Does Your Story’s Main Character Have Enough Agency?
Paul Austin Ardoin
In one episode of the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory, several of the characters get disappointed after they realize the hero of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones, does nothing to affect the outcome of the story. Though they love the movie, that realization ruins the narrative.
This mirrors a common mistake authors make: the protagonist doesn’t significantly affect the outcome of the story—in other words, the main character doesn’t have enough agency. The main character reacts to everything around them rather than making things happen. “The reader is most invested in the protagonist above all other characters, so we want to see them do things in the story,” writes developmental editor Alyssa Matesic in her craft blog.
In the Mystery genre, if sleuths don’t have agency, they don’t solve the murder. Instead, they often stumble upon the killer and conclude the case through happenstance. To the author, this can feel like the sleuth solves the murder—but that’s not the case. In Romance novels, a romantic lead without agency reacts to everything happening around her without making deliberate choices that move the relationship forward. In Action-Adventure or Horror books, a hero without agency simply tries to survive and doesn’t try to attain an overarching goal, making no choices that propel the plot.
As writing guide author K.M. Weiland notes in her blog, Helping Writers Become Authors, “a character with little to no agency won’t be able to generate and/or respond to conflict”—which can drag the entire plot to a standstill. Thankfully, the problem is one you, as the author, have agency to fix.
Goals and motivations
This notion of agency—and the reader dissatisfaction that results—is rooted in two questions that go unanswered:
- What does my main character want?
- Why does my character want it? (What is their motivation?)
Main characters who primarily react have a difficult time pursuing their goals—and readers therefore can’t easily identify those goals. If the main character’s motivation is unclear, the plot is driftless—and readers don’t know what to root for.
Identifying agency issues
If you’re worried about your main character’s agency, ask yourself these questions: does the climax of the scene, section, or book result from my main character’s choices, or do external forces or other characters’ actions lead the plot? Next, ask if the climax’s resolution results from the main character’s choices. If the answer to either question is “no,” you have work to do.
The fix might be easier than you think. Many times, at crucial points in the plot, the author can add a choice for the protagonist that changes the plot from happenstance to increased agency. Often, a handful of scenes, several lines, or even a single paragraph will help fix the problem.
Let’s say a Mystery has a climax where the amateur sleuth is in close quarters with the murderer. However, the sleuth doesn’t realize the murderer’s identity yet. The murderer attacks the sleuth; the sleuth then gets away, and the murderer is captured. This will often feel like happenstance and be unsatisfying for the reader.
To fix this problem, the author can make the following tweaks:
- The sleuth, throughout the book, uncovers a series of clues that reveal the killer’s identity. This might require a new scene or a couple extra lines where the sleuth finds another clue.
- During the climax, when the sleuth is in close quarters with the killer, the sleuth discovers something—or may be triggered by a word, phrase, or object referenced earlier—that makes the puzzle lock into place.
- Using something the sleuth learned previously in the book, the sleuth helps with the capture of the murderer.
Similar changes can be made for other genres. For Romance, the love interest revealing something emotional may allow the protagonist to later make a love connection. The climax can be the protagonist’s “grand gesture” that references those earlier emotional reveals. In an Action-Adventure, add a few lines where the hero learns something that will be critical to how to defeat the evil forces.
These changes don’t require wholesale rewriting, and they don’t require reworking your protagonist’s personality. With a few added scenes, a few added lines, and one or two one-line references spaced appropriately, you can often improve the main character’s goals, motivations, and agency throughout your story, leaving the reader much more satisfied by the end.
Paul Austin Ardoin