Boosting Character Action with Concrete, Positive Goals

Conventional wisdom tells us that compelling stories start with characters who take action to pursue meaningful goals. Their actions drive the plot as they succeed or fail, and these characters keep readers turning pages as they move from conflict to conflict, overcoming obstacles to achieve their external goals—and also their internal needs. So when you get feedback saying that your character doesn’t do much, or that they feel passive, what can you do? I’ve got some suggestions.

But first, a caveat: it is possible to write stories about passive characters who don’t control their own fate. As Matthew Salesses points out in his brilliant Craft in the Real World, the idea that stories should depict an individual whose choices can transform their world is particularly Western. And in this recent blog post, writer Kelsey Allagood points out that valuing active characters over passive ones can be seen as patriarchal. Diversity in storytelling should always be welcome, and stories that intentionally examine ideas of agency and passivity and power can be just as fascinating and rewarding as those that follow the traditional hero’s journey. (I found Daniel Nayeri’s autobiographical novel Everything Sad Is Untrue, featuring a young Iranian refugee telling his story to his American classmates, a particularly fine example of this.)

Get your character moving!

But let’s say you’re writing within that tradition of the active hero whose goals drive the story. And it’s not working! Your critique partners might actually say the protagonist feels “passive,” or maybe they just note that the pacing feels slow. And that’s when I’d encourage you to look at your character and their goals and ask yourself two questions: Are their goals abstract or concrete? And are they positive or negative?

Abstract goals are great, because they can be big and meaningful. A boy wants to be accepted; a woman wants financial success; a stray cat wants to be secure. A lot of times we start writing a story because we want to explore big, meaningful ideas like acceptance and success and love. But when it comes time to turn this idea into a plot, abstract goals become difficult to put on the page. How do you achieve being accepted? What are the steps to becoming successful? Or loved?

That’s when you need to ask yourself: for your character, what specific goal would symbolize success of the abstract goal? If you’re a boy wanting acceptance, maybe you want to win a student election. For a woman wanting financial success, that might mean owning your own business. For a stray cat seeking security, that might mean a hiding spot away from predators—or an indoor home with humans. When you have specific goals, it’s a lot easier to describe the steps to success, and thus easier for your character to start putting a plan into action.

Next, consider whether your character’s goals are positive or negative—but I don’t mean how beneficial or sinister they might be. Rather, is the goal something the protagonist seeks to gain—a positive addition to their life? Or is their goal to avoid something—a negative they want to subtract from their life?

Positive goals almost always force the protagonist to act. For example, if my character’s goal is to gain acceptance by winning a student election, he’s going to have to get signatures from classmates, write a platform, make campaign posters, speak in front of an assembly. If there’s a deadline, even better! Now my protagonist has to act sooner rather than later, or risk losing what they want. They have to go out and interact with the world and all its potential conflicts. Mmmmm, conflicts. That’s what keeps a story interesting!

But let’s say my character’s goal is a negative one—they want to avoid the bully who beats them up at the bus stop. Now, that could force them take one action—maybe they change their route home from school. But we run into a similar problem as the abstract goal: what comes next? If that solved the problem, then the story’s over. If it didn’t, then maybe the protagonist can just run away, or revert to their old behavior and keep the status quo. In either case, you’re going to have to work hard to get this character moving within the plot.

But if you reframe a negative goal to something positive—an object or action that would help them escape whatever they’re avoiding—then you have more ways to get your character to act. For the character avoiding a bully, maybe getting their own car means success—they can now avoid the bus stop altogether. For a character who wants to prevent her parents from getting divorced, maybe it’s setting up a special date to remind them of why they’re together.

Of course, you can write a story featuring characters with big, abstract goals, or a goal to avoid something, or no goals at all. You’re just going to have to work harder to bring conflict and tension to your plot. But if you’re stuck in a revision, try giving your characters concrete, positive goals. It may be just the kick in the pants that they—and you—need to get moving.

Diane often suffers from characters who are trying to avoid things. It has nothing to do with her own personal tendency to avoid things like housework or revisions by focusing on work for clients instead. Check out her editor page for more details.