Deus Ex Machina -- How to identify?
I got a critique today from someone and they told me I was using a "Deus Ex Machina". I did some poking around on here, and I question if it really is one.
I found a link -- and it says within the first 20-25% I can get away with it. But does that mean for 20-22% of the chapter or the novel? Mine happens in the middle of the second chapter.
My Possible Deus Ex Machina:
My character is searching for something. When she finds what she's looking for, it's pretty clear that she's waiting on someone. She finally gets fed-up and carries on without him only to find herself in a spot of trouble. He arrives in the nick of time to help her.
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The issue with Deus Ex Machina (DEM), regardless of when it occurs, is when you have led the reader (by whatever means) to expect your character to solve her own problem, and she gets a win by the gods doing her a favor out of nowhere.
Readers will accept undeserved bad luck, but they expect the hero to be an agent of good luck, not the recipient of it, or at least overcoming bad luck.
If she gets herself in trouble through recklessness or stupidity, we don't expect her to be saved by a stranger. Your story would be better if she struggled out of her trouble on her own, taking risks that paid off, and frees herself from danger but ends up muddied, in torn clothing -- THEN the guy she's looking for shows up, just MISSING the nick of time. Now she has another obstacle to overcome, meeting the one she needs looking like a filthy stinking vagabond.
Your hero can BE the DEM showing up just in the nick of time to save somebody in distress, or can BE the DEM as the "chosen one". But your hero should always be an active agent (and proactive agent) in their OWN fate, don't ever give them an obvious break (I mean a break the reader will know is a break).
Stories are very much about heroes overcoming obstacles by dint of their own will, skill, determination, action and risk taking. That is why they are inspiring or entertaining. We like to see people win when they aren't lucky and have to struggle every step up the mountain. So no free rides for the heroes, not directly or indirectly. That's what the modern meaning of DEM is; a gimme or free ride or lucky break the hero did not earn.
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It's not really a DEM in my opinion. At least, not in the strictest sense.
You need to make sure though that the audience knows she is supposed to wait for him (maybe even ordered to do so).
Her decision to go ahead without that support(or guidance) and the subsequent trouble she then needs "rescuing" from, will considerably lay out her personality, potentially also her abilities and standing in the relationship with the person she waited for.
If you want to reveal that kind of information go ahead.
It can drive further conflict or bonding between the characters.
It is a quite common plot device often displayed by rookies, the impatient youth, dare devils or hot heads.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39251. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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