The Trendsetter

If you are just starting to write your first fictional piece, you know your story requires a plot in order for your characters to move forward. The plot is a story with all the challenges and difficulties faced by your main characters and how they overcome them.

I remember my journalist friend, who is also a poet, had criticized the plot in one of my young adult novels titled “Jejaka Idaman” (Idol Man). He said there were too many coincidences in it and he didn’t like it for this reason. The plot begins with the main character, Angie, who is challenged by her three closest friends to find the man of her dreams - the type of man she used to read in novels to be tall, dark and handsome. Angie tried to be realistic about it and told her friends she will never find such a man as described as tall, dark and handsome in their country since those descriptions only fit the Western man. Her friends still challenged her to find him.

As a student majoring in journalism, Angie chooses a cultural event called the Harvest Festival in her town to report. This is an actual festival usually celebrated at the end of the harvest season in May each year and Angie wants to write about the climax of the festival - the beauty pageant competition where the judges choose the Harvest Princess. Due to her petite size, Angie had to wiggle herself in between the audience to get the right angles to photograph the contestants (in a small interior town, a festival like this one doesn’t have many rules. Usually when the contestants start to make their catwalk appearance on the small stage, the crowd begins to zoom up to the front leaving their seats to get a better view!) and at the same time take notes about the event when she accidentally steps on someone else’s shoe. And at this moment the person she stepped on happened to be what she described as a tall, dark and handsome young man! Between being shocked, surprised and trying to focus on the fast moving competition, she couldn’t do anything other than apologize and try to get back to her work – try to get the pictures as best as she could and complete her notes for the report. Unfortunately, she can’t get past the taller audience in front when the tall, dark and handsome stranger who is still nursing his stepped-on foot stands up and helps her.

Angie felt grateful and he didn’t mind helping her. Amid her shock, she managed to thank him and introduced herself to him. She got his name – Chisnall, but not his contact number. He doesn’t ask for hers either and he doesn’t say much else except for her to drive carefully and hopes to see her again - all which Angie perceives more as a courtesy.

Angie and her friends planned to meet together at the famous fast food restaurant in the city a week after the festival covered by Angie. Upon discussing with her friends she said she thought she met the man of her dreams, but he didn’t show interest in being her friend. In the middle of plotting their next plan on how they’re going to spend their semester break together, Chisnall and his friends suddenly enter the restaurant and order take out food. Angie and Chisnall’s eyes meet. They are both shocked to see each other again and he comes over to Angie and her friends table and says hello. Imagine her shock that she just stared at him and let him say goodbye for the second time. Angie’s friends – Beth, Rina and Anna were all frustrated and disappointed since Angie didn’t make the first move. Now they pointed it to her that she just lost the man of her dreams. She now believes them.

During her return to her campus after the semester break is over, Angie happened to get the earliest flight at 5 AM so she can get right to the registration office in the morning. Since she is alone, she just hopes that the passenger who sits next to her will not interrupt when she sleeps during the two hour flight across the South China Sea. The passenger who got the seat is Chisnall himself who is rushing to his meeting at the Hilton as a structural engineer who involved with the construction of the hotel near the national park in Angie’s state.

My journalist friend didn’t offer any suggestions though, but I understood he preferred the plot to be as realistic as possible. I explained to him that, I did show the reader (through Angie’s behavior) why Angie couldn’t bring herself to get Chisnall’s contact number - she doesn’t have the courage and she is afraid that Chisnall will say no. The primary reason Angie fails the second time they encounter is she is still in shock. The third coincidence though, Angie did manage to ask if he interested to come and visit her on campus. He said, yes.

Is there too many coincidences? Probably so and I took my friend’s criticism seriously. I improved my next fictional piece and made the plot much more complex and every coincidence that happened to the main characters will relate to something that happened in the past.

Using coincidences to develop a plot of your fiction needs to be as seamless as possible so the story will flow smoothly. I do think coincidence is one of many ways of developing the plot as long as there are logical reasons behind them and the reader doesn’t feel it is a shortcut to make the plot interesting. As a novice writer back then, experimenting was a key method for me to find the way to create the better plot for my characters and coincidence with a reason is one of them.