If you remember my post, “Quality Assurance Checks for Character Development,” you’ll probably remember that I spoke a lot about character agency, but didn’t go much into depth. Now we’re going to break down what agency really means and suggest some fixes for improving this facet of your story.

This post by Mystic Scribe explains agency very well, but I’ll distill it down for those who don’t feel like reading that post.

Agency is when characters make choices that influence the plot rather than always being acted upon by the plot. These actions change the course of the story and lead to richer characterization.

Characters that lack agency often are held together by “plot strings” (informal term) that make it seem like they luck out every time and go exactly where they are supposed to. This is common in the Chosen One trope, where a woefully inadequate character somehow gets everything done and meets all the right people and is just perfect always for some reason.

Agency can be tricky to identify, but it’s closely intertwined with plot. There can be complex chains of consequences that lead characters to certain places, but ultimately, the character chooses to go to those places and set off those chain reactions. Sometimes they can be forced by circumstances beyond their control, but their reactions to those circumstances determines whether they have agency or not.

With that in mind, let’s delve a bit more into character agency, including why it is important and how to improve it.

Why Is Character Agency So Important?

Agency deepens characterization so that characters feel like real people, not cardboard cutouts there to push a plot forward.

The character’s motivations create complications, especially when they are contrary to what the plot demands. It is why we root for a character to get what they want, and why they feel so special.

Now, I am stereotyping a bit here, but literary novels often have characters that lack agency and depth; it’s clear that the author wanted the plot to go a certain way, so they made up someone to be their spokesperson for that plot.

Generic novels often have more dynamic characters because they are focused on why that character had to be the one to do this. This difference is why characters like Sherlock Holmes are beloved centuries later, and no one remembers Dr. Hesselius from In a Glass Darkly (the book that gave us Carmilla the lesbian vampire). Dr. Hesselius was basically the 19th century Rod Serling going “damn, wasn’t that crazy? Anyway, I’m Dr. Hesselius.”

So characters with agency are memorable, intriguing, and unique. They are who sticks with us long after we put a book down, and they are often the reason that certain books are beloved over others.

Since most of us writers want to make books people remember, we’ve got to give characters agency.

We Empathize More With Imperfect Characters

Sexist as the concept may be, the “Mary Sue” trope is a perfect example of why perfect characters are annoying. (Check out last week’s post, linked above, for more details on how to fix them.)

We can tell that the character is an author’s power fantasy: where they have tons of money, always get the Love Interest, achieve whatever they want as easily as possible.

This isn’t interesting because there is no conflict. The MC always acts nice and sweet, never argues with their loved ones, and always has the kindest thing to say. We don’t get the sense that they have any issues at all because, well, they don’t.

Mary Sues (or Marty Stus) were designed never to face any backlash for anything they do. The plot pushes them along without ever challenging them to improve because there is nothing to improve.

They don’t grow. They don’t make mistakes they must fix. They don’t do things we disagree with, and they don’t show actual emotion other than “uwu I am a cinnamon roll.”

My characters can be jerks sometimes. They can say the wrong thing, or blow up at a loved one, or even cause genuine harm to others. Yet, people praise them for being genuine. Here’s a review from Pride Before a Fall:

Conflict does not degrade this relationship. Uileac and Orrinir love each other even if they don’t like each other all the time. They still see value in one another and enjoy spending time together, which gives them the resolve to work through problems.

When we see characters acting badly, we remember a time when we, or someone we loved, wasn’t the kindest person. This makes us empathize with them because we understand where they are coming from; we know how it feels to lose control. And we understand that their flaws directly impact the plot, for good or ill.

Tactics for Demonstrating Agency

The character behaves badly sometimes.

Again, making mistakes does not make your character unlikeable; it makes them feel realistic. You do not have to avoid any and all friction between your faves for fear of them becoming the “bad guy.”

In fact, whether your character is good or bad doesn’t really matter. What matter is that they are interesting. Conflict-free characters are not interesting; they feel weird and fake.

Let your character get mad. Let them snap at someone because they’re having a bad day. Maybe they react impulsively to something, and this throws the plot awry.

This is especially true if you’re writing a high-stakes thriller. Nothing makes me roll my eyes more than when a character is meekly going along with everything and has nothing but praise for those who are hurting them.

We are not our best selves when we’re in a war zone, or kidnapped, or facing imprisonment, or have to save a loved one. When your characters are always sweet-as-pie no matter what happens, that’s unrealistic.

I must mention that is okay to have a sweet, nice character. Being kind doesn’t make a character boring as long as they do still make mistakes. Someone can generally be kind but occasionally be a jerk anyway.

My guide to making relatable characters can help you decide what flaws they should have and in what proportion. Imbuing them with a flaw can help you figure out how you can make them behave badly.

The character has a motivation that interferes with the plot.

You will need to understand your character’s motivations first before developing the plot, as this will make it inevitable that they are sucked into the story and that they will make choices that push things around.

In my series, Uileac Korviridi wants to be the best all the time. Forever. No matter what. And this shapes the entire plot of Pride Before a Fall because he’s just so goddamn stubborn. His motivation is to avoid looking stupid or admitting he’s wrong, so he toughs it out even if he’s really hurt.

The book would be like ten pages long if he wasn’t who he is. Almost none of the conflict would have ever happened without his unique motivations and personality.

The character resists the call, resulting in complications.

I’m sure we’re all sick of the Hero’s Journey plot by this point, as it can be quite formulaic when done wrong. However, resisting the call demonstrates agency, and it also means the character must find a way to reconcile their reluctance with pressing needs.

Their reluctance must be understandable by their aforementioned motivations. Maybe the character has a young child that they don’t want to leave behind, or they don’t like change.

The character is drawn into the plot by their personality.

On the other hand, we have characters who initiate contact with our plot. A common tactic in mysteries, this develops a sense of inevitability that does not strip agency. We see that the character is enthusiastically engaging with and guiding the plot, sometimes to their own detriment.

A character who chooses the plot also avoids the question of why this character in particular is chosen for the quest.

In Funeral of Hopes, Uileac is again the problem because he’s fucking nosy. He’s just gotta know everything about his beloved Orrinir, so he pushes hard for answers.

The character has goals outside of the plot that cause problems.

When a character has a “side quest” that is incompatible with the plot, they may rebel against it or make incorrect decisions that lead to greater trouble.

So, for example, the main quest could be protecting their sibling from an evil monster, while the side quest is avenging their parents. In many cases, these can’t be achieved concurrently.

They may also stumble across information due to this side quest that makes them rethink their main quest. Maybe the “avenging parents” sidequest makes them realize that someone close to their sibling, who the sibling trusts, was the murderer, but the sibling refuses to accept this truth. Now what?!

These sudden reveals may push the plot forward, but it’s important to avoid too many coincidences or you’ve got plot strings again.

The character must balance contradictory desires.

This is the end result of having additional motivations and goals beyond what the plot wants from them.

Balance can be an excellent way to introduce agency because the character must play a complicated game of trade-offs and benefits in order to try to satisfy every desire. This forces them to make choices, which will inevitably shift the plot around.

The character makes plot-relevant mistakes by dint of who they are as a person.

This could be impulsiveness, naivete, blinding loyalty, overcuriosity, being judgmental, or even nastier traits like a mean streak or racism.

The fall from grace makes them have to scrabble their way back to the plot. It also avoids idiot plots, which could be solved by everyone not acting as stupidly as humanly possible. We understand that it was inevitable for them to fail in this particular way, and we need to see how they overcome this flaw.

The character lacks essential knowledge, which results in wrong decisions.

I’m not talking about not knowing how to cook or something, but key information that is crucial to the plot’s resolution. There has to be a reason that they don’t have this knowledge, such as not meeting someone who has the important information.

An especially fun way to solve this is to have this info being assumed as common knowledge. Other characters are then making choices based on the knowledge that is being withheld not by malice or negligence, but by wrong assumptions.

How to Create Agency

Let your characters be jerks sometimes.

Find a character’s motivation that is not directly related to solving the plot. Identify how this can create complications in the plot.

Develop conflicting desires that shift throughout the story.

Choose an additional goal that must be sacrificed, downplayed, or indulged in order to create complications.

Understand the character’s personality (shy, bold, overconfident, moralistic, know-it-all, impulsive, timid, loyal, etc) and identify how this would make it inevitable that they would come into contact with the plot.

Use character flaws to create inevitable failures because of who the character is.

Withold key information from the character that they must seek.

Character agency makes a story more exciting, as we don’t know whether they will succeed. Consider how to make your characters take a more active role in your story, then see how more real they feel.