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How to Introduce a Female Protagonist in a Novel

Novels are about people facing obstacles, and when your main character is female, you face different challenges than writing about a male character. When your protagonist in your novel is a female, you have to make certain choices about how to introduce her to the reader. The reader’s first glimpse of a female protagonist is especially important for setting the psychological stage for the rest of the novel.

Instructions

    • 1

      Decide when you’re going to introduce your female protagonist. This is usually done early, but in a novel, you sometimes have a prologue and can delay the appearance of your protagonist.

    • 2

      Begin writing your novel. At the point you want to introduce your female protagonist, make sure the reader knows the character’s name. This can be done through dialogue or third-person descriptive narrative.

    • 3

      Describe the setting with enough detail so that the reader can visualize the location of the female protagonist. Female protagonists are expected to be more aware and in tune with the nature of their surroundings. But because this is usually early in the novel, though, you should not over-describe the setting as it will slow the story down.

    • 4

      Depict a few physical attributes of your female protagonist. These attributes should set your character apart from others and lend themselves to a female identity, especially because readers expect female characters to have a definite attitude about the state of her physical body. Also describe the clothing of your character, which is more relevant for a female character.

    • 5

      Place your female protagonist in a social context that the reader can understand. For example, females usually identify themselves by their social connections, much more so than male characters.

    • 6

      Give your female protagonist appropriate reactions to the obstacles she faces. Remember to place an obstacle in the character’s path right away. This creates tension, and it allows the reader to understand the character better by seeing how she reacts under pressure. With female characters, the obstacle can more often than not be a social obstacle.

    • 7

      Portray your female character with a distinctive voice by having her speak her first few words with a unique style, either by word choice, dialect, sentence length or use of expletives.

Fiction

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