How much coincidence is too much coincidence?

[Worthy39]

what about you thought it was a coincidence, but it was actually not? what if it was a throughout plan of someone else who intentionally make it that way?
What if your whole life, your whole adventure was a plan of some unknown existence? that you are just follow a script of somebody?
will it still be call as coincidence?
i read a novel where at a certain point, this dude antagonist take out a list and read his entire life in front of MC, make him almost losing control lol

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

will it still be call as coincidence?

It doesn't matter what happens later if I'm not enjoying the story right now.

this dude antagonist take out a list and read his entire life in front of MC

That means very little. I can write "And then Henry remembered that she was a goddess, created a brand new planet with a billion types of undocumented lifeforms, and then dropped it on the bad guy's head" but it means absolutely nothing if it doesn't make sense within the context of the story. Without anymore context than what you just gave me, what you described sounds like the author trying to handwave their own bad writing. "No, no, my plot isn't contrived! The bad guy just had every single moment of the hero's entire life planned out decades in advance because he's just that much of an all knowing evil genius! But now he's not going to display any of that godlike foresight so that the hero can fight him and win."

 

[xedale]

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[OniKaniki]

It doesn't matter what happens later if I'm not enjoying the story right now.


That means very little. I can write "And then Henry remembered that she was a goddess, created a brand new planet with a billion types of undocumented lifeforms, and then dropped it on the bad guy's head" but it means absolutely nothing if it doesn't make sense within the context of the story. Without anymore context than what you just gave me, what you described sounds like the author trying to handwave their own bad writing. "No, no, my plot isn't contrived! The bad guy just had every single moment of the hero's entire life planned out decades in advance because he's just that much of an all knowing evil genius! But now he's not going to display any of that godlike foresight so that the hero can fight him and win."

It's quite funny consider your name is literally Adam (no offense, just a name of a character who does that thing i said)
What if the coincidence was so often that you suspicious of what is going on? and later the protagonist also suspicious of his coincidence and decide to investigate it?

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

What if the coincidence was so often that you suspicious of what is going on? and later the protagonist also suspicious of his coincidence and decide to investigate it?

It all depends on how well it's written, but I would expect a bad writer to use tropes like that more than I would a skilled writer.

 

[YagiToshinori]

Good coincidence is OK-ish with consequences or foreshadowing. In the original post, if the woman taught the guy how to fight, but deliberately did a lousy job to set him up for failure, that might be interesting. He learns 90% of fighting and then the remaining 10% after he has an "AUGH! That b****!" moment. As for foreshadowing, check out nearly every James Bond movie. If Q gives Bond a cigarette lighter that explodes when its underwater and clicked twice, you know darn well Bond is going to be underwater when he needs explosives.

Bad coincidence is ALWAYS OK! In the 2001 sci-fi/martial arts movie "The One" starring Jet Li, our hero is running from the police! In a police station! And he opens the door and finds ... the police classroom where 20 guys are practicing with truncheons. Jet Li signals the comedic moment by slumping and sighing "oh no". Then the martial arts mayhem, which did NOT add to the plot, takes place. But its cool, because we believe random bad things will happen, so we buy into Jet Li randomly having to fight 20 guys.

Try to buy a random coincidence with a negative one. Maybe the best poke monster the guy coincidentally found is manic-depressive or something, I dunno.

For every question "Does thing happen? / Can hero beat the thing? / Is this good?" the answers are:
1. Yes. (almost always bad, unless it's the last chapter of your fantasy heartbreaking epic)
2. Yes, but ... (better! The best Pokebeast is available for free BUT it is manic-depressive.)
3. No (always awesome. The best Pokebeast is NOT available, the hero better sort this out on some kind of side quest)
4. No, and ... (best! The best Pokebeast is NOT available for free AND it forms a murder-suicide compact with the other Pokebeast the guy found)

If you need to write a coincidence to get your hero/heroine out of a tough spot, you've put them in a bad spot and need to rethink it.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

It all depends on how well it's written, but I would expect a bad writer to use tropes like that more than I would a skilled writer.

I would expect a good writer to make the presence of the tropes less obvious, and a bad writer to leave them glaring at you...