: Re: Is there such a thing as too inconvenient? I find myself often being irritated at elements in situations that help characters succeed, elements which are also highly unlikely or even illogical.

@Kevin153

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"Too convenient" and "too inconvenient" may be polar opposites for the characters but they are both symptoms of the same problem in the writing. The author is relying on coincidence to solve writing problems. Getting the protagonists out of a difficulty is a writing problem. But getting them into a difficulty is also a writing problem.
@CortAmmon referenced Sanderson's Law, which can be paraphrased as "the more that magic solves problems for the characters, the better thought out and justified it must be," and generalized as "the more that any plot device solves problems for the characters, the better thought out and justified it must be." However, plot devices that solve writer's problems can also come across as cheap and undermotivated, even if they aren't solving the character's problems. A good example is the 7th book in the Harry Potter series. What at first seems like improbably bad coincidences --the heroes are continually discovered by the villains --are revealed to be the result of a plausible and well-prepared plot device:

The protagonists are unintentionally signalling their location to the villain each time they say his name. This is foreshadowed several books in advance by the hero's insistence on breaking a taboo honored by most of the other characters in the book --a eccentricity that can directly be traced back to advice from his trusted mentor.

It's okay to have a bit of coincidence in a book --we all experience coincidences in real life, as well as lucky or unlucky breaks. Too much of it, however, betrays a lazy writer. We don't expect our books to match reality --particularly fantasy books --but we do expect them to mirror reality. In other words, we want to learn something about facing the challenges of life from fictional narratives. Therefore, even in a fantasy narrative, we want the challenges the characters face to be a similar mixture of result-of-choices and outside-circumstances --with just a sprinkling of coincidence --to what we encounter in real life.

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