Navigating Character Agency and Choices in Storytelling

We have a theory that we want to work through on today’s episode: agency is the ability to take action, whereas choices are more about the interior life of the character. We use Mary Robinette’s talking cat, try-fail cycles, and C.L. Clark’s Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home in order to examine this theory and its underpinnings. 

Thing of the Week: Marginalia by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny Magazine) 

Homework: Create a scene in which your character has very little agency, but still must make a choice. Do your best to make that choice still feel critical.

Liner Notes: 

Fluent pet buttons - Elsie the talking cat

“We Are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist” by Vida Cruz

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Credits: Your hosts for this episode were DongWon Song and Erin Roberts. Our guest was Arkady Martine. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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