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PASSIVE OR ACTIVE CHARACTERS
By Matthew Terry
You have your idea. It's a good idea. You've thought hard about the story. It works. Well, it works for you. But still, there's another question you need to ask yourself: DO I HAVE PASSIVE OR ACTIVE CHARACTERS? Or, to put it another way, do the characters move the story along or are they moved by the story? Do they create the momentum or does the momentum push them along?
Everyone can readily agree that the break between the first and second act in "The Wizard of Oz" is the very obvious going over the rainbow and landing in Oz. But, did Dorothy play an active part or did the Tornado push the momentum towards the second act? True Dorothy had run away from home and if she had not done that she would not have come back to the farm after everyone had made their way to the storm cellar thus precipitating her getting knocked out and going to "Oz" but, again, did she move the story along or did she not? In my humble opinion she did not move the story along.
Lets look at a more modern film such as "Speed." Dennis Hopper places a bomb on the bus that Sandra Bullock drives and Keanu Reeves commandeers. Does Keanu or Sandra move the story? Or does Dennis?
Is this okay to do? Should things HAPPEN to your characters to move the story along? Sure! Certainly you can have something of great momentum move the story into the second act, whether it be an earthquake, a terrorist attack, the sun coming up in the morning, etc. But, if you have the momentum come from something other than your characters going into the second act - you better have the third act momentum come FROM your character(s). If you don't, then you will most likely have characters that appear passive or boring. You will also find you probably won't have the momentum to carry your story to its thrilling conclusion.
Let's say, for instance, that you have a love story set in Los Angeles. Two people in love. We get to know them and then they meet "cute" in the college library. They begin a relationship but things start to fall apart after a while and then BOOM! Earthquake happens, destroying their homes and, thus, they need to re-evaluate their relationship in the destruction.
Do you see how this is boring? How the characters are passive? Instead of meeting "cute" how about we find out that one loves the other from afar and he sets up an elaborate ruse to meet the other. That makes a character active and draws us into the story. And, as for the earthquake it forces them to their next move when it should be one of the main characters deciding to return to the relationship. Also, these outside forces give a screenplay an unbelievability that lessens the impact you may be going for.
Think about the movies you've seen. Where do the characters move the story? At what point are decisions made and are they made FOR the character, TO the character or BY the character?
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