Writing Coincidences

Let me start off by saying that I don't really believe in coincidences. Small, everyday ones, sure. But the bigger ones? I look at those as more of an intervention of fate. It can happen with a lot of different things--your eye just happens to fall upon an advertisement for something you need, or you just happen to run in to someone you know. I once went shopping at a Kohl's with my fiance (just boyfriend at the time) and we ran into my cousin's husband, then literally five seconds later my sister comes around the corner with her husband and daughter. We all just kind of stared at each other, wondering if we'd opened up some sort of wormhole.

Weird things can definitely happen in real life. So how do you work these kinds of moments into your writing? It's a rather tricky concept, because it's easy to feel forced. There's a good chance the reader won't believe this sort of coincidence will happen in real life. And if they don't believe what's happening, then you've lost them.

First of all, you really need to assess whether or not a coincidence is even necessary in your story. If you can think of a better way to make something happen, then you should probably do it that way. A coincidence should really only be used if it is absolutely necessary, if there is no other way to bring your character to a certain place or realization, or even bringing two characters together. My second tip would be to have your character(s) acknowledge it. Have them think, "hey, this is weird," or even wonder if fate is somehow involved. It may seem cheesy, but if it's just a passing thought and you don't hammer it over your reader's head, then by all means, play the fate card. Or heck, call it what it is--a coincidence!

I think my biggest bit of advice would be to not overdo it. Unless your entire book is about coincidences or the power of fate, you should probably only have one or two coincidences in there (if you need them at all). If you make something unbelievable happen over and over again, the reader is going to get annoyed. They're going to find themselves saying, "This would never happen!" And again, unless that's the point you're trying to make, this is not good.

Example time! I think (or hope, anyway) that I only have one coincidence in my WIP. Basically I had to get one character to another character's apartment for a pretty important scene, but with one major problem: he didn't know the address. In the short story version, the other character gives him his address, but as I reworked things, I realized this would never ever happen. So I had to think it over. I didn't really think this scene could happen anywhere else, and having the element of surprise when he just shows up at the apartment seemed to help. But where does he get that address?! I realized there was another character who had it--the MC's mother. Of course, he couldn't just ask for it. I thought about him rummaging through drawers and address books trying to find it, but that seemed silly.

Anyway, I'm rambling as usual, so I'll cut to the chase. Here's how I did it. Throughout this scene, my MC, Jordan, has been talking with his mother and the whole time she's been putting stamps on a stack of envelopes. He gets annoyed with her and announces that he's leaving. Then this happens:

            She threw the stack of envelopes at me. “Drop off the mail, then.”

           I would have glared at her but she wasn’t even looking, so I reached for the envelopes with one foot pointed toward the door. And then I had one of those perfect moments. If I hadn’t looked down for just a second, it might not have happened. But clearly it was supposed to happen, since the universe so conveniently placed the answer right in the palm of my hand. I mean, I’m used to getting my way, but this was more than that. This was a sign. Because guess whose name was on the top of that pile? And not just a name, but an address. 

Now, I certainly don't claim to be perfect with my writing, but I think I worked this coincidence in the right way. He acknowledges how this moment is weird and convenient, a sign, even. But he doesn't over think it. Once this paragraph is done, he doesn't mention the coincidence again. He just acts. He goes to that address, and the story moves forward. 

That's what a coincidence should do, really. It moves the story forward when it reaches a road block. You don't want to spend pages and pages over-analyzing the significance of this coincidence. Just let it happen, acknowledge it briefly, and move on. Let the coincidence do what it needs to do and then forget about it. Sure, sometimes coincidences are unbelievable, but you still need your reader to believe it. 

How do you guys deal with coincidences? Do you try to avoid them? Any examples in your books or ones you've read you'd like to share? 

Getting Back on Track

All right, this is going to be a short one. I'm still coming out of a NyQuil induced coma. I was sure I was getting a cold yesterday but I think I fought it off. I don't feel sick anymore, but I'm still a little out of it. I was supposed to start my monthly book reviews today, but I've decided to push them to Friday. Yes, partly because I procrastinated and don't have them done. Partly. There are several other reasons, and I just think Friday is a better day to post that sort of thing. Anyway, moving on!

I don't remember the last time I worked on editing. It's probably been about two weeks. What have I been doing instead? That's a very good question. Lots of cooking and cleaning my apartment, a little reading, but all in all, I haven't been all that productive. I know I need to try harder, and stop avoiding things that I don't want to work on. I really, really, really need to work on my book every day if I ever want to get it done.

So that's what I'm going to do now. Stop procrastinating and get some stuff done!

Reasons I Shouldn't Write a New Book, Plus My 1000th Movie!

I could have split this into two posts, but I've got something else planned for Monday, so what the hell? So I've been thinking about this sequel thing all week and I realize there are plenty of reasons why I shouldn't start it right now. So here they are!

Reasons I Should Not Start Writing a New Book

1. How about I finish the first book before roaming off into sequel land, huh?
2. I really just don’t have the time or the patience to craft a brand new character and create an authentic voice for her.
3. I also may be permanently stuck writing teenage boy voice. I can’t even write poetry anymore.
4. My muse might actually kill me for this one. Seriously. I come up with a sequel to Jordan’s story and he is not in it at all. He might be mentioned, but probably not by name. So he’ll probably sneak into my brain just at the right moment and BOOM—I fall down a flight of stairs.
5. Actually, homicide isn’t really his style. But he would probably find some way to completely sabotage my life.
6. I’m not entirely sure I can create a character in her mid-thirties (at least not without a lot of time and thought—which is not going to happen any time soon). When I picture her, she feels younger than she actually is. I see her hanging out with her best friend and I realize, wait a second, that friend is most likely married with a couple kids.
7. Don’t make me research stuff! I kinda see this character being a florist, which I’d have to research. And her mother has a stroke at some point during the book, which I’d also have to research. And SETTING. I’d have to figure out where these people came from—what town, what is it like, blah blah blah.
8. My original intent was to only HINT at things that happened in the first book, but I think that will confuse anyone who hasn’t read it and frustrate anyone who has. So I’ll have to have some big confession scene where my MC’s brother admits that he committed statutory rape. And I can’t picture her reaction at this point—she was molested as a child so there’s gonna be some resentment.
9. I'm wondering if writing a sequel will somehow take away the credibility of the first book. I feel as though it SHOULD stand on its own, but I'm also really attached to the characters so I don't think I could ever be done with them. 
10. No, seriously. I need to finish the first book. 

And just because:

Reasons I Should Write It at Some Point

1. I think it could be a really good story—a gripping family drama where old wounds are reopened and secrets are brought to light.
2. I could actually write from a woman’s point of view for once.
3. I get to keep it in the universe of my first book, which I absolutely love.
4. A while ago, I created this fabulous character, Anthony, who I thought I’d never get to actually use, but he would definitely pop up in this book.

So basically, it’s not that I should NEVER write it—it’s that I shouldn’t write it NOW. I do kinda want to outline this one, though, so it may be something to do when I need a break from editing the first book. I could always brainstorm a title, too, since it took me over two years to come up with the first one…

And now for something completely different!

I like to make lists. To-do lists, lists of blog ideas, etc. But there’s one list that I’ve been working on for years, constantly adding to it and making sure that I haven’t forgotten things. And that list is my movie list. The list of every movie I’ve ever seen.

A few years ago (haha few she says…it was 8) I found myself in an interesting position. I had just graduated high school but had deferred my enrollment to college for a year (life issues) and was waiting to move out of my house to a different town, so I didn’t want to look for a job until we moved. Basically I had a lot of time on my hands. I did do a lot of writing, after my late night coffee drinking/yoga sessions (don’t ask), but I also spent a lot of time on the internet.

I don’t really remember how I got the idea to make the list. I found a website called Lists of Bests (it recently shut down…sad face), which had several different kinds of lists you could follow and check off—movies you’ve seen, books you’ve read, places you’ve gone. And you could make your own lists, too. For some reason, I started one. I added every movie I’d ever seen.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s gotta be impossible to remember every movie you’ve ever seen. Well, not exactly. But it does take a LOT of time, which I had. I spent hours and hours browsing DVD pages on Amazon until I reached the very end, making sure I added each one to my list. I looked at every genre, looked for all of the TV movies I thought I had seen, and eventually it was done. Every movie I’d ever seen, in alphabetical order. It was quite the accomplishment. Occasionally I would remember a certain movie that I’d forgotten, but over time that stopped, so I was fairly certain I’d gotten every one, except maybe ones I watched but was too young to remember. And when I saw a new movie, I would add it to the list, making sure it was always accurate.

Anyway, I’m rambling way too much. When I found out Lists of Bests was shutting down, I had to completely redo my list on iMDb. You can look at it here (go on, you know you want to!). Here’s my current dilemma. If you do look, you’ll notice that right now there are 999 titles on the list. That’s right—I’ve watched 999 movies. Which means my next one will be the 1000^th. It seems like a significant event, really, so I don’t want to watch just any movie. I want it to be a good one.  I haven’t watched any new movies in a while because I just can’t decide!

I’m open to suggestions! What the hell kind of movie should you see for your 1000^th? There aren’t any movies out in theaters I’d like to see right now, and I would prefer to not have to pay for one, although the on demand movies would probably only be about $6, so what the hell? I have Netflix and HBO as well, but I just can’t decide! What should it be? 

Anyone ever need to convince themselves NOT to write something? What should my 1000^th movie be? How many movies do you think you’ve seen? 

Ideas are Like Flies

No, seriously. Think about it. When you get a new idea, doesn't it buzz around your brain like you're some rotten piece of fruit? You try to swat it away, you say "Shoo! I don't have time for you right now! I already have things to work on!" But it persists, zooming around your thoughts, distracting you from everything else. You realize you can't fight it off.

Ideas really seem to come at the worst times. When you don't have time to work on them. When you've already been working on a novel for three years and you really just want to finish it. But new ideas are exciting, too. They can give you a much needed break from the monotony of working on the same project day after day. They can give you reassurance that you have something else to work on once current work is done.

I don't even know where this new idea came from, really. It's kinda sorta a sequel to the book I'm working on now, but also not. The main character for this new book, if I write it, is only mentioned in the first book. She's the sister of one of the main characters (I mentioned her briefly in this post). For some reason I just kept thinking about her, wondering what her life is like, how she has to deal with things that happened in her past. And suddenly there was a story idea buzzing around my head! I never actually thought my book would have a sequel, especially one where Jordan isn't in it. At all. He's going to be mad at me for this one...

Here's my dilemma, and I think I'll go more in depth with this concept in a different post at some point, but I'll explore it briefly here. If I do end up writing this book, there will be this odd scenario where the reader will know more than the main character (assuming they've read the first book). I picture this book taking place about two years after the first one, but the MC has absolutely no clue about the things that happened to her brother two years before. I'm thinking I'll probably hint at it, possibly even have him confess to her, since the whole book involves their entire family dealing with their demons. It would also be the second book where I use a character and still not write from his perspective.

I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure if I'm even going to write it. It just keeps buzzing around my head.

Editing Irony

Sometimes when you're editing your manuscript, you may think you know exactly what it needs. A certain idea may feel right, and you squeeze it in and move on, thinking that it fits in perfectly with the rest of the novel. But then when you go back and look again, does it still fit? What if the original draft was better than the new one?

Now, I'm not in any way saying that my first draft is better than my second. It's not. Not by a long shot. When I wrote the second draft, it was basically a line by line rewrite of the first. I moved around some scenes in the first few chapters, made the chapters shorter by having certain scenes stand on their own, but other than that, not much changed as far as structure goes. The events in the story still happened in the same order, and this draft was more about just making the writing better.

About a third of the way in, however, I found myself in need of a new scene. I had one scene for a chapter--a good scene, one of my favorites, actually. But it was only 2 1/2 pages. My chapters so far averaged about 4-6 pages each. I didn't think this particular scene could stand on its own, nor could I stretch it out without making it seem dull and boring--diluting it, basically. So I thought, hey, this is a great place for a brand new scene. I could sneak in some background info on a character that was long overdue, and wasn't there at all in the first draft.

So I wrote the new scene. It took me forever--about three weeks, actually. I couldn't really understand why I was having such a hard time. The dialogue was really hard to figure out for some reason, and I kept stopping because it seemed that the scene felt forced, and I really wanted to get it right. Well, eventually I did finish and kept going with the second draft until it was done. This was the only scene that was brand new--the only thing that there was no trace of in the first draft.

When I read through the second draft, I didn't like this scene. It did still feel forced, there was too much dialogue, and I was wondering if I needed it at all. I knew if I cut it, I would either have to write something new or do some drastic rearranging of scenes. But it just didn't feel right, and I didn't know if I could fix it.

It was easy to make the decision to cut this scene. The hard part was figuring out the hole it left. There were some elements in this scene that I thought I needed, and I figured out different parts of the book to move that to--places where they'll fit in better. And I realized that I needed that first scene to somehow stand on its own. I have no idea how yet, but I'll figure it out. I need to figure out a way to stretch it out without diluting it. I still want it to feel as strong as it does now.

The ironic part (I think...) is that the ONLY part that was brand new in the second draft is also the ONLY scene I am 100% cutting. Maybe I needed to write this horrible scene to figure a few things out, but in the end, it just didn't fit in. I wouldn't say that writing it was a complete waste of time, but I do find it funny how things turned out.

Distractions and Disasters

I have no idea what to write about today. No, seriously. I don't. I don't have any good writing tips today, no big editing achievements to share. Nothing. Also, the fact that my last TWO blog posts didn't require much effort on my part just shows how lazy I am. Or perhaps idea drained...

I feel really distracted lately. My mind keeps wandering off to other projects--things that couldn't possibly help me right now. I know sometimes it's good to take a break when you're immersed in the same story for so long, but I don't feel like I'm getting anything done.

I feel like every idea I ever have to schedule myself never works. And not just when it comes to writing. I'm trying to exercise more and eat better, but my plans aren't going as well as I'd thought. Or maybe it's just because my body isn't used to doing crunches so after the first day my abs were in agony. But it's the same with writing, too. I try to structure myself and it never works. The whole editing hat thing started out great, but I find myself throwing numbers back into the hat because I don't want to work on those parts, which sort of defeats the purpose of the hat. Maybe just working on things randomly really does work best for me. I just feel like I'm not getting things done fast enough.

It's not all terrible, though! I've been doing some brainstorming on the subplot (which actually needs more work than the plot itself) and it's slowly starting to pan out in my mind. I also figured out some scene rearranging yesterday and I think it will all work out. I have to flesh out a particular scene so that it can be its own chapter, but as it's a very symbolic scene, I think I can pull it off. I'm also cutting the only scene that was brand new for the second draft (hmm, there's an idea I could blog about...just not today...).

Anyway, I should go deal with these minor characters. They're driving me nuts...

What is everyone else up to?

SOULLESS Cover Reveal!

I'm super excited to be helping out another awesome author today, Crystal Collier! I just finished reading Moonless, Book 1 in this trilogy, and I could not put it down. I'll have a mini-review up later this month for my first "Hey, I Read Your Book!" segment. For now, check out the cover and details for the next book in the series, Soulless! *sigh* October?! I don't think I can wait that long...

Have you met the Soulless and Passionate? In the world of 1770 where supernatural beings mix with humanity, Alexia is playing a deadly game.

SOULLESS, Book 2 in the Maiden of Time trilogy

Alexia manipulated time to save the man of her dreams, and lost her best friend to red-eyed wraiths. Still grieving, she struggles to reconcile her loss with what was gained: her impending marriage. But when her wedding is destroyed by the Soulless—who then steal the only protection her people have—she's forced to unleash her true power.

And risk losing everything.

What people are saying about this series: 

"With a completely unique plot that keeps you guessing and interested, it brings you close to the characters, sympathizing with them and understanding their trials and tribulations." --SC, Amazon reviewer

"It's clean, classy and supernaturally packed with suspense, longing, intrigue and magic." --Jill Jennings, TX

"SWOON." --Sherlyn, Mermaid with a Book Reviewer

Crystal Collier is a young adult author who pens dark fantasy, historical, and romance hybrids. She can be found practicing her brother-induced ninja skills while teaching children or madly typing about fantastic and impossible creatures. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, three littles, and "friend" (a.k.a. the zombie locked in her closet). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese. You can find her on her blog and Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

COMING October 13, 2014

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