Abby and Norma

by Erika Hammerschmidt

May 11, 2007

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TEXT OF COMIC:

Have you ever noticed that in novels, there are no coincidences? Authors are afraid that having a coincidence in their story will make it unrealistic. But really, stories WITHOUT coincidences are unrealistic.

In real life, coincidences happen. For instance, you and I might go to the mall and start talking about Cathy the cheerleader, and she could happen to be there and overhear us. It would be a remarkable coincidence, but it could quite possibly happen without the two events being directly related.

Sure, there'd be some connection-- everything's connected on some level. But the connection could just be that both our trips to the mall resulted from chains of events that led back to the same butterfly flapping its wings in South America.

If it happened in a story, though, the connection would HAVE to be something like Cathy getting suspicious of us and following us to the mall. Otherwise it would be considered bad writing.

I'd like to tell authors that it should be the exact opposite. In an average person's life, at least one really outrageous coincidence happens every year. So if your story spans more than a year, it SHOULD have at least one really outrageous coincidence in it.

Too bad it would never get published.

I wish realism and believability were the same thing.