In this week’s Story Works Round Table, Alida, Robert, and Kathryn discuss the ways in which character agency is relevant to the whole of your story. How well you handle agency could determine how much readers like your book.
VIDEO
AUDIO
SHOW NOTES
How do you let readers down if your character doesn’t have agency? Can you have coincidence in story? How do your characters earn or deserve their agency? How do you spot agency problems? And how can you manipulate agency for different character types?
What we talked about:
How do we let readers down if we don’t have agency? (1:35)
What about coincidence? (6:26)
Make your character deserve their victory! (8:24)
Align your agency with your characters psychology and physicality. (10:09)
Your character must have reasonable choices. (12:52)
Don’t give your protagonist’s agency away. (15:30)
How do you spot an agency problem? (20:07)
Your agency is contextual. (25:00)
How do you portray a deliberately weak character? (28:07)
LINKS
Things we mentioned:
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff
Want more about these topics? Check out:
SWRT 8: Active Protagonists
SWRT 073: Stakes & Agency
SWRT 076: Character Agency
SWRT 173: Character Agency in Memoir
