: Re: From reactive to proactive; When should the protagonist change tack? In my exploration of story structure, I have encountered some conflicting advice. In some instances, it has been suggested that

@RJPawlick285

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Formulaic writing is a crutch.

I can't tell you what works better, because that depends on the story you're trying to tell. But make no mistake, I don't follow those formulas to tell my stories.

So let's look at this from two perspectives, and hopefully that will show what I mean.

Let's take an Indiana Jones approach. Your protagonist is an archaeologist, a dungeon delver of a sorts. They can't be proactive all the time, because they NEED to react to the traps. But, they can be proactive in the sense that they try to predict the traps and come up with ways in advance, or on the fly, to get around the traps.

It depends on the story you're trying to tell. Do you want a cerebral rogue who shows off their intellect by doing research and using that research to be as prepared as possible? The your character is, by definition, proactive. Do you want them to grow into the cerebral rogue? Let them do research and make mistakes, but take notes to actively learn from said mistakes. Again, proactive.

But if you have a character that is so smug about their skill, about their research, that they 'just can't be wrong', then they'll be reactive when they inevitably trigger every trap in there, and have a lot of shenanigans to stay alive or get the sweet, sweet treasure they're going through all this trouble for.

All three stories could be interesting to tell. One is not necessarily superior to the other. It depends on the story you're telling.

But. What (I believe) you're really talking about is character agency. That is to say, is the plot happening to the character, or is the character deciding the plot--so to speak.

And this can be changed, tweaked, after the fact so that they are far better agents in the world, as opposed to pawns being jerked around for the sake of plot.

For example. If your plot demands the protag to be in Egypt, when they live in England? Give them a logical reason to want to go to Egypt. The character therefore chooses the plot, not the plot choosing the character. Maybe they find a clue in a dusty old tome. Maybe they overhear a colleague talking about some legend and it sets them on a path of discovery. They choose the plot.

Another way, and perhaps an interesting way, is to have them start off being 'led'. So they're an intern helping at an archaeological site in Egypt. They don't know much other than the general knowledge, and they're learning from their mentor about things as they go. Maybe the hieroglyphs hint there's a deeper secret than they were led to believe. Maybe their mentor points out clues to teach them to look past the sand-covered stones to find the living history splayed out before them.

Then you get your point of no return (inciting incident, or what have you). Maybe the mentor is killed (poor mentors tend to get deep-sixed a lot). Maybe they (protag, mentor, some idiot that doesn't know what they're doing) activate a curse. Whatever happens, your protagonist now needs to become agents in the plot, to take charge. If they fail, they die--that's the 'fate' handed to them. They don't want to die, so they, by necessity, must reclaim their agency in the plot or they die.

The key to remember: is the character a pawn to the plot, or are they the agent that pushes the plot along. That's the difference between 'active' and 'reactive'. So even if you give them a 'choice', it doesn't make them active if the only choice they have is the plot. Only if they choose the plot, and that choice makes sense to their character, then, and I'd argue only then, are they 'real people' that move the plot forward.

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