From Edie: DiAnn Mills answer the question, "Does fate belong in fiction?" Learn why character choices, free will, and realistic consequences create stronger, more compelling stories.
Does Fate Belong in Fiction? Why Character Choices Matter More in Fiction
by DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills
Fate in fiction suggests the character plays little in the role of a story’s events. The development or outcome becomes a supernatural occurrence. Some writers use luck, destiny, written in the stars, or providence to create a desirable outcome in their stories.
But is that fair to the reader?
Does this include genres of speculative fiction that by their name hints at supernatural occurrences guiding the writer’s hand?
5 Reasons to Discourage Fate in Fiction
1. Characterization identity ranks as the top reason readers enjoy fiction. They see the character as a real person with strengths, challenges, victories, and defeats. These characters embody a unique personality, one that makes choices according to the information they have gathered. These choices can be good or poor, and the character faces the resulting consequences. Sometimes they grow from their mistakes, and sometimes they continue with their behavior. The process is logical ensuring the story is unpredictable, realistic, yet credible. Believable sacrifices mirror real life.
If fate enters the picture, what becomes of the character? Do they cease showing a slice of real life to become a puppet? Readers may face disappointment and disinterest in the story. Purpose, story goal, and the character’s arc become meaningless.
2. Plot is the character’s journey to reach a goal or solve a problem. Each scene displays stress, conflict, tension, and high stakes in the endeavor. This development keeps the reader engaged, turning pages, and cheering on a character who is striving to overcome obstacles.
If outcomes are attributed to fate, then the reader becomes disinterested, frustrated, and the plight of the character becomes insignificant.
3. Stories imitate real life. The reader lives the character’s journey vicariously. The reader might have experienced the same happening or know someone who has faced similar events.
When believability enters the equation, the character isn’t given the opportunity to succeed or fail. The reader questions the relevance of the story to real life. Learning how a character realistically solves a problem and changes and grows in the process motivates a reader to continue turning pages.
With fate, growth is diminished to whatever has dictated the outcome of the character’s experience.
Where does faith fit into the character’s life? Is fate believeable?
4. Themes of morality are present when a character chooses growth through personal ideals, life experiences, and convictions.
Fate interrupts the natural flow of humans who react and respond according to their wants, needs, and intelligence. The result of a law-abiding person who breaks from their model to commit acts against what the writer has presented confuses the reader.
5. Themes of faith are an area where a writer can lead the reader astray if the story has a supernatural occurrence that changes the outcome of a scene. Instead of a predetermined outcome, use prayer, guidance, life circumstances, and free will to show how God works through human choices.
Fate can water down the power of faith in a character’s life, making the character look weak, passive, and unreliable as a human.
What are your thoughts? Does fate play a role in your fiction?
TWEETABLE
Her novels have appeared on the CBA, ECPA, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists and have earned numerous honors, including the Christy, Selah, Golden Scroll, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol Awards.
DiAnn is a founding board member of American Christian Fiction Writers and serves as Conference Advisor for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. She is also active in Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild, Outliers Writing University, and The Christian Pen. Passionate about helping others succeed, she invests in writers through mentoring, book coaching, editing, and dynamic workshops she teaches across the country.
A self-proclaimed coffee snob who roasts her own beans, DiAnn enjoys diving into good books, experimenting in the kitchen, and unabashedly spoiling her grandchildren—whom she insists are the smartest kids in the universe. She makes her home under the sunny skies of Houston, Texas.
Connect with DiAnn for behind-the-scenes glimpses, writing tips, and lively conversations at diannmills.com, or on Facebook, X, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, BookBub, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
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