What a Coincidence! Creating Plots That Don’t Feel Like Accidents

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Dipping into the archives today with an oldie but goodie on how to avoid a story full of coincidences and contrived plots from 2014.  

No matter how exciting a story may be, if the plot hinges on coincidences and contrived events, readers will feel cheated. Does the protagonist always seem to find the right person at the right time, who happens to have the exact item she's looking for? What about the hero who overhears conversations that reveal the information he needed? If solutions to problems seem to fall into the protagonist's lap with little to no work, odds are your plot is going to feel contrived.

Plots work best when events happen for reasons rooted in character goals and motivations and not just because the author wanted it to unfold that way. There’s a fine line between situations that read plausibly and ones that feel like a series of unlikely coincidences.
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com