Schumi

Is coincidence in a novel a bad thing? I ask because I am writing a novel at the moment, and I am currently going down a road of having all my characters sort of meet each other.

Let me give you an example. One character talks to an elderly man in a pub. Then the elderly man speaks to another character, and then another speaks to another.

Basically, is it okay to link all your characters in some way or another? Or does it become too much of a coincidence?

silverwriter

Well this is a tough one. In my opinion, I think it would be okay if it isn't happening with too many characters. Half a dozen times would be way too much of a coincidence. Just remember to make all the meetings unique from the other ones.

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Verago

In that kind of situation, you need to be careful; the reader can easily say, "Wow. This is another book that justifies everything by divine power, miracles, happenstance, karma, etc.," and put the book down for some, potentially poorly written, book.

So, for the reader, be careful.

Only do this if you absolutely have to. If at all possible, avoid it.

Though, logically, it isn't much of a coincidence at all that three people who end up meeting each other talk to the same old man. Lots of people would probably talk to him in a day.

To increase realism, you might suggest that the elderly man's pub is the only pub in the area, forcing anyone who wants to go to a pub to go to this one pub; that sort of takes the coincidence out of it, and might make it more believable.

Monkey King

I'm a little more tolerent of coincidence in my stories than other people, but definatly keep it to a minimum. If it's done right it can be really awesome but if it's done wrong it will drag your story in the seventh pits of lame-hell.

Read/watch peices that do coincidence well. See what makes them cool. Also chech up stuff that sucks and see what is so lame. Apply what you learn and go in peace.

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Hodge

It's a cop-out... Any kind of cop-out bugs me. Stephen King's books are full of unexplained psychic phenomena that act as a cop-out—it really bugs me. The only thing that makes me keep reading is his excellent prose and solid ideas.

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Science

mswietek

In general, a coincidence which makes things tougher for the hero will be more easily accepted than a coincidence that makes things easier. The former type, can ramp up suspense and make the reader think "Crap! How will the hero deal with this!". A coincidence of the latter type will make a reader think "My, wasn't that convenient".

Whichever type you use, the more important the coincidence, the bigger it will stand out. If it feels like a major plot point couldn't have been resolved without it, then I think that is a bad thing.

Michael

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Philo

I just finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kotova and if I had one thing I could name that bothered me it was coincidental meetings. Now given the subject matter, I guess you could say that this is a case where things may just seem like coincidence when in fact there all connected in some way, but I think it detracted from the historic tack Kostova tried with this popular subject.

I do agree however that coincidence does occur and sometimes it can be creepy how coincidental things can be. That kind of coincidence doesn’t work in a story because its seems to contrived. What you’ve suggested is that each of your characters meets another, and presumably the story passes along to this next person. That makes perfect sense to me and doesn’t seem coincidental at all, unless of course they are all related to one another in some other way as well. If that’s the case, then you’re going to have to develop an scenario which would put each of these people in the other’s path in some viable way.

Saponification

Some authors get away with it, some don't. Consider it a fifty:fifty. Do anything well and you can get away with it.

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Metta.

lisajane

Avoid it. Much better to justify it and say your justification rather than people screaming that it's a coincidence and you not being able to defend yourself.

Was told last year that one conicidence per novel is okay, provided what kind of a coincidence it is. Any more than that, no.

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suzakugaiden

I've considered using coincidence in a story to indicate that reality was moving towards order, which would ideally upset the characters because they'd assumed that reality naturally tended towards entropy. Or, more specifically, somehow associating unrelated events as coincidence and drawing odd conclusions about realitybreaking from it.

That, or suppose a god and fiddle with determinism.

Nickie

I try to avoid coincidence in my stories. I'm that sort of person who plans everything, and I want the events in my books "believable". The reader must get the impression, "Yes, this could also happen to me." And by doing that, you get away with quite a lot.



Nickie

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mammamaia

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