JCB's Ruminations on the Craft of Fiction #26
November 12, 2020
This week I want to talk about coincidences in fiction. People will often complain about a story if there are too many convenient coincidences that propel the action forward. And yet, fiction requires coincidence in order for there to be a story at all. If that cute boy at the party didn’t turn out to be Romeo Montague, then Juliet’s story would never have happened. How are we as writers supposed to navigate this contradiction?
Probably the best way to "hide" the fictional convenience of a coincidence is to dress it up in reasons. If our protagonist takes a walk near his apartment and encounters a friend that turns out to be just the person he needs at that moment in the story, it will feel less like a coincidence if the friend has a reason to be there. Maybe the friend owns the store our protagonist is passing by. Even better if the friend has a reason to seek out the protagonist, and his own personal motivations bring him into the story at a point that would otherwise seem to be a mere coincidence. The most compelling situation for the unfolding of a compelling story is when the convenient character appears because of a reason connected with the plot, so that now, even though the protagonist has found a solution to a problem by the new character’s appearance, the plot accompanies that meeting to pull them further into the complications of the story.
This is related to a piece of advice I read a hundred years ago in like 1920: coincidences are ok if they help the bad guys, but not if they help the good guys. The coincidental landslide that blocks our hero’s escape route doesn’t draw criticism the same way the coincidental appearance of some final puzzle piece that allows the heroes to vanquish the villain, what has come to be lumped under the concept of the "deus ex machina." On the other hand, if the heroes flee to what they believe is a safe haven that the villain just so happened to have infiltrated, we’re less likely to find that to be a troublesome coincidence because it harms our heroes rather than helps them.
The main thing that helps us avoid plot-ruining coincidences is to always remember that the story needs to hinge on the decisions of the protagonist. As long as there is a character-based reason for something to happen, as long as it feels like the natural outcome of what the character is trying to accomplish, rather than a surprising bit of good fortune, it will feel earned, rather than the result of auctorial meddling.
Next: How Characters Make Plot