Passive Character
It's hard for readers to engage with a passive character, especially in the protagonist role. Here's why.
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Transcript for Passive Character Video
Hello, this is Mary Kole with Good Story Company. And today, I am talking to you about passive character. This is something that I run into every single day in my editorial practice and one of my favorite things to talk about. So strap yourselves in, it's going to be a good video, if I don't say so myself.
Okay, so passive character is a big, big flaw that we point out all the time because your protagonist, sort of, has to earn their keep as the protagonist. And what that means is they have to have enough going on in the story where they not only have stakes in conflict invested in the events of the story, so the story has a way of acting upon them. But sometimes, that's where a lot of writers, sort of, end. The story acts upon the character, the character is forced into a reactive position, and that's it. They're just a crash test dummy in the back seat of your plot, and they don't really necessarily drive the story forward.
Now, that is a second and more crucial component than having a story that acts on your character is a character that acts on your story. If you look at the root for protagonist, it is pro, it is forward, it is action, it is proactive, and so that should tell you a little bit of how I see the role of the main character, which is that they also drive the story forward. As much as the story acts upon them, and a good story should, they act on the story as well, which means they have a strong goal, they have an objective, they have motivation, a reason for wanting that goal, and then they move as much as they are able toward that goal over the course of the story. No matter what obstacles fall into their path, they are sort of on their own forward push toward whatever they want. It has to be significant to them. There have to be stakes involved if they don't get it. It has to, sort of, have something at risk for them personally, if they're not able to achieve their goal, and it's just this constant movement forward, even if they're not really able to act.
So I have writers who ask me, "Well, my character is locked in a dungeon for half of the story. They literally cannot act. Stuff just falls on them, into their laps. Stuff happens to them. They can't be proactive." Well, I would much rather read a story, even if somebody was locked in the dungeon for half the story, they are scheming, they are scratching at the wall, they are bargaining with other prisoners to see if they can marshal up an uprising. They are doing stuff, even if they lack the ability to actually carry out their plans at the moment, they are always focused singularly on bringing about some kind of change to their situation.
The most injurious type of character for a story, I would say, is the one that just, sort of, sits back, accepts whatever falls on them, and they either complain. That is probably a character type that I wouldn't want to spend five or six hours of my reading time with. They either complain or they just roll over and become a doormat for the story.
Again, inevitable in certain moments in your story, your plot is going to roll over your character hard if it's doing its job as a plot. We want to make things difficult for our character, but that idea of the forward progress, even if it's just mental or emotional at that moment, is going to be really important to keeping your character going and your story going, and keeping your reader invested. Because if the character gives up on their own story and themselves, it's very easy for the reader to give up on them as well, and give up on that relationship that you've been cultivating between the character and the reader.
And so I would say, yes, you are less able to create a proactive character in instances where it's middle grade and they have to go track down a bad guy, but their parents just grounded them. You know, you are gonna have roadblocks that are necessary to the logic of the story, that come from the story, that come from the plot, that come from your character circumstances, but this idea that they never stop pushing necessarily, whether they're able to push plot-wise physically, in action, or they're just pushing mentally, they're scheming, they're making plans, they're being proactive, I would much rather read that character and that story, especially if you have a character who's disenfranchised, who's unable to act. I run across this in middle grade all the time, where there's a big tension between what the character needs to do, what they're actually able to do. But the character's attitude plays a huge role in whether or not they'll be perceived by the reader as proactive or passive.
So I would say this is something that could really hinder your...not only your progress in the story, in the manuscript, but could hinder your odds with an agent or a publisher because we are looking for big characters who are able to carry a story, who have enough energy and push and passion and involvement in their own story, to really be dynamic, especially for those young readers, who are really gonna rally around your character, who are really gonna wanna form a relationship with that character. So I would say if you've ever gotten a note that you have a passive character, this is something to really dig into and find a way, in every scene, for your character to either make mental and emotional tracks toward their goal or make physical tracks toward their goal, no matter what obstacles. Remember, when the character is driving forward and an obstacle falls into their way, that is so engaging. If obstacle after obstacle falls and they just roll over, readers may lose their attachment to the character.
So this is something that I constantly, constantly stay on top of my editorial clients with. In fact, I run a small group workshop called Story Mastermind, and we are talking about this yesterday. We had a middle grade character in one of the projects where a lot of the things that this character is involved with are other people's conflict. We have conflict with the parents. We have conflict with the sibling. We have conflict between, kind of, friends of theirs. And my big question with that project is well, does the character have enough conflict of their own. Are they going to be able to carry this plot? Otherwise, why aren't we following one of the characters or the sets of characters with the more overt conflict, the involvement, the stakes, that have a little bit more going on as it relates to the story? Did we pick the right main character to follow if this character is mostly just, sort of, like reacting to all of this other drama that's happening outside of the character? Does that character have enough skin in the game to really be the protagonist for this story?
Now, we haven't made a decision on that front yet, but it's always an interesting question to ask because if the character that you've chosen to follow doesn't necessarily have the legs to carry the story, maybe there's another character that's experiencing the most conflict, the most potential for emotional change, maybe they're your main character instead. Whoever is the most proactive character in your story, that's who I would say is your protagonist. After all, they share the same root.
So this has been Mary Kole with Good Story Company. And here's to a good proactive story.
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