women were supposed to be (the Sewer Rat is a girl?!) , but the story does contain its fair share of helpless damsels in distress. A very important one is actually the love interest for the main character, a princess with daddy issues, who is portrayed as an extremely vulnerable and weak-minded doormat. Her fragility is the direct consequence of a family nucleus torn apart by her mother's political treachery and devil-deals, as well as her father's guilt-fuelled alcoholism, but that doesn't change the fact that she could be quite the unloved type of literary woman in this day and age, with heroines like Merilda and Katniss Everdeen. There are some scenes in the story where Glenn Eyre spends a lot of time fixing her mistakes, protecting her, and all round preparing her for the role of ruler. She does develop to become more confident, but at the end of the story she still is a character who doesn't feel right without someone bossing her around, and retains some submissive qualities.

My question is this: what are the Christians' perspective on the subject of damsels in distress? Is it wrong to include it in, especially when one of the characters who does the rescuing is supposedly a disciple of Jesus? Is it okay to portray women in a helpless position provided there are men who require intervention as well? Is Princess Elizabeth a character that should be scrapped and reworked?

It would seem you think Christianity teaches the equality of the sexes...

In addition to what Sam was saying, overall I find nothing wrong with it, and so I don't think the character should be scrapped. Just as long as she isn't absolutely pathetic and still has an interesting personality/a bit of confidence so that she isn't a one-dimensional character, I think it's fine and sounds like an interesting read.

I do not believe it would ever be unbiblical to portray someone as practically anything, because the reality is, there are people who are practically everything. There are wimpy, damsel-in-distress girls. So you can portray them. The only problem you get is whether to portray certain things as good or not.

Personally, I know girls like this. I have a really hard time taking them seriously and often find their.... lack of backbone ridiculous, but there are women who are this way.

Here would be my suggestion. The one thing that irritates me most is not the damsel in distress (I don't have an issue with that, actually), it is the damsel in distress who is useless and has not the self respect to try to escape.

Now, if you have a damsel who doesn't have much ingenuity, or doesn't have the mental prowess to figure things out and make plans, that's okay. Some women legitimately aren't good at these things. That's not annoying. What is annoying is when they are complacent and become pathetic. They should be trying to figure things out. Even if they can't, don't show the damsel as being apathetic. Don't show her as being naive enough to believe she doesn't have to do anything, the hero will come, and he’ll come before anything bad happens to her. Because often, the hero can't. At least in real life. And the bad guy will do something bad to you.

And please, no fainting. I am not fond of fainting, unless it is for a medical reason (like overheating). It is those types of things that makes the damsel in distress most people dislike. The fact that she is captured and can't get away is nothing to look down upon.

I'm not sure that made any sense, but I'm going to post anyways.

Exactly. * nods at Airianna's post *