Recently, I started reading the book “The Game Master’s Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying” by Jonah and Tristan Fishel. From the start, it discusses low quality GMing (or as I put it DMing). This made me think about characters and character generation. It made me think about how the plot and the story arc proceeds. Indeed, this topic needs to be delved into. So, let us start.

The typical writer begins a story by conceptualizing an idea about a story in general. The general or generic concept gives rise to the overall plot of the story. This is where the writer begins to envision the characters who (Notice I did not say that. That is reserved for things. Who is reserved for people.) will populate this world. Should my protagonist be male or female. The author then decides X. We will go with male. Why? Because I am a dude. Endofstory. (yes I know the spaces are missing). Endofstory.

What is the outlook of the character? What will he be like? Does he have any idiosyncrasies? What is is goal? These and other questions lead to the author (not all the time, but often) to generate a character bio. This is good. The character bio allows the writer to understand who the main character is. It allows the writer to keep the protagonist grounded. If there is some version of the character written down, it becomes less likely that a writer will deveate from who is first incepted. Now, the author begins crafting the protagonist’s secondary companions. Again, the process plays out until the panoply of characters is complete. What happens next?

EXPOSITION –> The aurthor begins crafting the story, and we are off to the races. Start of the story. Scene description. Action happens. Perhaps not the action that begins the RISING ACTION but action nonetheless. Timmy got on his bike and rode to the corner store. What is the neighborhood street like? Who is on the street? Maybe, the street is empty. Why is it empty? Because Timmy’s bike rides between dimensions and thus he never sees anyone while riding his bike. His dad is a super scientist and created this bike for him so he would be safe while riding it. Then, THE action happens that starts the RISING action.

RISING ACTION –> Here is where the main portion of the story usually happens. Not always, okay…geesh. Touchy are we. Action and reaction happen over and over until CLIMAX occurs. No problem. The author has already scripted out COMPLETELY what will occur through out the whole story. This type of writer is called a PLOTTER. No problem. Many of us writers are PLOTTERS. Everything is already scripted out for the characters. The author even knows about the bad ending awaiting the evil baddie boo. (And yes! That is a real term. Just look it up in Kevin Pajak’s “Big Book of Unusual and Unused terms. Available at finer bookstores around the nation. If your bookstore does not carry it, just ask them to get it). Poor Baddie Boo, he/she/it never comes to a good end. Yes, it can be a Big Baddie Boo. Just think of Twister (sigh…okay Twisters if you want a second tier movie). The tornado is the evil Big Baddie Boo.

So, we all know about everything I just wrote about. Fine. But why this blog post? What I just wrote about is Reactive Writing. Plotters are REACTIVE writers. Their characters react to situations. Who and what is the opposite of a Plotter? These people are called PANTSERS. Why? Because they fly by the seat of their pants when writing. They are Proactive writers. They take their story and do not script it out but let it come to them as it will. Take for instance my current story I am crafting. I intended to write only on the first book. BUT what ended up happening was that I am now writing on the fourth book WITHOUT having even written the first book. Okay, sure, I do have an over arching plot for the seiries. But, as a Proactive writer, I let the story and the characters tell me what is happening. This can be quite unnerving for PLOTTERS. They need the security of having everything already set out EVEN BEFORE THEY BEGIN WRITTING.

There is a price to pay for being a REACTIVE writer. This type of writer misses out on those gems that can occur when you fly by the seat of your pants and just write whatever comes to mind. As of yet, I have not had charcters talk to me, but I have heard that they do. Proactive writing opens up the field of the story and CAN (not does but CAN) allow for those unexpected gems to flower. In many ways, the Proactive writer allows the characters and setting and scene to control the story. More often than not I do not even know what I will write next. I feel a comfort flow into my very being when I do not dominate and control my characters. Heck! I don’t even control the setting. I let it tell me what it is. And, don’t even get me started on the scene. Gesh. What a pushy gal she is.

In the end, Proactive writing allows the characters to do what they need to do and do what they want to do. Is there any stability in doing it this way? With glee I say No. This is great. I want the characters to do what they want to do. This makes for better story telling. Yes, it is more “sloppy”, but this can be cleaned up during the editing process. I even had a male protagonist, but by the end of the story he became a female and I had to go back and revise the story so that from the beginning, the protagonist was female. No, I don’t mean transgeneder. I mean it was a female from the opening of the story.

I believe that letting the characters have breathing room brings life to them. Even Plotters can bennifit from allowing Proactive writing to occur from time to time. Yes, they craft more constrained stories, but giving their characters some leeway would definetly bennifit their writing. I am NOT saying that Plotters can’t write. What I am saying is that EVERYONE should try Proactive writing from time to time Or when the situation warrants it.

This dynamic style of writing feels good. I do not constantly dominate and control my characters. So, writing for me is just that much more enjoyable. I would suggest reading “The Game Master’s Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying” for more information. Since I am already a Proactive DM, this book did not contain much that I do not already do. But most DMs and most GMs tend to be Reactive DMs. They WILL find this book invaluable.