Passive Activity

I workshopped my young adults novel on a course last year. My classmates and I had to send a 5,000 word piece for critique every three weeks. 100% scary. In my first critique, when discussing my protagonist and eventual hero, the word ‘passive’ came up. I didn’t understand this, because the opening chapter was full of action going on around him. But that was the issue.

“Change doesn’t necessarily mean progress.”

I happened upon this quote from Leonardo Da Vinci the other day and it spoke to me about my protagonist, ‘It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back & let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.’  The hero of my story was subjected to happenings and I had to change that. He had to happen to things.

On thinking about my protagonist, I realised something—I am guilty of projecting progress on activity, when in fact, I’ve been stagnant. ‘Change doesn’t necessarily mean progress.’ A friend said this to me a few years ago and it’s stuck. He was right. I call this passive activity, like driving around a roundabout over and over. You’re moving but going nowhere. It can also come when we are caught up in another’s momentum, instead of creating our own.

So, with that in mind, I ask myself ‘What power do I have that can affect change in this situation?’ and ‘How can I be active in this situation?’ To be a person of accomplishment, to be the hero of our story, we each have to purpose happening to things.

Heroes aren’t accidental. They are active.