October’s Buzz:

ACT NOT REACT
(Copyright 2008)
by
Kathryn McCullough

One of the most common complaints story analysts make about the scripts they pass on is that the protagonist isn’t active enough. Most writers know that characters should not be passive. A character who fails to take action, who is acted upon by others, or who lacks a dramatic goal of any kind, is difficult to either become engaged by or root for. However, it gets tricky when it seems as if your lead is acting when in truth they are simply reacting to events or to the actions of other characters. A protagonist who is merely reactive is not much better than a passive character.

An active character drives the story. It is his choices and actions that propel the plot forward. Achieving this is easiest in genre movies like action-adventures or thrillers. Characters such as Indiana Jones and Iron Man are active by definition. It is more challenging in less overtly breathtaking genres like dramas and relationship stories. However, it is possibly even more important in these types of scripts to make sure that your protagonist is as active as possible, because it is she and not the events that will be providing the drama for the story.

There are different grades of activism in film heroes. Some protagonists enter the story with a clear goal. A teenage boy may want to leave home or win over a girl at school. The film then follows him on this quest, as he faces various hurdles and either succeeds or fails. Often a new goal may replace or be added to the original goal halfway into the story, adding depth to the plot and increasing the tension. In some films, the main character may commit to a goal near the end of the first act, after the point of attack. A criminal kills a cop’s family in the first sequence, and the cop then sets out to get revenge. However, even if the central tension of the story kicks in later, your character should still be active in the early scenes. Have him be after something: the cop is trying to solve a crime; the teenager is trying to keep his failing grades a secret from his parents. Ideally, this initial goal will tie into or complicate the protagonist’s main goal.

What you want to be especially wary of is the character whose actions are motivated by the actions of others. A character may be on the run from a villain but only act when forced to by the villain; the protagonist never comes up with a set plan to escape the villain and instead merely reacts to events as they occur. As a result, the villain ends up the more active character and therefore the more compelling one. Such stories perpetually seem to be on the verge of starting but never actually do. Sometimes, the hero may finally come up with a plan in the third act, but this is too late, because the ramifications of that plan are what should have been driving your second act. In these scripts, the first two acts end up feeling like set-up.

The main tension of a script is always tied into the main character’s goal. Constantly ask yourself: what specifically is the audience rooting for? Your character has to want something, even if it is something as low-key as a healed relationship or peace of mind, and they need to have a plan to achieve it. Without a goal, the character is merely a puppet and is unlikely to engage a reader or audience.