Secrets of Writing: Chance and Coincidence
This is very dangerous territory, however it can be useful. Things that happen by chance or coincidence can be used to provide meaning to a story. But they can also make your story look ridiculous if used improperly.
Coincidence is a popular device in comedy, because it’s somewhat preposterous. It happens in real life, but rarely. So if it happens a lot in a story, it’s absurd, and thus can be used for comic effect.
It’s perfectly acceptable to begin a story with a coincidence. People believe they can happen. And coincidence brings across the feeling that fate is involved. So using coincidence to start a story can add a certain symbolic charge. But in serious fiction, it should never be used to end a story. Coincidence not only robs the hero of his shining moment, it never happens when you need it to happen. The audience won’t buy a coincidental ending.
It generally should never be used throughout a story. Unless you want to establish the premise that life is absurd. By using chance or coincidence as a causality for major events, you pain the picture that life is nuts. But this should be done carefully and it’s better handled in comedic stories.
In most cases chance and coincidence are used as cheap plot devices by writers who are stuck with what to do next. I’ll do a mea culpa here and admit to having committed this sin myself. But it’s something to be avoided. Audiences have become very sophisticated over the years having been exposed to so many books, comics, TV shows and films. They are very familiar with good and bad writing. They can spot a weak plot a mile away.
Chance and coincidence may happen in real life, but in fiction, people find it hard to swallow unless you use it in certain ways. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus stated that “Character is Destiny”. We all have a feeling in our lives, especially in our youth, that we have some sort of destiny before us, good or bad. Chance represents the hand of fate to many people. This is why Shakespeare was able to get away with using it so much in his play OTHELLO. The play makes us feel Othello had a destiny to fulfill and fate was going to make sure it happened.
When chance and coincidence is used in favor of the hero, the audience doesn’t usually believe it. But when it’s used against the hero, it seems more realistic. In our gambling story, for example, if Kyle won the money in the story the way we supposed in the up ending, it would be unacceptable to a lot of people, because that’s just too unbelievable. But the ending where he loses, or the ironic ending where he loses his gains is far more “realistic”.
REMEMBER: Never end a story with a coincidence and keep chance to a minimum.
Interesting thought. But I think that sometimes coincidence make our life more mysterious. Single problem is that some people regard very seriously to this…
Posted by Iren on 02/09 at 02:47 AMCoincidence happens a lot in real life. But in fiction it is often abused by hack writers. So it should be used sparingly.
Posted by on 02/09 at 12:18 PM
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