: Re: "Calm" vs Adventurous Main Protagonist When I first started thinking about this one particular story I wanted to write, I envisioned the main protagonist as a more "calm", "reactive" type of

@Sent2472441

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Since everyone is set on a proactive character, let me present the reactive choice as at least viable.

The hobbits in The Lord of the Rings are anything but proactive. They would like nothing better than to sit in their holes and smoke pipeweed. Frodo has no desire whatsoever to be the one taking the Ring to Mount Doom. "I hope that you may find some other better keeper soon" he tells Gandalf (LotR I 2). Knowing full well where they're going, the hobbits are content to let Gandalf and then Aragorn lead the Fellowship, make decisions, etc. Frodo only becomes a "leader" when he leaves the Fellowship, and that choice is compelled by Boromir. He constantly says that he "has to" do whatever - meaning he does not feel he is making a choice. If he had a choice, it would have been someone else on this quest, as far as he's concerned.

The Lord of the Rings works precisely because at its centre are simple folk, who do not seek to be heroes, but recognise the absolute necessity of an action, and go do it. And all the while, what they want most is to come home safe, and live happily ever after. It's just that they need to do this thing so there is a home to come back to.

What is needed for a calm reactive character do get out of his comfort zone and go do things is the world pushing, compelling them to do things. Their choices must be limited to "act" or "bury your head in the sand". If "do nothing" is a viable option, such a character will do nothing.

So it's a question of how you structure your plot, what is happening in your world. For the plot to be interesting, action needs to happen. The less the world compels action, the more proactive your MC would need to be.

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