How to Introduce a Female Protagonist in a Short Story

Short stories, like novels, are about people facing obstacles. But characters in a short story typically only face one main obstacle because of the length. Space in a short story is much more limited than in a novel. Introduce your main character early, and when your protagonist is female, remember to introduce her in a way that establishes her identity in relation to the society in which she lives.

Instructions

Introduce Her

1. Begin writing your short story. Introduce your female protagonist early in the story, typically the first sentence or paragraph.

2. Describe the setting with enough detail so that the reader can visualize the location of the female protagonist. Because of the limited length of a short story, do not over-describe the setting as it will slow the reader down.

3. Depict one physical attribute of your female protagonist that sets your character apart from others and lends itself to a female identity. In a novel, you could describe several attributes, but in a short story, keep it to one attribute.

4. Describe the clothing of your character. If she’s in her home, her choice of clothing will indicate how comfortable she is in her own house.

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

6. Give your female protagonist an appropriate reaction to the obstacle 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.

7. Portray your female character with a distinctive personality voice by having her react in a unique way to the obstacle, either by speaking or thinking his first few words with a unique style of word choice, dialect, sentence length or use of expletives.

Tips & Warnings

• Continue on right away with the storyline after introducing your female protagonist. Delays in the storyline cause readers to lose interest, and now that you’ve successfully introduced your character, keep the story going.

• Give your female protagonist a memorable name. Sometimes the name can be a commentary on his manliness, such as Lotta Love.

• Sometimes you can create such an attractive character, all of the male characters in the book will fall in love with her.