Coincidence in Writing

I'm up in Brisbane this week, organising my move before I dash back down to Yass. One of the down sides of moving interstate is that I'll be leaving some good friends (and amazing students) behind. I've been kind of sad that we won't be catching up as much.

But this week there is a friend of mine from Yass visiting their relatives in Brisbane - so today we are catching up. This has me thinking about the luck of coincidence that we are both up here at the same time, and I thought I would share a post I did previously on the use of coincidence in fiction:

The Hand of Fate should not write stories.

Coincidence. It happens all the time, and never more than in stories. Many narratives depend on coincidence, but is it a good or bad device? Like most tools, if used well it can make a story move neatly towards the conclusion, but if abused it reeks of lazy writing.

A lot of mysteries and thrillers will include coincidence as a way of bringing a crime to light (but not usually to reveal the culprit). Steven King masterfully winds coincidence into his horror stories to give them a dark fateful theme. So how should you use coincidence?

Narratives are small worlds or micro-communities. We don't want a cast of thousands in our story, so we zoom into a portion of life. This makes coincidences more likely to take place. Here's some tips I picked up from my recent writing course with Sydney Writers Centre.

Bring it in early. Have your coincidence set things rolling. Your protagonist has a fight with her boss when she's fired, later that day, while walking her dog, she drops her mobile phone. Not a good day for her. She starts searching the bushes in the nearby park for said phone, and what does she find? The dead body of her ex-boss. Coincidence. Now your protagonist is a suspect and has good reason to try to solve the crime herself. See how coincidence has moved your plot along?

Coincidence shouldn't be used to solve crimes though, we want to think our amateur detective is using their wits, not luck. And please don't end your story with coincidence - most readers hate that! (including me) Okay, some like it, and some fateful endings have been successful.

Ending with a coincidence, or 'by the hand of God', has a name: Deux ex Machina. This is where a plot problem heads to such a point it seems unlikely to be solved, and then, by the hand of God, all is resolved by fate. 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', is an example where it seems the two lovers will get away with murder, until fate steps in. Although a successful film, this ending always makes me feel robbed of a proper resolution. Having said that, I did like the ending to the first 'Sherlock Holmes' movie, but at least Sherlock used his wits to solve the crime first.

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Telling A Story Masterclass

Me totally invading Brian Falkner's personal space

I'm still recovering from inspiration overload I received at the recent CYA Conference. The day kicked off for me with a writing masterclass hosted by author Brian Falkner.

This master class ran for a few hours and was absolutely jammed packed with tips and advice on writing. I have about ten notebook pages filled. Here's just a tiny taste of what we enjoyed:

Muse
If you turn up every day at the same time, ready to work, and start writing without inspiration - then eventually your muse will turn up too.

Characters
As an exercise we were asked to share one observation about the person sitting next to us. Then we were asked to share one thing about ourselves. What was noticed was that we tend to make superficial descriptions of others, like the colour of their hair, or if they wore glasses, and we offer more personality descriptions of ourselves. So don't just decide your character is 5ft tall, short brown hair and freckles, instead tell us that they pick up any shiny objects they find on the ground, just like a magpie. This was summed up as shallow vs deep characterisation.

Conflict
Conflict must come from the story and not be placed simply for more conflict. Obstacles must seem impossible to overcome. When faced with a dilemma, give your character two choices - each with their own dire consequences, or, make them think up a third option. Also, danger must always be immediate, not something coming slowly. Characters are avoiding an oncoming train, not a possible problem that may happen some time next year.

Scenes
If you have trouble writing a full scene that includes a variety of writing techniques, try the following method:

1. Start by writing the narration. Explain what happens in this scene, where your character moves and what he does.
2. Go back through your paragraphs and insert description. Give the reader a sense of place and images for characters.
3. Now go back through what you have and add dialogue and actions.

We also talked about narration, description, writing tips, point of views, dramatic irony, overlapping suspense lines and much, much more.

Brian Falkner has a great range of novels, and I've chosen to begin by reading Brainjack:

Check out the book trailer!

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Scene Change

I only re-sparked my passion in writing a couple of years ago when I moved to my lovely country town outside of Canberra. Long cold winters by the fire provided plenty of time and ambience to work on my manuscripts.

It's no coincidence that my character (Kitty Walker) finds herself moving to a small country town in DOG SHOW DETECTIVE. I wanted to share the awe of driving pass cows in the morning, something that only a city-raised kid could understand.

The kids in my high school have been great inspiration for me too, country kids have a certain quirkiness and brashness that is endearing. I've been lucky enough to have a great writers centre not too far off in Canberra (ACT Writers) and many of you know I attend workshops religiously.

If this were a story it'd be time to shake things up. So we will.

Twice now I've flown up to Brisbane when the annual CYA Writers Conference, and I've made some good friends. So, although I hate change (here comes the inciting incident), when hubby was offered a position he really wanted at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, I wasn't too horrified.

I'll miss the cows, the country kids and the wide spaces, but I'll love being close to my dad (also a budding writer) and joining in the writing activities with Queensland Writers Centre (I've become a member already!). I can't wait to find a critique group to join too :)

My plan next year is to cut back on my teaching hours and step up my writing schedule. I is gunna be a real writer!

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