Obsession is goooooooood.

I wish I could remember where I read this but I thought I’d share it with you all anyway. Ready? Here it is:

Obsession is a good quality in your protagonist.

I’m not sure about all of you out there but this simple piece of advice is something I actually overlooked when rebuilding my protagonist. Cool set pieces, throw in a cool car chase or martial arts showdown and voila….instant hit. Right? Guess not. Apparently my hero has to actually want something so bad that it’s an obsession.

We’re all writers here, but some of you might like a visual aid.

Not very exciting is it. I mean, while the guy is actually in the rapids it’s kinda interesting, but once the rapids calm down there isn’t much else propelling the guy along in his little innertube. Right now, my hero is that tuber. I’m relying on all sorts of cool ’stuff’ in the script to propel the action along. This approach can even work sometimes, but let up for even a second and the audience will doze off.

Just now the film ‘Van Helsing’ popped up in my head as an example of this. Granted, I only saw the movie once when it first came out, but I remember thinking as I walked out that the movie was just go-go-go all the time. An example of the plot driving the character instead of the other way around?

Ok, now in the interest of equal time, I present to you a clip representing what happens when the character is obsessively driving forward the story.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but stairwells have never been more exciting. The most ordinary settings become extraordinary because some guy is throwing his body about like some ragdoll ninja.

This is what my protagonist needs to be doing….and he’s not. He’s a passive little twerp being caught up in the events around him. Not somebody people are going to want to cheer on and hope he succeeds.

Back to the ol’ drawing board.