• About
  • Cats Dig Hemingway
  • Guest Bookings
  • John King’s Publications
  • Literary Memes
  • Podcast Episode Guide
  • Store!
  • The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film
  • Videos
  • Writing Craft Discussions

The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Tag Archives: Coincidence

Heroes Never Rust #92: Coincidence

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Heroes Never Rust

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alan Moore, Coincidence, Dave Gibbons, Narrative, Watchmen

Heroes Never Rust #92 by Sean Ironman

Watchmen: Coincidence

Eventually, a story must come together—well, at least a good one. All the subplots and character interactions must mean something. Many writers seem to try to make their story “realistic.” More like life. But, life is meaningless, and stories help us make sense of the randomness of life. At some point, stories come together and give readers/viewers something to hang onto. As Watchmen approaches its climax, issue ten brings the disparate plots together. We get Nixon preparing to possibly start nuclear armageddon, Night Owl and Rorschach growing closer like real partners and understanding one another, Ozymandias preparing and heading to his secret base, the pirate comic featuring the “hero” returning to his home town, the missing scientists and artists boarding a ship thinking they are going home only to discover that it is a trap and are blown away, the solution to the “mask killer” theory of Rorschach’s as Night Owl stumbles onto financial files on Ozymandias’ computer, Rorschach mailing in the journal he has been writing this whole time to the New Frontiersman, and Night Owl and Rorschach approaching Ozymandias’ secret base to confront the potential villain. A lot happens this issue, and even though Watchmen is typically dense, this issue features a lot of moving parts to close out parts of the story and set the reader up for the climax. This is also the part of a story that I feel is the most difficult to pull off. A lot of moving parts can show the reader the strings to a story, the writer as puppet master behind the scenes.

Watchmen10

The closer the plots are to one another the better they will match up and the less strings a reader will be able to notice. For example, Rorschach mailing his journal and the solution to his “mask killer” theory directly relates to one another. Before going off to confront the possible villain, Rorschach mails his journal, afraid that he might not make it back. In instances such as these, subplots coming together make sense. Readers may feel fulfilled with the plot developments closing, but there’s no need to think of the writer trying to end plots because the developments make sense on a character level. Readers are still in the story.

But, over developments, such as Ozymandias heading out to his secret base, Nixon preparing for a possible holocaust, and the end of the missing scientists and artists plot, border on coincidental. So, right when Night Owl and Rorschach need Ozymandias’ help and accidentally stumble on to the fact that Ozymandias is behind The Comedian’s death is when Ozymandias, unaware of his old teammates’ actions, leaves town to complete his master plan? If Ozymandias was still around, then Night Owl and Rorschach would not have accessed Ozymandias’ computer and would have never solved the case. Ozymandias has to leave for that plot point to work. Readers may begin to see the story’s strings. But, why does this work? Why do readers just follow this thread in Watchmen? In the thirty years since the comic’s publication, as well as a major blockbuster film adaptation, I have never heard of anyone complaining about this plot point. So, why do readers buy this, when in many other stories, readers would call out such coincidental actions? For one, and I think this is very important, there’s a strong payoff in the next two issues. I believe readers, at least many of them, are fine with overlooking the shuffling of the game board to set up something epic. And Watchmen succeeds in that. When there is little payoff, then readers begin to question the reasons behind it, and because those reasons don’t produce a stronger narrative, writers face a backlash. Secondly, for all the importance the scene has to the solution to the long-running plot of The Comedian’s murder, the comic has become much more than that mystery. The comic began with The Comedian’s death, but since then, the comic has opened up and The Comedian is barely mentioned anymore. The scene of Rorschach and Night Owl stumbling onto the truth is only three pages long. By moving onto other story elements and not building this one moment up to the reader, readers are less likely to look so hard on the scene. The scene is written as if it were just something inconsequential. Confronting Ozymandias is the important moment, finding out that the heroes need to confront Ozymandias is something that needs to happen, but that isn’t really important in the long run.

Watchmen 10 ending

Another coincidental moment, and perhaps one that is more difficult to pull off, is the end of the missing scientists and artists storyline. This story has existed on the edges of the comic. None of the main characters even seem to care. Most of the information has been given to readers through newspaper articles and TV programs that are on in the background. Here, in issue ten, the storyline ends in a two-page scene. There’s a ship departing the island where the scientists and artists have been kept, no exactly prisoner though. They seem to have been promised a great deal of money and now think that they will be free to continue their lives. Then, a bomb is discovered on the ship, it blows, and everyone is killed. This may seem coincidental, and it is. At the moment when the heroes will soon close in, the biggest evidence against the villain is destroyed. But, this moment has to happen—well, not necessarily the bomb, but the solution to the mystery. The reason this coincidental moment works is that it does not actually affect the story. At all. It never changes one of the main characters’ path. By being so inconsequential to the story, the scene actually succeeds. It’s just information for the reader. The main characters, other than Ozymandias who makes it happen, never actually find out about it. The plot has existed in the background this whole time and it ends in the background. The missing scientists and artists help explain how Ozymandias creates this master plan of his, which we’ll find out more about next issue, so it’s necessary to the story, but it never actually changes anything. It’s an explanation more than an actual subplot.

At some point, coincidence is essential to storytelling. Some reader will always be able to ask questions like, “So, Silk Spectre picks this very moment to leave Doctor Manhattan, who wouldn’t have left Earth if she were still around?” Or, “Obi Wan Kenobi just happens to find Han Solo, a rogue with a heart of gold, in the cantina?” Or, “Superman just happens to land in Kansas as the Kents drive by, instead of in water?” At some point, readers just have to buy that certain story elements will occur. Any story can have holes poked in it. Coincidence in storytelling fails when it affects the main storyline, when it affects the protagonist(s). Readers then see the strings, see the writer working the story into a certain position, instead of allowing the story to evolve naturally.

_______

Photo by John King

Photo by John King

Sean Ironman (Episode 102) earned his MFA at the University of Central Florida. Currently, he teaches creative nonfiction and digital media at the University of Central Arkansas as a visiting professor. His work can be read in The Writer’s Chronicle, Redivider, and Breakers: A Comics Anthology, among others.

Scribophile, the online writing group for serious writers

Online, shop here:

If you must, shop Amazon and help the show.

Audible.com

Blogs

Not forgotten

Categories

  • 21st Century Bronte
  • A Word from the King
  • Aesthetic Drift
  • animation
  • Anime
  • Art
  • Autobiography
  • AWP
  • Biography
  • Blog Post
  • Bloomsday
  • Buddhism
  • Buzzed Books
  • Cheryl Strayed
  • Children's Literature
  • Christmas
  • Christmas literature
  • Comedy
  • Comic Books
  • Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart
  • Craft of Fiction Writing
  • Creative Nonfiction
  • David Foster Wallace
  • David James Poissant
  • David Lynch
  • David Sedaris
  • Disney
  • Dispatches from the Funkstown Clarion
  • Doctor Who
  • Drinking
  • Dungeons and Dragons
  • Editing
  • Education
  • Episode
  • Erotic Literature
  • Essay
  • Fan Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Feminism
  • Film
  • Film Commentary
  • Flash Fiction
  • Florida Literature
  • Francesca Lia Block
  • Functionally Literate
  • Ghost writing
  • Graphic Novels
  • Gutter Space
  • Help me!
  • Heroes Never Rust
  • History
  • Horror
  • Humor
  • Hunter S. Thompson
  • In Boozo Veritas
  • Irish Literature
  • Jack Kerouac
  • James Bond
  • James Joyce
  • Jazz
  • Journalism
  • Kerouac House
  • Kung Fu
  • Like a Geek God
  • Literary Criticism
  • Literary Magazines
  • Literary Prizes
  • Literary rizes
  • Literature of Florida
  • Litlando
  • Live Show
  • Loading the Canon
  • Loose Lips Reading Series
  • Lost Chords & Serenades Divine
  • Magic Realism
  • Mailbag
  • manga
  • McMillan's Codex
  • Memoir
  • Miami Book Fair
  • Michael Caine
  • Military Literature
  • Mixtape
  • Music
  • New York City
  • O, Miami
  • Old Poem Revue
  • On Top of It
  • Pensive Prowler
  • Philosophy
  • Photography
  • Poetry
  • politics
  • Postmodernism
  • Publishing
  • Recommendation
  • Repeal Day
  • science
  • Science Fiction
  • Screenwriting
  • Sexuality
  • Shakespeare
  • Shakespearing
  • Sozzled Scribbler
  • Sports
  • Star Wars
  • Television
  • The Bible
  • The Curator of Schlock
  • The Global Barfly's Companion
  • The Lists
  • The Perfect Life
  • The Pink Fire Revue
  • The Rogue's Guide to Shakespeare on Film
  • Theater
  • There Will Be Words
  • translation
  • Travel Writing
  • Vanessa Blakeslee
  • Versify
  • Video Games
  • Violence
  • Virginia Woolf
  • War
  • Westerns
  • Word From the King
  • Young Adult
  • Your Next Beach Read
  • Zombies

Recent Posts

  • The Curator of Schlock #383: CQ
  • Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #176: With Jurassic Chomping Action!
  • Episode 524: Yeoh Jo-Ann!
  • The Curator of Schlock #382: Dark Crimes
  • Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #175

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • The Drunken Odyssey
    • Join 4,216 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Drunken Odyssey
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...