ClancyBoy

I'm having a difficult time putting together a motivation for the main character in one of my books. The way I have the plot structured right now it's more a case of the main character being pulled along by circumstance, not of him driving himself forward to achieve some goal. He's more reactive than proactive.

I'm wondering if this can work, how I can make it work, and if readers would find it acceptable. If the character isn't driven toward a goal does it make him too uninteresting? Is it that important to a good book to have that kind of a dynamic main character? What if the story environment was interesting enough to compensate?

Has this been done before successfully?

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

Hodge

The main character and narrator of The Stranger, Meursault, had no goal and was essentially reactive.

Same with the main character and narrator of The Fall, actually... Maybe it's just a Camus thing.

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ClancyBoy

I haven't read any Albert Camus, though I mean to.

Is the character compelling despite his lack of motivation?

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

Hodge

The character is compelling because of it.

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ClancyBoy

All I need to know. Thanks!

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

Mike C

Also Thomas Covenant, if I remember, was a reactive character. It worked (although the further you got into the series, the more tiresome he got. For the author too, possibly - if I remember rightly he spent the whole of one novel in a coma).

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