Be on the Offensive
First of all I would like to wish my amazing, awesome mother a very happy birthday! She is my inspiration and I am so lucky to have her in my life.
Okay, back to screenwriting. One of the most important, yet difficult to understand screenwriting concepts is that of the active hero. This phrase is tossed around a lot, but not easily understood or implemented in a screenplay. The best way I know to distinguish an active versus a passive hero is that an active hero makes things happen, but things happen to a passive hero.
In the beginning of any given story, something usually happens to the hero to get the story started. There, right at first, it is fine for the hero to be in this passive role. But from then on, the hero must be the one making things happen, changing the course of events and actively pursuing a goal.
An active hero is like a sports team on the offense. The hero is actively driving the ball down the field or the court towards the goal or the basket. Things get in the hero’s way, but he continues to push towards his goal.
A passive hero is like a team playing defense. The hero is reactive, waiting for things to happen to her, and then adjusting her course accordingly. In the defensive, passive role, the hero isn’t making any goals or scoring any points, she is simply reacting to what happens to her, rather than controlling the course of the game the way she did when she was on the offense.
