It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m going to skip this month’s question and instead ruminate on one of my least favorite tropes in fiction: the protagonist is forced into his/her actions by someone else. Like in the army, when a soldier is duty-bound to follow orders and can’t opt out, but without the military connotation.     

I recently encountered this trope in Mimi Matthews’s new historical romance novel, Rules for Ruin. The book didn’t work for me, despite its excellent editing and the gorgeous cover, because the heroine didn’t act of her own volition.

Like in other stories of this ilk, the heroine of Matthew’s book seems hedged in by her own morality. She feels obligated to her former teacher, and when that teacher sends her into a perilous and morally ambiguous situation, she doesn’t feel that she can refuse, even though she would’ve never chosen that course of action of her own free will. Even more, her free will seems subjugated by the teacher’s. And the heroine reluctantly accepts that status-quo.   

I abhor such stories. I think that if the characters must go into danger and mayhem, the least the authors can do is let them select their own paths. I always do that to my characters. Of course, I know that sometimes, circumstances direct our actions. A war or an illness or a dictatorship often leaves us bereft of choices. But when it is some high-ranking ‘manager’ that demands obedience, just because they can, and the heroes comply, for a variety of reasons, my reader’s soul rejects their predicaments. Like everyone else, I’ve lived through such experiences now and then, and I invariably hated it. I don’t have to read about it, too.        

I wonder: am I alone in my strong distaste for tales like that? What do you think? Do you write your heroes into such pickles? Do you like reading such stories?