Hi Dani,

I just want to let you know that I did write more about passive goals and overcoming them in my post today. 😉

Check here for the post. Hope that helps, and thanks again for the great question and idea!

Hi John,

From your description, it doesn’t sound passive. He’s actively wanting something to change and is trying to get others to do something. He’s not just content with the status quo. That’s all active.

Him getting even more active with the external plot is all bonus. 😉 Hope that helps!

Man is estranged from family. Finally gets head together, gets them to agree to a reunion. From how I see it, he wants to change, not be such a jerk, and be something he should have been years ago. But something big gets in the way. I don’t know, an asteroid hits, aliens, world war III…something that puts the family in jeopardy, needs to save them. Does so, say around the mid point, then he gets mad and moves out of survival mode and becomes a part of or THE solution to the overall problem, with the usual ups and downs towards the end. Is that beginning passive????

Thank you so much, Victoria! Glad I could help. 🙂

Hi Dani,

Yes, our characters often begin with passive goals because most people don’t think they need (or want) to change. Change is hard! 😉

From a *story* perspective, as you surmised, we have to make sure we’re using the story, situations, obstacles, stakes, etc. to push them to take the step toward change. From a *writing* perspective, we probably want to have ideas for what the active goal will eventually be so we can write toward that problem they’ll need to overcome and give foreshadowing hints of those bigger issues.

As I said in my reply to Angela, the problem comes in if we THINK our characters’ goals are perfectly fine (because on the surface, they often *seem* fine) and don’t push the story or them toward an active goal.

As far as your question about how to handle a story where overcoming the adherence to the passive goal IS the active goal… Great question! It might take a longer answer than just a comment though, so I’ll see about answering that on my blog on this Thursday. 😉

Thanks for the comment — and the post idea! 😀

Hi Angela,

Absolutely! As you said, our characters often start with passive goals, and that’s perfectly fine. 🙂

The problem comes in if we don’t use the story to push them to grow and change — like with the stakes you mentioned — or if we don’t push ourselves enough to question them and know where the story’s going next, so we end up with a stalled draft.

This was a fun post to write, as it gave *me* a deeper understanding of this issue too. LOL! I hope it’s helpful to people. 🙂

Perhaps a former soldier with untreated PTSD might invest heavily in just “maintaining” day to day, with his whole goal being to avoid anything that would disturb the status quo, to keep his life level and unchanging. Unwanted events could occur to coax him into choosing to make changes and want more, until he eventually takes on a larger and more meaningful goal.

How would you handle a story where the passive goal IS the problem to overcome?

(PS – love your blog!)