Content Warning: This section includes a quote that uses stigmatized language to refer to disability.

Aside from the narrator, who almost seems like a character herself, Francie is the primary main character in “How to Become a Writer.” She is a dynamic character serving multiple roles in this story. She acts as the main protagonist in the story but can also be seen as a stand-in for the narrator, who tells the story of Francie in second person as if she were speaking to her. In second person, the narrator is also speaking to the reader, and in this story, Francie can also be seen as a story version of the reader who is reading “How to Become a Writer,” to indeed, become a writer.

The engine of the story is entirely driven by Francie’s relationship with writing, and how this connection to her writing hinders her relationships with the humans in her life, like her mother, roommate, and boyfriend.

From the very first paragraph, Francie is shown to be someone who looks to others for affirmation about her writing. When she does not receive this affirmation, she resents the world’s dismissal of her. An early example of this is shown when, as a child, she breaks a glass while washing dishes in retaliation after her mother dismisses her writing.