HOW STORIES FAIL: COLLUSION

The First Law of Everything is that the world don’t give a fuck about our problems — we are our own little thing and the world is its own infinite thing.  Just because we are sad, the sun doesn’t stop shining in sympathy.  Just because our hearts are broken doesn’t stop other people from finding love, and our poverty in NJ ain’t stopping someone else striking it rich in Setagaya. 

When external reality chimes with our local reality — that’s always an accident.

Life never lives by our rules; we learn to live by its rules, if we’re smart. 

This fundamental law of existence — that the world is never beholden to us — that we could (for example) be at a super-sad funeral and someone within earshot will be laughing themselves silly — is one that writers must honor if they ever hope to write stories that feel real, that have the illusion of life, that convinces a reader that the writer knows how the world works.

Surest way to honor the fundamental law in your fiction is to ensure that your story’s World ain’t colluding with your Characters or their Conflict.