Intro to the Inactive Protagonist – A Weekend Workshop with Vida Cruz-Borja
When: May 31st – June 1st, 2025 @ 1 PM – 3:30 PM UTC (click here to convert to your timezone)
Can’t make the live webinar? Register to get the recording after!
Where: Online over Zoom
Price: 50 – 125 USD (Scholarships available!)
Fiction has a tendency to prefer the “active” protagonist – the hero, the Chosen One, who goes out there and takes his destiny in his hands. This default isn’t one that marginalised protagonists can always participate in, and often agency for marginalised protagonists will look different. “Inactive,” even.
Based on her excellent essay in Fantasy Magazine, “We Are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist,” Vida Cruz-Borja has created this workshop to begin examining the inactive protagonist, the dynamic between the inactive protagonist and their setting, and how conflict is employed in writing SFF. This class will include breaks for guided journalling and a Q&A session, and at the end of it students will:
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- Widen the definition of character agency in fiction other than “active” and “inactive” protagonist
- Discover other ways “inactive protagonists” can express their agency
- Explore perspectives and approaches other than conflict and competition in fiction
- Get plenty of suggested and recommended media to continue exploring the inactive protagonist after the class
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