Friday the 13th Lucky for Me

I know I could have written and posted this then, but I figured why not savour the moment. Actually this is going to be about rather than about the infamous Friday the 13th. You might be asking yourself at this point, "Just what does luck have to do with writing?"

Heh heh, certainly it can be helpful in getting published sooner than later by sending the right thing to the right publisher at the right time for the publication or the editor. So, how about the importance of luck for characters and situations in writing then? Now there's an interesting thing to look into. Certainly there can be someone with extremely good luck, or extremely bad luck. Most often though I would have to say it tends toward the good luck, or at least good luck when it's needed most. This is probably strongly tied into the fact that there's only so much that can go wrong or badly before the story is derailed, particularly if it involves the protagonist or lead character. In a story with a cast of equals there is certainly more leeway. Then for endings it's a matter of too many bad endings being just as bad as too many happy endings.

So... what more can be said about luck in a story? Well, what happens when luck clashes with skill? There can be those great moments when the characters do everything right but still things go wrong. The tension rachets as things spiral out of control and more and more amazing things are achieved in spite of it. Or how about when someone with good luck comes together with someone with bad luck. They could cancel each other out, or good things happen to the lucky one even as bad things befall the unlucky one. They could affect each other reversing their normal roles. Bad luck could befall both of them. I don't know who would necessarily want to see good things only happen to both of them, unless that is a temporary situation and then the bad luck hits, in spades. Then again they could both be lucky and then when the unlucky one is separated his bad luck returns. Then to avoid it the unlucky one gloms onto the lucky one leading to all sorts of situations both dark and hilarious. There are lots of uses for luck as you see.

Mood: level.
Music: Follow Me by Twisted Sister and Invisible by Anthrax.

Buy these at Amazon.ca Click Images to Buy

You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk? -- Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry