Flaws: Deus Ex Machina
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Flaws, Writing Talk
Continuing my series of posts on writing flaws, I’d like to
talk about the Deus Ex Machina. This is a Latin term, translating as “god out
of the machine” but it actually refers back to Ancient Greek plays. In many of
these plays, it would seem that all hope was lost, then suddenly one of the
gods would appear to make everything magically better. The Ancient Greek writer
Euripides was very well known for this technique. The term no longer refers to
just the literal arrival of a god in the plot, but the arrival of some person
or circumstance that makes the problems vanish.
So, if this technique has been around for millennia, why is
it a flaw? Because it’s a way for the author to cheat. It’s a way for the
author to miraculously fix a problem the character may be having.
Imagine a story where the central character has just been
fired, is completely broke and is about to be kicked out of his house for not
paying his mortgage. If he were to suddenly find a bag full of money, enough to
pay of his mortgage completely and set up his own business, that could be a
deus ex machina. I say could because it could also be part of the plot. If your
story starts with the guy in trouble finding money, only to learn later that it
was stolen and the thief want it back, then you’ve got an intriguing storyline.
If, on the other hand, your story ends with the character, after chapters of
strife, suddenly having his problems resolved for him, the reader will likely
feel cheated.
In general (there are books that break this trend), to get a
satisfying conclusion to a story, the characters have to find a way, despite
obstacles, to overcome their difficulties. If the author gives them an easy way
out at the end of a story, that’s like a runner taking a taxi for the last
couple of miles of a marathon. Let characters solve their own problems.
Flaws: As You Know
Posted by childofthehive | Filed under Flaws, Writing Talk
Jason over on Show Some Character has recently written a series on writing flaws. I thought I’d follow his example with a series on some flaws that really irritate me when I’m reading a piece of fiction.
I’m going to start with a flaw that can creep up rather too often in science fiction and fantasy stories, but which may occur in any story set in a location that’s different from the one the writer and readers live in. This is the, “as you know” problem. Imagine the following scene, where you have two characters in work having a conversation.
“What are you planning on doing after we finish work today?” John asked.
“I’m going down to the pub,” Fred answered. “That’s a place where friends can meet to socialise and drink alcohol. Lots of people go to the pub to unwind at the end of a hard week.”
“Yes. I might join you. After the stress of this week, I’d quite like a beer. That’s a drink brewed from hops, barley and yeast.”
“I feel like a beer too.”
That reads really awkwardly, doesn’t it? You can’t imagine two people really explaining to each other what a pub is, because it’s general knowledge. I’d be incredibly surprised if any of my work colleagues didn’t already know what a pub is.
Think about how you’d react if someone tried to explain something really obvious. I’d probably interrupt, say that I already know what they’re saying and, if they kept going, get really annoyed. In real life, people don’t like being patronised and will be quick to object if someone’s telling them things they already know. So why do writers feel they can get away with it in fiction? Science fiction, fantasy and historical novels sometimes have one character explaining something which is common knowledge to all the other characters, just because the reader won’t know.
There are some variations on this that aren’t quite as irritating.
One option is to have a character explain the situation to someone who won’t know. If you have a visitor to the country, then they might not know the local customs, so an explanation makes sense. You can have the reader see the world through the eyes of someone who is as new to the setting as the reader themselves.
The other option is to have a patronising character. If you have a character who likes to show off how much he or she knows, then they can start giving lectures on random subjects. Just make sure that the other characters react accordingly. Have them zone out or interrupt or complain or just try to avoid that character so they don’t get these boring speeches on things they don’t care about.
Or, better yet, you could find a different way to get the information across to the reader.
Tags: advice, fantasy, flaws, science fiction, writing
