Character Agency & Growth 

Me too one time I all most forgot some so minor that when I reread it I felt like something was missing but luckily I use speare and free website which is on your browser and I hand write it so I was just lucky.

I recommend making a character profile to avoid consistency mistakes. You don't even have to do it beforehand. You can fill it in as you write your story and gain a clearer idea of what your character is like. And then you can still go back and fix things :).

@@KatSperlingBooks I normally do so, but my comment was in regards to the times when that may not mesh with your creative flow. I've sat down and written nearly 7,000 words in an afternoon before, and after that, I say fuck it and just keep writing day after day. Sometimes sitting and mulling over a character profile doesn't feel organic, if that makes sense. But you're right, of course. Doing what you offered helps a lot.

@@user-ys7vg2xh2k Makes sense! Don't let the character profile get in the way of your creative flow. Just fix everything in revision, that's what they're there for :)!

@@KatSperlingBooks For sure.

Her videos really are great! If you like her videos, and you like the more podcast version of writing videos (which I do) I would really recommend Quatidan writer, she has also really helped me and is very relaxing to listen to!

So true!

Character agency basically means the character takes action and makes their own decisions, rather than just letting stuff happen to them, or even worse, letting others make decisions for them. Sometimes it's intentional to not give a character agency (like she said), but sometimes it's an accidental thing.

That's a great idea! I'd love to see that video!

@@KatSperlingBooks 😊

Seems interesting! :) And I think having a character's growth precisely to gain/take more agency and evolve from passive to active could be an interesting story.

This sounds like such an interesting story, and framing structure! If you're still looking for inspiration... It sounds to me like you're writing a tragic, "falling" arc. So if your character's giant flaw is passivity, and the giant climax is the tragic family event, then during the falling action after the event, you can have the character try desperately to fix things, making active decisions, trying to make up for their flaw, but they just keep making things worse and it's a tragic/sad ending. The structure of Greek tragedies, or Shakespeare's tragic plays are a fun reference! OR, if you'd rather a happy ending, then maybe place that big tragic family event in the middle of the book, and make that the "turning point" for your character, where she realizes she has to start taking agency, and the rest of the plot is her making decisions and reaping ultimately positive results (with some nasty moments on the way) Either way, i think it'll be really interesting to explore, and I'd love to hear if you're still pursuing this story! 💖

i have a winter arc

what 😂

Try and make some of the things that happen to her a result of her choices. Let her make wrong choices that come back to bite her.

It's probably worth investment into a few other characters as foils and influences on her. At least someone should remark from the perspective that she's brought these consequences on herself, even when she can easily defend the position "I didn't do anything wrong"... BUT she didn't do ANYTHING at all. Almost any point after a notice like that being called out, to her if nobody else, then would be appropriate for her to "start tinkering with agency" and making some pro-active choices... Sure, you can linger about the whole passive issue, and spring some of that "enough is enough" material. The only problem is that it's very easy to "come out of nowhere". Lending her an influence from someone who might believe that "you make your own luck" would present (symbolically at least) a reason for her to start exploring agency rather than "just a writer's cop out" when she abruptly changes her whole course of actions and starts 180 degrees out of her character arc to date. Whether you invest "all in" on one particular foil for her, a certain character who somehow manages to appear nearby in almost every circumstance to point out his/her perspective on the matter... OR you decide to have several otherwise minuscule characters pop in and out of her life with similar thoughts and ideals... well... that's up to you. It might be believable that every time she's captured, there's the same other prisoner also regularly tortured and miserable in the same or similar nearby cell (whatever) of the dungeon... AND every time she escapes, somehow there's a consequential event that lets this other character loose either at the same time or fairly soon after. OR if it's just too ridiculous to get along with, several "bit-part-characters" can have similar circumstances one way or another... just in passing... as she's going through in those moments. They can then in turns lend their philosophy of pro-active maneuvering instead of "sitting around on thumbs" as it were. The bottom line is that it's alright to go about the reluctance to take up actions for a majority of the story... the same as it's alright to start making pro-active choices earlier. So long as you seed the idea that this active/passive issue is what's being resolved, you're probably going to have a reasonably satisfying read. What you really want to avoid is "acting out of nowhere"... ;o)

I think that's a good idea (makes for an interesting and realistic arc, since we all have a point in life where we need to start taking responsibility for ourselves), but there's a risk that readers might drop off too early to see the change because they get annoyed by passive characters? I personally wouldn’t drop off because I can’t identify with overly proactive characters, but I heard it’s a pet peeve of many readers.

Maybe have little hints of agency? Maybe he thinks "god wills it" with his ultimate destiny, but he'll stand his ground and refuse to eat carrots because he thinks they're gross?

That's actually a good point and I think I've done that. Guess I just worry how agents might perceive it, but I won't know until I put it out there, will I?

That could be especially interesting, for example, the characters could try to defy the prophecy and their actions lead them somewhere else, and then their destiny kicks in anyway but in a really creative way. The futility of one’s actions in the scheme of themes could be a really complex, interesting theme, if you do it right (and like it for yourself!).

Most of us have some sensibility that "there are things outside of our control"... BUT just for instance, Navy Seals are taught, "We do not get defeated. We can only defeat ourselves." It's a difficult mindset to adopt, but taking responsibility for everything in one's life IS most certainly a credible and long standing philosophy of life. Not all humans even believe that "Life happens TO us." ;o)

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 yeah, cause the general pop are navy seals

@@evinkrowe1334 WAY to miss the point... OH... you must be one of "those people" the kind who is afflicted with life as if it's a terminal STD. Right? There's a cure for that, you know. ;o)

I think it definitely counts as agency if the character was the one who made the choice that got them into that mess. So, yes.

It counts as agency if the Character in question is ACTING upon that decision of their own free will, not bound by some tangible plot device or other... not as a reaction or consequence of someone ELSE's activities. Okay, so nothing exactly happens in a vacuum. The principle is still relatively sound, however. The closer you can define any character's actions as entirely their own and unchanged if they did come from a vacuum, the more agency that character is exercising. Making a decision is one thing. Actively engaging that decision from start to a finished product is another. Even if that finished product turns out to be an unmitigated disaster, so long as the character was engaged in creating that disaster, it's still agency. IF (just in case) on the other hand, the character's only decision was intangible, and physically he/she just sat on thumbs while the world around them went to hell in a handbasket... then yes, there was still a decision made, but no agency taken. A soldier who digs a foxhole and sits in it amid all the bombs, the shelling, and the various (others) running over no-man's land to get killed in droves might still survive the war... BUT he had no agency in its outcome. A soldier who parachuted in and gave up on the foxhole to rush a machine-gun position and break through enemy ranks has taken agency for his cause... whether or not he survives the ordeal. SO maybe something herein helps?(I hope) ;o)

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 Yes, thank you. It was a very detailed answer and it definitely helps me to worry less. Because my character's decisions are largely reactions to what's going on around her, I wasn't entirely sure, but she's definitely not sitting on her thumbs waiting for things to happen to her (which is kind of her problem; she needs to learn to be less rash and that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor lol). I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my question and give some concrete examples to clarify things in my mind. I'm in the midst of plotting and researching for the first novel-length story I've ever attempted, and the doubts... omg, the DOUBTS. They burnses us, precious!!! Thank you again :)

@@LillieLights Thanks, Lillie :) the last thing I want to is to write a powerless female lol. Those make me grind my teeth when I run into them so, if I produced one myself, I'd have to find the nearest brick wall and bang my head against it until the pain stopped :D

@@Katherine_The_Okay always welcome. Glad it helped. ;o)

Does the world really need more fictional guys, though? ;)

It’s great that you’re acknowledging your struggles of writing female and non-binary characters, that’s the first step at getting better at it :)! I have a video on writing strong female characters on my channel which might be helpful: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OpucAVUIlBU.html. I don’t know anyone who gives writing tips on how to write non-binary characters, but Christopher Drost (another AuthorTuber) has several videos on trans characters, so depending on your definition of trans (if you count non-binary as trans), that might be helpful. I’m sure you can also just search for (non-writerly) RU-vid channels of people who identify as non-binary to gain more insights about their life and to get a feeling for writing them.