How to Avoid a Passive Young Protagonist
Daniel David Wallace
This interview will expire in…
In this session, you’ll discover:
Writers are often told protagonists should be active, with clear goals and desires. But this can be challenging when writing young characters, who often rely on adults and lack power or experience. How do you avoid a story where the protagonist is simply led around or paralyzed by uncertainty? We’ll explore how Legendborn, The Hunger Games, and A Wizard of Earthsea tackle this issue.
Bonus:
Scene Strengthener Handout: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f1dpl841dq0fga10eejh8/Scene-Strengthener-Handout-DDW.pdf?rlkey=nopfbqnjf2y80tx2re09jzbq4&dl=0
Comment Below With Your Key Takeaways Or If You Have Questions About The Session.
Daniel mentioned a worksheet with the information, but I can’t find it. Thanks.
Very helpful! I’m struggling with a character now – not the main character, but an important one – and this session gave me some ideas.
(Is the handout available to everyone? I’m not seeing a link.)
Thanks again!
Hi everyone,
Sorry the handout didn’t make it to the page!
It is here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f1dpl841dq0fga10eejh8/Scene-Strengthener-Handout-DDW.pdf?rlkey=nopfbqnjf2y80tx2re09jzbq4&dl=0
Let’s see if the link works.
Thank you Carol!
The link is https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f1dpl841dq0fga10eejh8/Scene-Strengthener-Handout-DDW.pdf?rlkey=nopfbqnjf2y80tx2re09jzbq4&dl=0
Hi Daniel, I have attended your Plot conference in the past. This session has helped because my YA protagonists are 15 and part of a research team. Thank you for the handout. It will be a tremendous help.
Thank you Cheryl!
I always wince seeing 20-something technical team leads in movies as they just don’t have the (believable) background to know what to do. In truth, I was part of a research team as a teenager but then my parent was a professor who told me where to stand, what to do, how to do it, and why it mattered. To David’s presentation, having a senior person saying something in the background could make a YA “researcher” more believable and fill in details the reader might not know. But it’s your story and you can have a million reasons why this YA is on the team…
Thanks much Daniel. I am new to this.