The Pitfalls of Passive Protagonists
Oct 09, 2010 
As some of you know, last year I attended an absolutely phenomenal workshop, the Odyssey Writing Workshop up in New Hampshire. I had no idea when I applied just how great it would be, though. In all honesty? I went thinking to myself, “Well, I already know how to write. But this will be great for making connections and learning about the publishing world.”
That delusion lasted approximately twelve minutes into the first lecture on the first morning of the first day.
I encountered a lot of surprises in my own writing over the six weeks of the workshop, but the one that was by far the hardest to swallow was this:
I wrote passive heroines.
Now, I love a good kickass heroine. I mean, I’ve grown up with Robin McKinley and Joss Whedon as my masters. I’m that person who started cheering in the movie theater when Giselle kicked off her heels, picked up the sword, and went off to save her prince in Enchanted. When I was a kid, I devoured every instance of a kickass heroine I could find, and I still do. They’re the reason I’m who I am today. They’re the reason I write.
So you’ll understand just how devastated I was to learn that I was churning out passive character after passive character in every single one of my stories. And it’s not just about failing to hold the line, as a female author writing about women–it just plain makes for bad stories. When things just happen TO your characters, after a while it becomes very clear that the author is pulling the strings. The actions, decisions, and emotions of your characters don’t feel real–they feel forced.
Once I got over my dismay at this revelation (and I spent longer in denial than I wish to admit) I started to look for answers. Because the thing is, I’m not the only one. Writers tend to default to passive characters. We’re often pretty passive ourselves. So I figured I’d share some of the things I’ve figured out about how to avoid this pitfall, in case anyone else suffers from the same tendency.
Plot the causal chain. Whether you outline or not before you write (which I don’t) I highly recommend doing some kind of outline at some point during the process. I find it really helpful to outline the story after I finish my first draft. Whenever you do it, make sure to look at the causal chain. Why does everything happen? One event should lead to another should lead to another, etc. And your protagonist needs to be the driving force behind these events. She should make them happen–they shouldn’t happen to her.
Make her skilled. This one comes straight from Odyssey, and it’s so simple and brilliant. Give your character something she’s really good at. Not only does this make us like her (we like competent people!) but it also means that she’ll be able to affect her world. And the events in it. She’ll be driving the truck, rather than strapped into the back seat.
Make her try more than once. If your character gets everything on her first try, it’s pretty clear the author’s conveniently lining things up for her to succeed. Make it hard for her! If she tries to do something and can’t, she’ll have to get creative about what she does next.
Give her a reason to fight. It’s not enough that someone gets forced into a situation–you need to give them reasons to care about what’s happening, so that they’d fight whether they had to or not. Think about Katniss in THE HUNGER GAMES–she has to go into the arena, yes, but she has reasons to fight and to survive, and she keeps getting more as the book progresses: Prim, Rue, Peeta. Personal survival is never enough–raise the stakes!
Have a moment of crisis and decision. I sometimes have characters so battered around by circumstance that they often only have one choice. This, as much as anything else, gives the impression of the author playing puppeteer. Let your characters make a choice. Give them an easy option and have them refuse it for the harder road. It doesn’t have to be a huge dramatic scene–it can be as small and subtle as a single sentence in a single scene. It’s the moment where Han Solo comes back to bail Luke out as he destroys the Death Star. It’s the moment where Katniss sings to Rue and covers her with flowers, knowing the Capitol is watching. It’s the moment where your character stands up and says “I’m going to do this thing even though it’d be easier to go home.” It’s Giselle grabbing that sword.
Got any other tips for me? Does anyone else ever struggle with passive characters?
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The char in MERCY was reluctant and dragged around the whole first version of the book.
Now, she’s choosing to go back for her sister, learning to pay attention to others, etc.
I think having a well defined character arc helps this. Have a thematic element your character can gauge herself against at different points through the book to show growth, and growth in turn should force her to make choices and DO things, etc.
Er, that was from me.
Jess Tudor
You make a really great point here. Character arcs! Making the degree to which your character is active or passive a dynamic thing across the manuscript is really great. It’s one thing to have a character start out passive… so long as they decide to take up the sword (metaphorically or literally) eventually!
Awesome to hear from you, Jess! 😀
This blog post comes at EXACTLY the right time in my novel-writing endeavor! My main character isn’t passive exactly, but she’s proactive in all the wrong ways, because she hasn’t understood the real stakes in her situation until now. Now that she does, I sort of took myself through my version of this list as I plotted out the end of the book. It’s so nice to have it all written out here, though! This is fantastic.
Ooh, awesome! Every so often I start to feel silly when I post advice, like who am I to pretend I know what on earth I’m doing… this makes me feel better! Just knowing other people are going through the same issues I am. 😀
I love it when things click… you see your novel/character/whatever through a new lens and wham, it just settles into place. Those little moments of realization are part of why I love writing!
Nah, don’t feel silly. There are some writers who post as if they Know Everything and are Imparting Their Wisdom Unto the Masses — but you come across as “I learned this cool thing! Let me share it!” Which is TOTALLY AWESOME.
Haha, yay! That’s a relief, seriously. (And yeah, I find that attitude annoying too!)
Ellen passed along your contact info. I am going to write you an emaaaail sooooon. 😀 *dance*
Ooh, hurray! I look forward to it.
Oh, this is fantastic! It makes perfect sense, but I’d never consciously thought about most of it before–it’s especially helpful to get the ‘why’, instead of just the rule. I think I need to go away and think about my causal chain.
That was basically my entire experience at Odyssey! Things that my instincts recognized as true, but that I’d never heard articulated before, and certainly had never consciously thought about.
Glad it was helpful! Now you know some of what I was trying to say when waving my hands around and babbling about the stakes.
It’s always funny to me how similar analytical/interpretive tools and creative tools are. It demystifies the creative process which (as far as I’m concerned) is always a good thing (not to mention that it lends veracity to the interpretive process). Plotting a causal chain is a tool used in Aristotelean analysis of plays to determine who really is the main character – who performs the dramatic action that drives the play.
Your last point is very Brechtian (again with the Brecht!). In epic/dialectic theatre the decisions characters make (and the fact that they are making specific decisions) is emphasized rather than presenting the narrative as an inevitable chain of events. It was, of course, meant to provoke audiences into thinking critically about the characters and the story rather than simply being emotionally swept away a la melodrama. Granted, Brecht’s goals were highly political and meant to disrupt social order in a way that most novelists are not necessarily shooting for, but the point remains that true engagement is critical engagement. Make your characters and your audience think!
Man, I love when you comment on my blog posts. You always make me sound WAY smarter than I am. All Aristotle and Brecht!
I have to admit, though, that that last tip–the making a choice–definitely comes from my theater background. One of my favorite aspects of acting classes was analyzing character–determining the beats and what decisions and shifts in goals/methods accompany them. I want to do a post about that but all my theater notes are back home in the U.S., so it’ll have to wait!
I remember someone in my Odyssey class describing the main character as the person in the story who makes the toughest decision. I’ve always loved that definition, because it ends up being really true. If someone else is always making the tough decisions, then it may be THAT character who’s really the main character of the story.
Hi! I found your LJ via a tweet by Amie Kaufman.
This is a great post. I wish even certain published books could have heeded it — I think there’s a dismaying trend in YA for girl characters to be passive, acted upon, far too often.
I totally agree! My own theory (based on the twisted inner workings of my brain and nothing else) is that we as the writers think that it makes for a sympathetic heroine to have her battered by fate and circumstance. But really, to the reader, it’s much more sympathetic when the character is actively trying to change her fate, rather than being pushed along by it.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Amie’s one of my best friends, and my housemate right now. Small world, huh? 🙂
Interesting! I think you’re on to something, although I also think it’s more prevalent with girl MCs because of ideas about teh womens. Boy MCs are far less often acted upon –they are agents in the story.
I also think it’s because a lot of the YAs I’m thinking of have a romance angle, so to have the girl character be more passive seems to fit a lot of people’s ideas of romance.
Is Amie on LJ too?
Yeah, definitely. It’s considered more “feminine” to be passive. Part of why I love writing about women is turning that on its head! Showing how tough we can be. 🙂
She’s on LJ at, but she doesn’t use it. She blogs at http://www.amiekaufman.com.