Writer's Fallout Shelter

I ran into an old friend from high school today, to my complete suprise. I thought about this later, and mulled over the events of the day. I realized that if I hadn't been at that certain place at the exact right time then she and I would have passed each other by without ever knowing it. If, for example, a good idea hadn't come to me when I was writing then I might not have gone to class early, but instead sat in front of the computer and thought until I had just enough time to bolt out the door and barely make it. Or, perhaps, if I had decided to eat out instead of making myself something after class then I would also have been too late, a decision that was probably influenced by my having slept in and eating breakfast later than usual, making me less hungry that afternoon. Now, seeing this person for the first time in years was wholly unexpected, and we're both glad it happened, but things had to happen just right for it to happen, and it was totally outside our control. Heck, we hardly recognised each other.

Now, this does have a point. I thought about this, and was reminded of something I once heard about a crucial difference between reality and fiction. Reality, they told me, is less believable, because there are too many conincidences, like the one I outlined, in life than are allowed in fiction. That is, insane coincidence happens all the time in real life, but in fiction it is all too easy to use coincidence excessively. Thoughts?