What's a reluctant character? Well, it's somebody who needs to be dragged along into the adventure, somebody who isn't the sort of self-motivated, go-getter that we so often populate our books with. These characters feel a lot like real people -- our world is full of folks like this. The trick lies in making these characters interesting to read.

We offer some examples from things we've read, some general structural tricks, and some of the tools we've used in our own work, including examples from Glamour in Glass, The Way of Kings, and The Hollow City.