Post History
If you feel like your plot elements show too much of the author's deus ex machina, then go back and figure out a way to make them more organic. Sometimes this may mean backing up several scenes, ...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:11Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5974 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T02:26:04Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5974 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
If you feel like your plot elements show too much of the author's _deus ex machina,_ then go back and figure out a way to make them more organic. Sometimes this may mean backing up several scenes, or possibly halfway back into the book, to put your pieces in motion. If Sherlock needs to run into Molly late at night at the morgue, you have to establish early on in the storyline that Molly keeps long hours and has no life so it's not unusual for her to be at the morgue at 2am, on Christmas Eve, etc. This is less contrived than "Molly _happened to_ forget her purse at the morgue and went back to get it because she needed her phone and just _happened_ to run into Sherlock."
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2012-06-22T10:16:42Z (over 12 years ago)
Original score: 2