![]() ![]() She pushes on the plot more than the plot pushes on her. This character has motivations all her own. “Character agency is, to me, a demonstration of the character’s ability to make decisions and affect the story. Or as Chuck Wendig explains about character agency: (as always with Chuck’s work, language at that link) In contrast, proactive/active characters make the story what it is. In other words, passive and reactive characters-those without agency-go with the flow, make no decisions, and don’t affect the story because they’re always one step behind. Characters with agency create the sense that they’re responsible for the story in some way.Characters without agency are author props.How much are they “allowed” by the plot or story to make decisions and/or take actions that matter? To understand what we mean when we talk about whether a character is proactive, consider whether or not they have agency. Once we understand that, we can look at how we can fix a protagonist who isn’t doing enough in our story. ![]() ![]() Let’s first look at what it means for a character to be proactive and why it’s so important for our protagonist. Should characters cause their own problems? Is the plot not allowed to happen to them? That advice especially applies to our protagonist.īut new writers often struggle with what that idea means: As I’ve mentioned before, agents and editors often talk about how characters need to be active (or proactive) rather than reactive or passive. ![]()
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