Luck as a plot device

[hyluvian]

Perhaps it's the imminent arrival of Halo 4 that's causing me to reflect on this, but I've always thought of dabbling with 'luck' as an almost physical trait for a protagonist (or even an antagonist, how cool would that be?). For those of you that follow the Halo universe, when you look into the lore surrounding S-117 (Master Chief) from his youngest days as part of the Academy all the way through Halo 4 one of the things that surrounds him is his extraordinary luck. It's mentioned when he's first recruited, it's in the reports about his various missions, and it's the reason the AI Cortana chose him as her partner.

Actually, 'luck' has featured in more than just the Halo series. If you look at various ARPGs (Diablo comes to mind first and foremost) a catgeory that can be aking to luck, 'item find' is one of the traits that various equipment had, in that game it simply boosted your ability to find that one peice of loot you were going for but it still highlights what I'm going for.

Is luck, in your opinion, a viable character trait? And have you ever seen any books that display (implicitly or not) a version of luck as a valuable survival trait for the protagonist?

For myself, I can readily point to Tolkein's work in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It seems that the Bagginses both have extraordinary luck (sometimes good, sometimes bad) in surviving the trials they have to deal with.

It's something I may play around with in the future. What about you all?

L. Stark

 

[WyrdMystic]

Good question! If you look at the real world – we are where we are because of a mixture of different levels of knowledge, ability and luck. So yes, to an extent luck defines everyone and to be successful an element of luck is required.

In the real world, I saw a woman trip and drop her phone down a drain. Unlucky her. You could try the same thing a hundred times over and it would never hit that small space.

Also, I would say the inclusion of luck makes things more realistic. I would warn though, if not done properly, in a fantasy setting, it could be mistaken for Deus Ex Machina.

Luck is a definite and visible element in most stories – if you look you can find that point where, even though the sword was batted out of hand the hero just happened to fall where, with a bit of a struggle, can reach it.

So yes – luck is definitely usable, but needs to be done with care.

I would be interested in a story where the protagonist gets through on a string of extremely poor luck. After all, if your trait was good luck where is the suspense for the reader who knows luck will get you through everything.

 

[CupofJoe]

Terry Pratchett uses bad luck for the wizzard Rincewind... but there again maybe as he survives and prospers it is good luck after all...

 

[WyrdMystic]

Terry Pratchett uses bad luck for the wizzard Rincewind... but there again maybe as he survives and prospers it is good luck after all...

True. I'd forgottent about Rincewind - but he's more begrudgingly lucky and inept.

 

[Ireth]

The first Xanth book, A Spell for Chameleon, also has Bink, a protagonist with extraordinary good luck. Everyone in Xanth has a specific magical Talent, and luck is Bink's talent, though he doesn't figure it out until a good way into the book. Originally he thinks he doesn't have a Talent, and is fearful of being exiled because of it.

 

[Guru Coyote]

Luck as a character "skill" is interesting. What happens when the character realizes they are "blessed" and start to rely on their luck?
As a skill/trait/resource it would be an unreliable one. There is a lot of drama to be had in it being "always there" and then failing when really needed.
Also, as with the cellphone hitting the gutter so exactly... is bad luck really "bad"? Sometimes something very unlucky happens, and later turns out to be THE happy accident that was needed to move things forward.

One thing I would be wary of when writing luck as a plot device is that it should never replace the characters motivations or goals. Luck should be used like a tool or an enemy (bad luck as protagonist), not as the motivational force of the story.

One theme I have been playing with recently is how "good luck" could be something that drives a character nuts. What if *whatever* they do, it works out ok? Wouldn't that get very boring very fast? A character could be constructed as a daredevil who is constantly trying to see just how far they can take it... They might become very jaded and cynical.

 

[WyrdMystic]

One theme I have been playing with recently is how "good luck" could be something that drives a character nuts. What if *whatever* they do, it works out ok? Wouldn't that get very boring very fast? A character could be constructed as a daredevil who is constantly trying to see just how far they can take it... They might become very jaded and cynical.

A bit like Ghost Rider - whatever he does, no matter how far he pushes the boundary, death just won't let him die until he's fulfilled his contract.

 

[yachtcaptcolby]

I think using luck in a narrative is fine as long as it doesn't suddenly manifest as a crutch to get a character out of a situation for which you can't find a better solution. Granted, luck has a heavy hand in real life, but sometimes in fiction a sudden burst of it can seem unrealistic.

But if you've got a character with a lucky streak, and that lucky streak persists through the narrative, you don't have to worry about that.

 

[TWErvin2]

In Fred Saberhagen's Swords series, one of the magical swords of power (Coinspinner) gave the wielder extreme luck. Actually, Stan Lee, when asked in an interview what superpower he'd most want to have, he responded luck.

Luck can certainly play a role, but too much or too convenient for the protagonist and it can detract from the story and turn off the reader.

 

[BWFoster78]

Mat in WoT is depicted as having good luck. It works within the context of the story.

 

[Christopher Wright]

The first Xanth book, A Spell for Chameleon, also has Bink, a protagonist with extraordinary good luck. Everyone in Xanth has a specific magical Talent, and luck is Bink's talent, though he doesn't figure it out until a good way into the book. Originally he thinks he doesn't have a Talent, and is fearful of being exiled because of it.

Actually I think Bink's talent is that he's immune to magic. It just comes across as being lucky because the magic powers always seem to miss, etc.

Luck can be a viable part of a character as long as it's consistently worked into the story. If it's only pulled out in order to get the hero out of a bad situation, that's going to look like cheating. But if in the story the hero is thrust into a bad situation, and it turns out that it was lucky he was, because it allowed him to get a glimpse of where they were keeping the magical whatsit of whoseits and he just by chance stumbled across the combination for the lock (written down on a piece of paper stuck as a bookmark in a book he grabbed in order to block a dagger blow) then it becomes more interesting to the reader, because the reader will start to wonder what exactly it is you're setting up to happen next.

 

[Grimbold]

Depends how much luck effects it...I'd be to worried about stepping the line into "nothing bad ever happens to the good guy, everything bad happens to the bad guy" territory of boringfantasy

 

[Telcontar]

In the Ringworld series there is a character who is described as having been "bred" for luck by basically being the product of several generations of reproduction lottery winners. Thus, luck is assumed to be genetic, though even the people carrying out the experiment can't explain the mechanism.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Binks invincibility to magic works through luck, i.e. every time someone magically attacks him some lucky event miraculously screws up the attack leaving him unharmed. Although when he had his power reversed by the uber demon bad things kept happening and yet ultimately he survived and had his power returned to normal, suggesting that it was still working in his favour even when it was supposedly working in reverse.

Luck if used well can be a brilliant plot device. I'd suggest Robert Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice, where the hero consistently suffers misfortunes as the world keeps changing, and always ends up washing dishes in restaurants to make a buck.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[The Dark One]

I would suggest that luck - as a plot device - is fine to kick things off, but should never be used to solve problems. Eg, character finds something which sets off a chain of events - great. But character gets saved because of dumb luck, eg needs money so wins the lottery - boring.

Just on the Bilbo thing mentioned above, it seemed like luck when Bilbo put his hand on the ring in the dark, but I love the way Tolkien later explained the luck as not being luck at all. That's much more satisfying for the reader.

 

[Sheriff Woody]

I think using luck in a narrative is fine as long as it doesn't suddenly manifest as a crutch to get a character out of a situation for which you can't find a better solution.

Exactly.

You have to find a balance. If your character accomplishes X task or finds X item by sheer coincidence, there should be some form of equal and opposite reaction which causes something terrible to happen later in the story.

Using my avatar for example, Woody and Buzz get very lucky to find a Pizza Planet truck at the gas station in the first Toy Story film. However, after entering Pizza Planet, the next-door neighbor who destroys toys finds them instead of Andy and takes them home.

One stroke of good luck is countered with another stroke of bad luck. This is what helps create the ebb and flow of rising and falling action (also known as peaks and valleys) in a story and helps keep things interesting. Heroes get closer to their goal, then they are taken back and the accomplishment of their goal is cast into doubt. They get closer, then taken back. Goal is in doubt. Heroes get closer...etc.

Extraordinary good luck can be used in a story, but the key is to find the right balance so it doesn't seem like the character is always getting off easy. It's hard to relate to that type of character, who is essentially the opposite of an underdog - the type of character we are predisposed to gravitate toward based on our nature.