# On "Proactive" versus "Reactive" Proagonists



## Ireth (May 23, 2016)

*On "Proactive" versus "Reactive" Protagonists*

I've gotten a fair bit of flak around the interwebs concerning the heroine of my novel Winter's Queen. People say I should make her more proactive, that she is too reactive to the actions of the villain. All because she does not seek adventure (i.e. the plot) out for herself, and is instead drawn into it by the villain.

To which I say, what's wrong with that? Isn't every action a reaction to something else, all the way back to the first Action that began everything (i.e. Creation, whether by divine will or the Big Bang, etc.)?

The inciting incident of my story, in which the villain kidnaps the heroine with the intent of marrying her, is not a _proactive_ decision on the part of the villain, but a _reaction_ to three thousand years of abuse and neglect culminating in a revenge plot against his father. And everything the heroine does throughout the story is a reaction to what the villain does, which creates further reactions from him, and so on. Can characters ever be completely proactive?

Take LOTR for example. Yes, Frodo does decide to take on the burden of the Ring in hopes of destroying it, but only after spending the first half of the book being hunted by Ringwraiths and trying to get to a safe place (Rivendell). This is all in reaction to Sauron starting to regain his power and seeking out the Ring, and Bilbo leaving the Ring with Frodo in the first place. And a good chunk of THAT is a reaction to a certain chapter in The Hobbit. And so on, and so forth, all the way back to the Music of the Ainur that created the World.

Harry Potter is another example of this. Harry doesn't one day suddenly decide to be a wizard all on his own; he's introduced to the idea that he is one by Hagrid, who also tells him where to go to get to Hogwarts. I've heard that the creation of Dumbledore's Army in book 5 is a "proactive" moment on Harry's part, but honestly it just strikes me as another reaction to Umbridge -- albeit one that moves in a different direction and with more magnitude than others before.

I'm not sure if I'm overthinking or underthinking this. Are so-called "reactive" protagonists really that bad?


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## Garren Jacobsen (May 23, 2016)

I have not read your book. But what I can say is that while it's true all of those are reactions to something when they actually take up the mantle they are in constant motion and trying to accomplish the goal. The bad guy's actions are reactions to that initial decision. So, sending Uruks to snatch Frodo at the end of Fellowship is a reaction to Frodo's actions of taking the Ring to Rivendell. Harry is very reactionary, but he is still pretty proactive when he needs to be like at the end of the first book. He says, "Aw Hell no. I ain't lettin' Snape get that stone."

To put this a bit more clearly than this rambling post, I have a character, Garren. His village gets attacked by a douche bag noble. He reacts to this attack by running and hiding. But after that initial reaction, he takes the initiative to get revenge on the attacker and on the person that made the attack possible. So after the initial problem that the he had to react to he became proactive and took the fight to the nobleman. That's how I see it.


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## FifthView (May 23, 2016)

The problem with thinking that everything is ultimately a reaction to events is that it makes the idea of "protagging" meaningless.

One way of separating them is to ask whether the action taken by a character springs from a motivation that is his own.  So for instance, yes Harry Potter is the least proactive of the three kids; but, he grows more proactive toward the end of the series.  Instead of waiting for Voldemort and the Deatheaters to do _something else_ to him, to his friends, to his school, he decides to avoid returning to Hogwarts in the final year and to search for the horcruxes.  His own motivation:  Get ahead in the fight, destroy Voldemort.  Yes, Voldemort has to exist first, has to present a danger.  But a reactive action would have been:  Go back to Hogwarts for the final year, go about business as usual, wait for Voldemort to attack and then react to that.  Put another way, there's no direct action by Voldemort that made Harry choose to skip school and hunt the horcruxes.

So looking at the motivation and from which spring the motivation...springs, is a good way to separate reactivity vs proactivity.

If I decide to take an umbrella to work because there's a 40% chance of precipitation, this is proactive even if I am reacting to that percent chance.  But if I don't grab an umbrella until I see that it's already raining outside, that's reactive.

Sometimes in a story, your characters will naturally be reactive, especially since villains begin hidden and the characters don't discover them until those villains first act.  One way you can still amp up the proactivity of your characters in those early stages is to give them something else to be proactive about.  A personal pursuit, even if it's not directly related to the plot.  (I.e., going about their daily business, pursuits, until the villain or circumstances force them to react.)


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## Ireth (May 23, 2016)

*nod* I see what you're both saying. So in theory, my heroine could be said to be proactive when she tries to flee the villain's castle, regardless of the fact that she fails and has to keep trying again. Or even earlier, when she tries to get the king on her side (and fails again, unfortunately). That makes me feel a bit better about my story, at least.


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## FifthView (May 23, 2016)

Ireth said:


> *nod* I see what you're both saying. So in theory, my heroine could be said to be proactive when she tries to flee the villain's castle, regardless of the fact that she fails and has to keep trying again. Or even earlier, when she tries to get the king on her side (and fails again, unfortunately). That makes me feel a bit better about my story, at least.



Yep, I think that choosing to escape and taking measures to enable escape would be proactive.  Making the decision to sway the king to her side would also be proactive.

There could be a problem if she gives up too easily when failing any given endeavor, or maybe if she doesn't think too far ahead and/or isn't vey clever with her attempts, or doesn't attempt very much, and if escape is her only goal.  Readers like to feel that MCs aren't just going through the motions but can plot and plan and maybe have a larger goal than mere escape.


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## T.Allen.Smith (May 23, 2016)

Ireth said:


> And everything the heroine does throughout the story is a reaction to what the villain does, which creates further reactions from him, and so on.


This is what _might_ concern me as a reader. Not everything the protagonist does should be a reaction. 

Yes, you're protagonist is going to start off reactive. After all, the antagonist is usually the driver of the story, or the reason the protagonist is forced to a point of no return. However, somewhere along the line (the actual point depending on your story's structure) the protagonist must become proactive in their fight against the antagonist. 

Too much reaction, with little to no proactive behavior, reads like constant victimhood & makes for a weak protagonist that no reader wants to be.


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## Ireth (May 23, 2016)

FifthView said:


> There could be a problem if she gives up too easily when failing any given endeavor, or maybe if she doesn't think too far ahead and/or isn't vey clever with her attempts, or doesn't attempt very much, and if escape is her only goal.  Readers like to feel that MCs aren't just going through the motions but can plot and plan and maybe have a larger goal than mere escape.



Good to note. She doesn't give up on anything for long, until her circumstances get so dire that she literally has no way of saving herself and is helped by her friends -- and this reinforces the running theme throughout the novel of trusting in others/working as a team being better than trying to tackle everything oneself. She does take time to plot and plan, which also allows her time to make the friends who become so vital to her final escape. Her resistance of the villain starts out small, but builds as the novel progresses.

Escape is her main goal, admittedly, because she knows better than to try and "fix" the villain with the power of love or anything like that. She's also 99% certain her family is looking for her in Faerie (this increases to 100% when she meets a Fae whom her family recently had an encounter with and is able to tell the MC about them), and escaping the villain's castle will theoretically allow her to go out looking for them too. As for the villain's murderous plot, it's revealed too late in the story for the MC to have much chance in being proactive about that, on top of that being about the time she loses all hope of escape, but she does what she can in the climax.


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## FifthView (May 23, 2016)

Is there anyone else in the castle she could help in the meantime?  Like a servant being mistreated?  Her situation of being imprisoned might limit her chances to protag, but if you give her something else like that, you can show her still being proactive about something beyond escape.


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## Ireth (May 23, 2016)

FifthView said:


> Is there anyone else in the castle she could help in the meantime?  Like a servant being mistreated?  Her situation of being imprisoned might limit her chances to protag, but if you give her something else like that, you can show her still being proactive about something beyond escape.



You're actually not the first person to present that as an idea. ^^ This is giving me some new thoughts.

I do have a servant character, Eira, whom the MC befriends after Eira is assigned to the MC as a personal maidservant, and I've been trying to hash out her situation. My beta reader suggested I make Eira the Queen's maidservant, who is only serving the MC while the Queen is away on business and absent from the story (mainly because the King thought it would make the MC's princess life easier if she were treated like one before the wedding). But that doesn't seem like the sort of situation that would allow for mistreatment, especially since both the King and Queen are perfectly reasonable authority figures, even if their views on their son's marriage don't really align with the MC's.

Another option lies with a guard, Loegaire, whom the MC befriends; he has a deep-seated grudge against the villain for betraying him and his ex-lover, and causing the King (who was falsely informed about the situation) to destroy Loegaire's greatest chance at attaining his fondest ambition, fatherhood. The MC learns of Loegaire's situation from his ex-lover, who helps the MC as a means of avenging the villain's betrayal. I could have the MC attempt to reason with the King that the curse was the wrong thing to do and that he should rescind it.

This is problematic in that the MC doesn't have time to sit down and talk with the King after the first chat they have, during which the MC tries and fails to sway the King to her side by saying she and the villain aren't a match for each other. That's when her escape attempts are in full swing. On the other hand, they DO have time to talk after the villain is dealt with, and Loegaire is involved in that anyway... I could easily have the MC bring it up then.


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## skip.knox (May 23, 2016)

I try to believe my readers. They may not be saying it the right way, or in a way that makes sense to me, but if I start hearing a criticism from multiple readers, I have to think there is _something_ to which they are responding. 

Getting clarification can be difficult to impossible. Have you tried follow-up questions? Without seeing either the mss or the critiques, it's hard to be helpful, so I'm shooting in the dark here. Duck!

Can they give an example of a scene that rings false because the MC is reacting more than acting? 
Can they say what they'd rather see more of? Less of?
Can they offer an alternative to a scene?

I'll offer one other item, just for you to chew on. I learned this in grad school; it is a simple change of pronouns. When I would turn in a paper and the professor would criticize it, I would defend my argument, my evidence, my style. Then one prof suggested that once I turned in the paper I regard it no longer as "my" paper but as "the" paper. Put myself on the same side of the desk as the prof. In other words, judge it the same way I would judge any other scholarly article.

It isn't easy. But by pulling out the personal pronoun, even when thinking to myself, it helped me be more objective. What I found was that being dispassionate was not the same as being without passion; it simply meant I approached my writing the same way my readers would. I began to become another critic rather than being the defender. Be more ruthless than your committee, or so said my dissertation adviser.

Maybe it's just a habit now, but I like think it helps me with creative writing as well.


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## Phin Scardaw (May 24, 2016)

Hey Ireth,

I think it boils down to where the character makes the choice to be the hero of their own story. That's what's always engaging is that moment where Frodo chooses to take the One Ring from Rivendell to Mordor, where Neo chooses the red pill over the blue pill. They are mainly passive and/or reactive up till this point, and when they embark on the hero's journey they begin to transform. That transformation in whatever form it takes is the heart of the story. That initial choice to move forward with intention is when they become proactive (and will still of course react to things they come across) but if they never make that choice they never change and fail to be interesting as a hero. As long as your character is on that journey she can react or act in any way that's appropriate.


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## Miskatonic (May 24, 2016)

Well usually something bad happens that the hero ends up reacting to. I guess you mean if something bad were to happen that the hero would decide to put a plan into action before that takes place? If so wouldn't you need some precedent to show that their decision to act is warranted?


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## glutton (May 24, 2016)

Ireth said:


> Escape is her main goal, admittedly, because she knows better than to try and "fix" the villain with the power of love or anything like that. She's also 99% certain her family is looking for her in Faerie (this increases to 100% when she meets a Fae whom her family recently had an encounter with and is able to tell the MC about them), and escaping the villain's castle will theoretically allow her to go out looking for them too. As for the villain's murderous plot, it's revealed too late in the story for the MC to have much chance in being proactive about that, on top of that being about the time she loses all hope of escape, but she does what she can in the climax.



Maybe it could be changed so her main goal becomes to expose the villain and bring him to justice instead of just escape?

An MC who spends most of the story captured and hoping for rescue even at the end does seem a bit too victim-y to be appealing...

Maybe instead of ending up with 'no way' to escape... she escapes when she hurts the villain as you mentioned, but decides to go back with the help of her friends to stop him for good.


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## FifthView (May 24, 2016)

Helping a mistreated servant was only one of a type of structure that could help to keep the imprisoned MC proactive in the eyes of the reader.

There are other options.  I think the point is to give her milieu (castle, side characters, etc.) something about which she can feel a need to act–beyond making it merely a situation to escape, or having escape be her only motivation.  Perhaps there's a secret door or a level of the castle that is out of bounds for her, so she feels the need to go exploring.  (This is a little Harry Potterish.)  Maybe two side characters are in a dispute, and she has a reason to either smooth things out between them or exacerbate their antagonism and must go about doing so with subtlety. 

Even if escape is always on her mind, you could have her act to prepare the stage for her escape, perhaps prepare things so that when her friends arrive to rescue her they'll have an easier time of it.  Or maybe she wants to try to get a message out to them or trick/convince someone else in the castle to go out looking for them.


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

*waves at Phin* Hey, long time no see!

The MC makes the decision to be proactive basically as soon as she realizes what her situation is in chapter 3 or so; it just takes a little while for her escape plan to be put in motion. In the meantime, she has smaller fights against the villain and his magic.

@glutton: The MC does NOT simply hope for rescue; most of her arc is dedicated to escape attempts, and the rest is dedicated to laying aside her lifetime of prejudice against the Fae and befriending some of them, which allows them opportunity to help her with the aforementioned escape attempts. She is by no means a damsel in distress sitting prettily in a tower; she's one who hits the villain in the face and stuns him before he even kidnaps her, and maims him so he can't take the throne at the end of the story, as well as other actions in between.

I have considered making the murder plot come to light sooner, but that would require rewriting the majority of the story from scratch, which is more than I'm willing to do at this point. I've spent more than five years developing this story to be the way it is, and I want to put it out in the world sooner, not later. I might keep that idea and use it for a fanfic, though.

@FifthView: Ariel does in fact have a friend who goes out looking for her family in Faerie, though the friend volunteers of her own free will rather than being asked. The friend in question is the villain's sister, who sees the opportunity to aid the MC as an act of vengeance against her brother for something he did years ago. (Fae are particular about repaying debts, whether for good or ill.)


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## glutton (May 24, 2016)

Ireth said:


> I have considered making the murder plot come to light sooner, but that would require rewriting the majority of the story from scratch, which is more than I'm willing to do at this point.



It sounds like her maiming the villain is pretty late in the story though, if the murder plot comes to light around that point and she decides to stop it would that really require the majority of it to be rewritten?


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

glutton said:


> It sounds like her maiming the villain is pretty late in the story though, if the murder plot comes to light around that point and she decides to stop it would that really require the majority of it to be rewritten?



No, since that's pretty much exactly how it goes. She maims him not a minute after she realizes what his plans are, though it comes across as an act of self-defense, since by that point he's gone off the deep end and is trying to strangle her. I thought you were talking about having the murder plot come up much sooner. And now I'm confused.


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## Phin Scardaw (May 24, 2016)

*wave back*

Yes it's been a long time since I've come to MS. Life has been pretty chaotic for a while - but I'm still writing!

Don't get too muddled Ireth and trust your story-teller's instincts. It doesn't sound to me like you have too much of an issue with your MC being too passive. 

This thread makes me think of Sansa Stark who is very much a victim-type character who just gets used and abused without doing anything about it. I think she's about to make her choice to fight back which is cool - but up until now she's not nearly as interesting a character as Jon Snow who's been nothing but proactive.


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## glutton (May 24, 2016)

Ireth said:


> No, since that's pretty much exactly how it goes. She maims him not a minute after she realizes what his plans are, though it comes across as an act of self-defense, since by that point he's gone off the deep end and is trying to strangle her. I thought you were talking about having the murder plot come up much sooner. And now I'm confused.



No I was just suggesting that after she maims him, maybe she escapes but then decides to come back to save the king and needs her friends' help to do it, which would keep the 'requiring teamwork' theme while making her more proactive as her goal shifts from 'escape' to 'stop the villain'.


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

glutton said:


> No I was just suggesting that after she maims him, maybe she escapes but then decides to come back to save the king and needs her friends' help to do it, which would keep the 'requiring teamwork' theme while making her more proactive as her goal shifts from 'escape' to 'stop the villain'.



Coming back to save the king isn't necessary, because the king hunts her down himself when she escapes (and the villain follows in secret). And yes, she does need her friends' help to do it.


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## glutton (May 24, 2016)

Ireth said:


> Coming back to save the king isn't necessary, because the king hunts her down himself when she escapes (and the villain follows in secret).



My point was that if she isn't recaptured and instead decides to go back to save him perhaps after meeting up with her rescuers, it would make her seem more proactive with the shift in goal...


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

glutton said:


> My point was that if she isn't recaptured and instead decides to go back to save him perhaps after meeting up with her rescuers, it would make her seem more proactive with the shift in goal...



That's a bit impossible, because at the point she escapes and is recaptured, she and everyone else believes the villain is incapacitated and, having been maimed and rendered ineligible to inherit, would give up on his ambition to take the throne. Since it's the king himself who goes to find her, as well as the above reason, no one suspects the prince to have followed until the moment he stabs his father in the back (at which point the prince is invisible, so he can't have been caught prior).

Once the prince is done away with, the MC does have a moment of hesitation on whether or not to help the king, and she ultimately chooses to do so despite the king wanting her dead for maiming the prince. It works in her favor during the resolution, as helping the king garnered her and her family a life-debt, which the king repays once he recovers a bit by letting them leave Faerie safely.


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## glutton (May 24, 2016)

Ireth said:


> That's a bit impossible, because at the point she escapes and is recaptured, she and everyone else believes the villain is incapacitated and, having been maimed and rendered ineligible to inherit, would give up on his ambition to take the throne.



I don't know if this is a bit too blunt, but you keep saying stuff is 'impossible' when you're the writer... I think you're making things too difficult for yourself by viewing aspects of the story as set in stone when they aren't. It doesn't seem hard at all to justify her not believing he will give up his ambition or stay incapacitated for long. Obviously he does neither, all it would take is for her to be a bit pessimistic to continue suspecting/fearing he will commit more evil deeds.

In fact without knowing any other context, it makes her seem naive to so easily believe he will give up.


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

glutton said:


> I don't know if this is a bit too blunt, but you keep saying stuff is 'impossible' when you're the writer of the story... it doesn't seem hard at all to justify her not believing he will give up his ambition or stay incapacitated for long. Obviously he does neither, all it would take is for her to be a cynic to continue suspecting/fearing he will commit more evil deeds.



As far as anyone knows, the prince is unconscious in the infirmary of the king's castle, in no state to harm anyone. And the MC is more than ready to wash her hands of the whole thing and go home. Even if I did have her and her family decide to go back, they're not given time to do so before the king finds them and the prince's final act of villainy happens. So really it's a moot point.


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## glutton (May 24, 2016)

Ireth said:


> As far as anyone knows, the prince is unconscious in the infirmary of the king's castle, in no state to harm anyone. And the MC is more than ready to wash her hands of the whole thing and go home. Even if I did have her and her family decide to go back, they're not given time to do so before the king finds them and the prince's final act of villainy happens. So really it's a moot point.



He isn't even imprisoned, he's just injured and she has no idea how long he will stay that way or how capable he will be of acting when he wakes up. Her being afraid he will recover and come after her or continue his plot is really not hard to justify at all.

Again, you're the writer, you're still saying events as they happen are the only way they can when you clearly have the power to change them. If you don't want to fine but they are not unchangeable to make it a 'moot point'.


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

glutton said:


> He isn't even imprisoned, he's just injured and she has no idea how long he will stay that way or how capable he will be of acting when he wakes up. Her being afraid he will recover and come after her or continue his plot is really not hard to justify at all.
> 
> Again, you're the writer, you're still saying events as they happen are the only way they can when you clearly have the power to change them. If you don't want to fine but they are not unchangeable.



I'm speaking with regards to the logic of the story as it stands, disregarding authorial omnipotence for the moment. Fear or no fear on the part of the MC, there is no time for her to be proactive before the king and prince show up again.

I think this argument is wearing thin.


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## glutton (May 24, 2016)

Ireth said:


> I'm speaking with regards to the logic of the story as it stands, disregarding authorial omnipotence for the moment. Fear or no fear on the part of the MC, there is no time for her to be proactive before the king and prince show up again.



But my whole point is that you can change the story to have the king not catch up to her so fast...


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

glutton said:


> But my whole point is that you can change the story to have the king not catch up to her so fast...



Even if I do that, it would not work out well for the MC. She's an escapee from prison, a fugitive. Going back of her own will would mean she's recaptured on sight and executed immediately (since she was already wanted dead for maiming the prince). And her family would probably be imprisoned as well.


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## Heliotrope (May 24, 2016)

Ireth, what is your goal for this story? Traditional publishing? Self publishing? What are you hoping to achieve? I know you have a query blurb out there... Are you still hoping for traditional publishing?


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## glutton (May 24, 2016)

Ireth said:


> Even if I do that, it would not work out well for the MC. She's an escapee from prison, a fugitive. Going back of her own will would mean she's recaptured on sight and executed immediately (since she was already wanted dead for maiming the prince). And her family would probably be imprisoned as well.



That makes sense, but that could be a reason why she needs her other friends to help her get to the king and warn/save him without being caught first. I suppose it might be a lot of work to come up with a whole new endgame scenario though.


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Ireth, what is your goal for this story? Traditional publishing? Self publishing? What are you hoping to achieve? I know you have a query blurb out there... Are you still hoping for traditional publishing?



Yes, I am still hoping for traditional publishing. Right now I'm working on polishing the last two chapters of the story (since I've already done some substantial revising recently) so my beta reader can look them over before I start querying.


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## Heliotrope (May 24, 2016)

Ok, so I haven't read your story at all, so I can't really offer suggestions, but based on the info you have given I have a few thoughts: 

1) There is a difference between a passive MC and a reactive MC. Usually, a MC is reactive for the first half of the story. Here they were, going about their normal lives, when BAM, something knocks them off their feet and sends them sprawling. The first half of a book is usually them trying to orient themselves again and try to solve the problem. But usually they haven't learned enough yet about themselves and the situation in order to really be effective, so they are re-acting, and usually making choices out of fear. 

At the midpoint they usually learn something, or something goes terribly wrong with their plan and they realize what they have been missing and now have some sort of answer or plan, so they move from acting in fear and re-acting, to moving with courage and being more active. 

A Reactive Protagonist Doesn't Have to Be a Passive Protagonist! Discover the Difference - Helping Writers Become Authors

So reactive for the first part of the story can be Ok and good. Now what you don't want is a passive MC, and I'm wondering if this is what your betas are referring to. A passive character is one that sort of sits back while others do the work. So she may have a goal to escape, and she may make plans to escape, but during the course of the story it is others doing the work for her or coincidences occur where she gets out of actually having to do anything or make any hard choices (I think this is what Glutton is getting at with the King... Oh, the King is searching for her and finds her, so she didn't have to actually do any work. This makes the King the active character and her the passive character.) Again, I haven't read it, so I can't be too sure. 

2) Betas are amazing to a point, and if many of them are telling you the same thing it might be a good idea to listen. However, at some point, you are going to want to pay a real editor to have a look. If they also tell you the same thing, you need to make changes before trying to submit it anywhere. Also, while betas can be amazing, at some point you have to say "No" if you really feel like the story is how you need it to be. However, keep in mind that once you have put it out there to an agent, you can't explain your choices. No agent is going to ask you why you did A instead of B and let you argue your choice.


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## Heliotrope (May 24, 2016)

So if I use Gladiator as an example, 

for the first half Maximus is re-acting. He runs from his attackers, then is captured and made into a slave. He has very little control over this entire situation, and even when he is a gladiator he has very little control other than simply 'survival'. He has a plan (get back at Lucious) but how he will acheive that plan? No clue. He decides to try to win the hearts of the crowd and wins every competition so that he might be able to win his freedom. (So he is still an active member of his own story, and he is still activly moving forward and fighting his own battles and trying to acheive his own plan). 

At the half way mark things change. He bumps into his old servant who tells him that the other soldiers are waiting for him and will follow him, and he gets his little statues back. He runs into Lucilla who asks him to help her defeat Lucius with the Senate.. Stakes have been raised. Now this is not just about Maximus and revenge and re-acting, this is about working together with others to free Rome itself from a terrible tyrant. Now Maximus is acting in courage, moving forward with a real plan other than simple revenge.


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

I still don't think my MC is passive at all. The only time she could be said to "sit back while others do the work" is when the princess goes out to find the MC's family, and that's only *after* the MC begged to go with her and was denied. Even then, the MC knows she has to do what she can for herself, and makes with the escaping (repeatedly), rather than sit around and wait for her family to come to her. I don't think your example with the king at the end of the story showcases the idea of a "passive" protagonist. Other people can be active at the same time as the MC without taking away from the MC's activeness.


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## Heliotrope (May 24, 2016)

Ireth, I already said I don't know your story. I'm simply saying that I wonder if that is where Glutton is going with that.


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

And I've said already that this debate is wearing thin. I think it's time to leave it be.


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## Chessie (May 24, 2016)

Ireth. Could I just make a quick suggestion though? How about just letting the story be and start writing its sequel? You don't have to answer that here if you don't want to.

Edit: wanted to add that having a sequel in the works would help your quest for representation and distract you from the waiting process.


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## Ireth (May 24, 2016)

Thanks, Chester. Unfortunately I'm not sure the resolution of this story allows for a sequel; the few threads I leave untied (i.e. the punishment impending for the Fae who aid the MC in her escape from the prince) are minor. This is pretty solidly a standalone novel.


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