 Action/Adventure: April 09, 2014 Issue [#6258] |
  Action/Adventure
This week: The God in the Machine Edited by: auric
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| Welcome to my Action/Adventure newsletter!! I am {suer:auric}, and my intent is to advice in your creation of action-packed tales of adventure and adrenaline-filled excitement. Sit back, hold on tight, and keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times... |
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Have you ever come to a point in your story where your characters are in a sticky situation and even you have no idea how to get them out of it? Perhaps your character is alone, surrounded by a bunch of enemies, or maybe he or she encounters a dragon with no chance of running of defeating it by conventional means. What do you do? One device that has proved to be an easy way to help is the deus ex machina.
The term deus ex machina is Greek, meaning ‘a god from the machine.’ Back when the Greeks performed their plays and need a god to come down to the other characters, they would have to ‘fly’ down from Mount Olympus, and needed a mechanical system of pulleys to do so. This divine intervention idea is applied to writing when you give something to your characters to allow them to get out of whatever dilemma you are stuck on with them. It is often used in fantasy and science-fiction genres, where supernatural or magical concepts happen time and time again and can come in handy when needed.
In real life, or even a fiction story based on our real world, we would think that just finding the right tool we require to solve our problem at the moment of need would be pretty coincidental, but in fantasy, we can get away with it from time to time, with proper care.
For example, let’s use an example from fantasy. The protagonist is, let’s say, a simple villager thief, who has no experience slaying dragons, much less a massive sword. Instead he finds a dagger in a dragon’s hoard of treasure, thinking it looked nice. Now, just make that dagger happen to be Fang, a magical weapon enchanted with a dragon-slaying power.
Yes, this can seem like a cheat, or a cop-out, and in many cases it will be. Serious readers will wonder ‘how can it be that easy,’ but if used the right way, it will not seem like you are invoking this easy way out. Instead of just happening to find the needed item, or come up with the spell right away, bring the item into play at a different time in the story, and hint at what it will be used for.
Now, let’s go back to the dragon example again. Our hapless thief character found this dagger not in the hoard, but earlier, while escaping from a bandit camp. He was attracted to the design of the weapon, the hilt being shaped like a serpent, and the fancy writing along the blade. Unknown to him, the ancient script actually says ‘Fang - dragon’s bane,’ which he could find out later on in the story.
The god from the machine can be your friend if used correctly, and not abused. You, and your characters, will be able to cleverly get out of any mess thrown into the plot.
Think, for example, about the times in stories and books where the appearance of an item, or even another character, at just the right time enabled the protagonist to get out of a sticky situation. Didn't you wonder how it might have turned out differently? Sometimes those events are critical to the unfolding of certain events.
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| What are you thoughts on the use of deus ex machina in stories and novels? I'd love to hear about personal examples as well! |
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