It Was Coincidence, I Swear!

As we continue our journey of examining good writing, let’s talk a little bit about what happens in your scenes.  I remember a friend of mine a few years back harping on Clive Cussler because practically everything that happened to Dirk Pitt was lucky.  Luckily, Dirk just happened to have a knife handy; luckily Dirk was in the right place at the right time.  One thing you absolutely don’t want is things happening for no reason, or the dreaded…

Coincidence

In real life, coincidence absolutely occurs in our everyday lives.  But in fiction, coincidence occurring too often leaves the reader feeling cheated.  As authors we need to make sure that our readers understand why things happen the way they do in our stories.  Your reader is looking for the reasons and logic for why characters do what they do, and for why your scenes are unfolding in the way they are.  Readers want to believe your story, but they will not if you use luck and coincidence too much.  Think about this example:

Fred was hungry, so he went outside.  There was a cafe across the street so Fred went in.  He ordered lunch, but when the check came, Fred didn’t have his wallet.  Luckily, a lady at the next table knew of his dilemma and paid for Fred’s lunch.  As Fred left the cafe, it started to rain.  Fred didn’t have an umbrella, but a man nearby dropped his, so Fred picked it up and used it.  And he didn’t get wet.

Okay, along with sounding pretty boring, it also isn’t that believable that whenever Fred runs into an issue (no money, no umbrella), something just happens to rescue him out of his situation.  Readers want to see characters solve problems, not have Lady Luck help them.

Motivate Your Characters

Another piece that will make or break your writing is the motivation of your characters.  First, you have to have believable characters, and the backgrounds of those characters must match their current motivations.  Let’s say that Fred was raised in a home where his parents fought all the time and Fred never received any love or affection from them.  Don’t you think that Fred might have a few quirks, maybe some insecurities about women or relationships.  So it might be unrealistic to have Fred in a perfect marriage with the perfect wife, without any hangups at all.  A reader who knows Fred’s background would expect something adverse from it.  At the very least, if Fred did have the perfect life, the reader would want to know how Fred overcame his troubled background in order to turn out so well.

Give your characters current motivations as well.  Since Fred came out of a crappy background, he’s struggling with his marriage, wondering why he and his wife argue all the time.  This is motivation for Fred to consider an affair, or leaving his wife (or whatever else) as well.  But whatever you do, don’t just have your characters running around your book, doing things for no apparent reason.  Your reader will not be pleased.

Frail Fred

This leads to another point: creating strong characters.  You do not want to have tender little characters who are afraid to do anything.  Strong characters move a story along.

Let’s say Fred is a detective.  Readers  don’t want to see Fred hanging around his office, waiting for the clues to drop into his lap.  We want to see Fred digging up the clues, one after the other as he tries to find the bad guy.  This keeps the reader turning the pages.

Final Thoughts

Remember your catchy dialogue (and no talking heads) as you write scenes that captivate the reader.  Make sure your characters are acting within the dynamic backgrounds you created for them.  Spice up your story with some conflict (which we’ll delve into next week) and you’re sure to have the workings of a great story.

Image courtesy of Graur Razvan Ionut.

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Renee Pawlish

Renee is the author of Nephilim Genesis of Evil, the Reed Ferguson Mystery Series, Take Five, and The Sallie House: Exposing the Beast Within . She also consults on how to market and sell self-published fiction.

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