How to Introduce a Male Protagonist in a Novel
Novels are about people facing obstacles. Your main character is your protagonist. When you write a novel, you have to introduce your main character early. When your main character is a male, you have to make certain choices about how to introduce him to the reader. The reader’s first glimpse of a male protagonist sets the stage for the rest of the novel.
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Instructions
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Decide when you’re going to introduce your male protagonist. This is usually done early, but in a novel, you sometimes have a prologue and can delay the appearance of your protagonist.
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Begin writing your novel. At the point you want to introduce your male protagonist, make sure the reader knows the character’s name. This can be done through dialogue or third-person descriptive narrative.
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Describe the setting with enough detail so that the reader can visualize the location of the male protagonist. Because this is usually early in the novel, though, you should not over-describe the setting, as that will slow the story down.
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Depict a few physical attributes of your male protagonist. These attributes should set your character apart from others and lend themselves to a male identity. Also describe the clothing of your character. If he’s in a snowstorm, the thickness of his coat might be an important detail.
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Place your male protagonist in a social context that the reader can understand. For example, males usually identify themselves with their occupation, much more so than female characters.
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Give your male protagonist appropriate reactions to the obstacles he 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 he reacts under pressure.
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Portray your male character with a distinctive voice by having him speak his first few words with a unique style, either by word choice, dialect, sentence length or use of expletives.
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Tips & Warnings
Continue on right away with the storyline after introducing your male protagonist. Delays in the storyline cause readers to lose interest.
Give your male protagonist a memorable name. Sometimes the name can be a commentary on his manliness, such as Max Steel.
Sometimes you can create such a manly character, that all of the female characters in the book will fall in love with him.
