Monday 23 January 2012

Coincidences and YouTube

There's a video about a road rage incident in Bath currently going viral on YouTube. It's not me, but a coincidence that we share a name and live in Bath.

Coincidence happens all the time in real life. Sarah Duncan isn't an unusual name, and I expect there are several Sarah Duncans in Bath who are currently fretting in case anyone thinks the video features them.

But coincidences in stories...now, that's another matter. You can get away with a coincidence at the beginning - the initiating incident perhaps - but any further on and the reader will feel cheated. Put your coincidence at the end, particularly if it solves the overall plot, and they'll be furious.

I think it's because coincidence can makes the story all too convenient. We know they happen in real life, but fiction isn't real life, it's pretend real life. The author is choosing what to include or exclude, and most of the characters' 'real life' will be excluded: you don't often see characters doing the boring stuff like getting dressed or cooking every meal. Everything in the story has therefore been especially selected and choosing a handy coincidence to solve the plot feels like the author being lazy.

I believe that one of the reasons we read fiction is to see how other people handle problems. We like matching up our solutions against theirs. We also like to see characters working to achieve solutions. If the problem is solved by coincidence, then the reader is deprived of those two very basic pleasures and whatever the genre, that certainly isn't a happy ending.

10 comments:

Carol McGrath said...

Now I have often thought about this. Hardy was an expert at cpoincidence and got away with it because his writing is so good and particularly his characterisation.

Carol McGrath said...

another typo! coincidence! well I do these all the time!

Sarah Duncan said...

And of course you can set things up if you're clever enough so a coincidence becomes plausible. I also think we don't mind coincidences spinning the plot, it's when they solve them that we object.

Philip C James said...

It can also be frustrating when the author leaves out some salient detail in a crime/detective/mystery/police procedural novel and then pulls a rabbit out of the metaphorical hat.

Didn't some parody writer once have a character called Deus exMachina? If not, bags me!

Sarah Duncan said...

Think it's especially important in the crime genre that the reader has access to all the salient info. It's a real betrayal if you don't IMO.

BadBadBlair said...

I am soooooo glad to hear that you never wear green.
Pheeeeww !

Sarah Duncan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sarah Duncan said...

Glad to have set your mind at rest.

(BTW the previous post had a typo, I thought I was being cunning by deleting it. Not cunning enough.)

Anonymous said...

What a great blog, I wish I'd know about you sooner - thanks to the slightly unfortunate "other" S.Duncan for inadvertently bringing you to the fore. Perhaps you could assist Ms Other in writing a remorseful apology. She made a regretful mistake in the heat of the moment, etc. Sad for her, good for you, voyeuristic entertainment all round.
(An Ex-Trowbridgeite).

Sarah Duncan said...

I knew there had to be a silver lining to the whole thing - welcome to my blog!