We all encounter the problem of a passive protagonist at some point, whether we realize it ourselves or have a beta reader or editor point it out to us. But is your protagonist truly passive? Is that so bad, really? And if it is bad, how do you fix it? All these questions have run through my mind before, and today, we’re going to address them.

Note: To avoid semantic nightmares, I’m going to use the singular “protagonist” or “point-of-view character,” but all of these areas can apply even if y...