Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Life Changing Events

I use this Straw-man Philosophy when pondering a manuscript I'm thinking about writing.

It is based upon some assumptions about what a good novel contains and provides a roadmap on what I will need to include in writing it.

It starts with the following assumptions.

The world is in a constant state of flux. Everything about us is constantly changing and when this happens there are natural forces which seek to adjust the equilibrium and keep the universe operating in harmony.

When we are born there is a default script etched in our DNA which lays out the destiny we can expect if we choose to do nothing to change it. We will grow up, marry the girl next door, have kids, gradually get older and eventually die. In the course of our lives we will be inclined to accept this script and go with the flow, unless something otherwise happens to force us out of our rut and undertake a new path.

Fate, which wrote our script does not want to change it, because that means doing a lot of things that were unintended in order to adjust the future that will change if somebody decides not to play ball and make a lane change into the future. Fate warns us that if we elect to deviate from our preordained lot in life there will be consequences, painful ones. "Are you sure you really want the grief you will bring upon yourself " she whispers as we comtemplate making a drastic course correction in life.

Sometimes however, things happen called Life Changing Events. This does not happen often. For many it never happens, but for some, it strikes out of the blue, like a bolt of lightening, once or twice in a lifetime. When such an event happens and the someone it touches decides to deviate from the script... they better look out. In making a radical course change in life, there are consequences, painful ones, as the wrath of god descends upon our heads. Fate does not take kindly to somebody tossing aside the canned script.

In any novel worth reading we see a story world with a central character, faced with a life changing event. Something portentous happens to jerk them out of the groove they are sliding along, and they resolve to embark upon a new path. As they change the direction of their lives, fate sets out to frustrate and discourage them, throwing obstacles in their path in an effort to make them lose heart and return to the original path laid out by destiny. In a novel this is represented by the three crisis a Central Character faces, with the last being the climax.

Even if the reader never experiences an LCE they note it immediately when it pops up. "Oh my goodness," they reflect to themselves. "This is a really big deal. I wonder how the Central Character is going to respond.