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How Make Your Characters Active, Not Passive

By Jared Dees

Your characters must be active, not passive. This is a cardinal rule of writing fiction.

I really liked the simple advice that the hosts of the Writing Excuses podcast (episode 13.2) gave (listen here).

I’ll summarize and expand, but essentially have your characters:

  1. Desire – They must want something.
  2. Plan – They must make plans to get it.
  3. Act – They must act on these plans.
  4. Success or Setback – Their actions must succeed or fail.
  5. New Plans – They must make new plans to try to achieve their desire.

The writers in the show warn against writing characters that are passively reacting to events or simply waiting to take action until the story unfolds. Instead, they should be actively planning and acting on those plans. Even in the setup of the story, before the inciting incident, they should have a clearly stated desire and plans in place that get foiled by the inciting incident. Don’t have them just waiting around describing events until the action begins.

July 26, 2018 Filed Under: Author Tips, My Fiction Journey, On Writing

About Jared Dees

Jared Dees is passionate about sharing practical resources to teach faith. He is best known for his website The Religion Teacher and is the author of many books including 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator, To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach, Praying the Angelus, Christ in the Classroom, and Beatitales: 80 Fables about the Beatitudes for Children.

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Jared Dees is passionate about sharing practical resources to teach faith. He is best known for his website The Religion Teacher and is the author of many books including 31 Days to Becoming a Better Religious Educator, To Heal, Proclaim, and Teach, Praying the Angelus, Christ in the Classroom, and Beatitales: 80 Fables about the Beatitudes for Children. See all of Jared's Books →

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