How do you force a turning point in a narrative that is supposed to be precisely about the lack of such devices?
Please, before flagging this question as subjective or generic, take a moment to read it through. IMO this is a valid, specific question, albeit a bit complex.
To try and unpack the admittedly obscure title, I will use an example:
Imagine you have a character who plans her life and daily activities according to "fate" or "signs". Let's say she has suffered some past trauma and thinks she is fated to never meet a kind man. Now, assume you want to introduce a turning point in the narrative journey, something that will make this woman realize that there is no such thing as fate.
Any thought on how to achieve that, since the idea of a turning point seems intrinsically connected with the very notion it tries to dispel (the presence of fate)?
EDIT: Based on Anir Mass's input, I'd like to clarify this a bit: By "turning point", if the term isn't transparent, imagine something in the direction of a "Deus ex machina" device. In our case, then, the question becomes: How do you "awaken" someone from their fallacious thought that life should be lived according to signs, if such a device (i.e. that would cause the awakening) can be construed as a sign itself
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I hate to try to divine motive, but are you sure this is a story question? It sounds more like you are trying to make an argument than tell a story, more like you are trying to find a way to convince that reader that their lives are not governed by fate than that you are trying to find a convince the character.
The destruction of someone's life view is worthy matter for fiction, but the focus should then be on the experience of abandoning one view or adopting another. It should not really be germane whether the new view is more correct than the old one (per the author's view). If the work is actually an argument for one life view against another, it is a polemic, not a novel. Then the question becomes, what are the arguments against fate, which would clearly be off topic here.
But if the topic is, what it the experience of conversion from one worldview to another like, then there are countless conversion stories you can look at, a surprising number of which are more about the nature of the experience of conversion than about the rightness or wrongness of the new/old views.
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I see your problem, humans can show striking ingenuity in constructing narratives to support the notion that everything is a divine sign. I can only come up with two solutions:
The chaotic one. Rather than trying to destroy her narrative, have her realize that different narratives can be constructed around the same events and take agency as the writer of her life. The lazy way to do this is to introduce her to a teacher figure with such a radically different worldview from hers that she will have to reconsider everything she knows, someone who will plunge her life into chaos by showing her the forking paths where she sees clear road signs. It seems much harder to replace this with an impersonal force, but hey, maybe it is possible. By the end she should ideally have enough self-awareness to note the irony of the situation - how fateful the encounter that made her denounce the idea of fate was.
The satirical one. Look up "Inside Amy Schumer - The Universe" with Bill Nye on YouTube for reference. See how the ridiculousness escalates? You can have your characters' beliefs become increasingly monstrous in their selfishness. Then any reminder that she is not the center of the universe should be enough to make them crumble.
Good luck!
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So basically, the question is, how can she change her mind on fate, given that she takes every event that happens to her as fated?
That's a tough one.
Well, a turning point here could be an intellectual one. Let's assume, as you mentioned, she believes she's not fated to meet a kind man. Rather than having events prove her wrong by introducing her to a kind man, despite her expectations, perhaps you could try changing her mind on the matter, by seeing how unreasonable her belief is.
This starts with emotions, then thought, then conviction changes slowly, almost imperceptibly.
1- she meets a person who has a similar, more extreme belief, in fate 2- that person makes a bad, or a series of bad decisions that the main character sees as ridiculous and wrong. 3- such decision ruin the character's life in some way (death? suicide?), which affects the main character emotionally. 4- This leads to her blaming her friend's silly notions 5- then a realization of similarities in concept, if not in form 6- the main character revises her own beliefs. 7- The main character makes a decision. Remain in the comfort of old beliefs, or get rid of them, even if driven only by grief and doubt.
The most important part here, in my opinion, is the decision. That is what would make a reader relate to the main character or not.
In any case, this is my take on it. Hope it helps.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23369. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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