: Re: Would it be wise to make the turning point of a story coincidental? I've written a fictional story and the way my characters are coming together and forming a bond seems way too coincidental

@Dunderdale623

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There's a rule... I can't recall the name, but it's a fairly common rule.

Essentially, the more accidental your reveal is, the more build-up you need not to make it a cheap deus ex machina.

To give an example, Tom Clancy's "Sum of all fears". A nuclear submarine crashes into a huge tree trunk in the middle of the ocean, suffering major damage right when a nuclear crisis is approaching its peak, and the accident serves as a major turning point. How the heck does a nuclear submarine crash into a big tree trunk in the middle of the ocean?

Well, first we start a thousand years ago as the tree seed started to grow... then, throughout several chapters we encounter lumberjacks, transport crew, the whole endeavor of bringing the enormous tree to Japan where it's to be used for a temple. We are presented with a slice of life of a less-than-competent sailor failing to attach it, then the ship in the storm, and the tree breaking free.

Another plotline through many chapters tells of the tribulations of the submarine crew, a competent captain displaced by ambitious, self-important moron through some back-scene games, and said moron making stupid errors and being a pushover, demoralizing the crew.

After so many chapters, when a stupid maneuver ordered by the captain crashes the submarine into the trunk, it comes as a perfectly acceptable incident, with all its elements explained. If anything, the consequences of the lengthy build-up seem rushed, the incident not playing a major role in the whole plot - but the long set-up made it completely acceptable!

Same here. Give a thread of build-up of the emergency situation which will demand the lady's attention, some politics and incompetence that lead up to her needing to be there and then. Give the kids a thread that builds up to the food poisoning, say, the kids challenging each other to eat some worms or something else they really shouldn't.

With proper build-up, any coincidences, even not very plausible, will be completely OK. Without that - the writing becomes cheap, a soap opera with little depth and deus ex machina contrivances.

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