There's More to Agency Than Just Character
“This here story is all true, as near as I can recollect. It ain't a prettified story. Life as a river rat is stomping hard, and don't I know it. It's life wild and woolly, a real rough and tumble. But like Da said, life on the river is full of possible imaginations. And we river rats, we aim to see it through in our own way. That's the honest truth of it.” – Big River’s Daughter (Holiday House, 2013) A common writing term explored in many workshops in that a character needs agency . A character’s agency is a concept that is easy to understand – whose story is it, after all? – but not always easy to execute. In my current WIP, I’ve paid particularly close attention to my character’s agency, recognizing that readers identify and care about characters who have ownership of their journey. Lorin Obergerger ( Free Expressions ) offers that agency is the character’s drive and desire to affect change, a change that happens because of their active choices...
