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CHANCES_ARE

                                     August  9, 2003

This is The Rule: you are
allowed one single
unlikely coincidence, and
it will be presented near
the beginning of the
story.  It then functions
as the premise, and the
rest of the narrative will
be a logical, if not            The doctrine of The Twist:
predictable, flow from          suprises are supposed to       A beginner's
that beginning.                 seem inevitable in             error: doing
                                retrospect, but only in        the unexpected
                                retrospect.                    will impress
                                                               with novelty.

Exceptions exist:                                                Achieving
                                                                 the unexpected
The "it can always get                                           by breaking
worse" exception:                                                a "rule"
                                                                 rarely works.
Chance is allowed to do
harm, but never benefit.         This exception can be
You can run from the bad         abused: benefit can be
guys into an avalanche, but      disguised as tragedy.
you can not have an
avalanche fortuitously wipe         Note the short life-
out the bad guys leaving            expectancy of girl friends
you untouched.                      of action-adventure heroes.

Lightning may strike, but
it must not strike the
villian.


The irony exception:

The monster can turn on
the creator, and destroy
them both.

The invincible aliens can be
wiped out by lowly bacteria.

James Bond can be rescued from
torture at the last minute,          (That's the Fleming
but only by a SMERSH assassin        Bond, not the Connery.)
sent to eliminate the faction
which happens to be torturing
him.


As with all rules,
the question might
be raised, "why?"

Some possible starting points:

   There's a
   difference
   between reality
   and realism.

   Unlike reality,
   fiction has to
   worry about
   being plausible.

   Fiction must
   "live up to
   the real".

   Fiction is not the
   opposite of truth,
   and not a synonym
   for lies.



Really, the primal
rule (as stated by
Kenneth Robeson):
the hero must
extricate himself
by his own actions
                     The rule against
                     coincidences is
                     just an application
                     of this.

        And the first exception is
        really that all rules can
        be broken at the outset of
        the story as part of the
        premise.

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