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How do you avoid story being convenient?

fantastic

Minstrel
One thing most of us probably dislike in stories is events happening conveniently for reaching a certain situation.

I have certain ideas but some elements seem very convenient. How do you decide if something is too convenient?

How do you try to make it less convenient?
 
To quote Emma Coats, "Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating." This isn't 100% true, but it's a good rule of thumb.

For an exception that worked, a villain in Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes has a weakness to a specific number, but other characters can modify his spellcraft to change the number within certain limits. The number is changed to 37 for sensible but unsuccessful reasons, and one of the heroes is left alone and unarmed against him. The hero goes for the eye, and the comic flashes back to something said nine years earlier--he knows 37 ways to kill a man with his thumb. For me, this worked because of the sheer cheek of taking an offhand, seemingly irrelevant comment and turning it into foreshadowing.

And if I may interject my own experience, I think quick solutions can work if they create even bigger problems. In one of the stories I'm writing, creatures that feed on love are facing mass starvation. Since the story involves magical crystals, I introduced crystalized love, which they might be able to purchase to stave off starvation temporarily. Then I considered the potential price tag for even two weeks worth of crystals. The new problem becomes "How can we possibly earn enough money to survive, both short-term and long-term?"
 

DeathtoTrite

Troubadour
I think what bothers me is when a convenient event takes the power away from the protagonists and gives it to dumb chance. I want to feel like the characters are saving the day, not creative plot devices by the author.
 
Depends on the point of the story, really, in terms of where it stands on the "free will vs predefined destiny" continuum. I've read stories that are about the characters being pawns to a greater destiny or historical necessity, in which case the "convenience" is actually a story element - but it must be engaged with as such. Otherwise, I do like to feel that even the coincidences fall out of the characters' efforts. For instance, if the best archer in town happens to show up to shoot the dragon because our heroes spent a lot of time trying to rally the townspeople to their cause, or because one of our characters earlier saved said archer's son, then that's ok.
 

K.S. Crooks

Maester
I start with the conflict. I want to put my characters at risk, this is where they show what they are made of. The fun for me is in coming up with unique ways to handle the different situations. the author needs to know what their characters are capable and willing to do and understand that there are different levels of winning. A character may escape a trap, but may be wounded or may defeat a foe but their partner dies. Realizing that a complete victory is not always needed or true to the story.
 
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