machina, but hold the deus

A new author was bemoaning the situation: everyone thought he’d written a massive cop-out of the “Deus Ex Machina” flavor. Also known as “that came out of nowhere” and the earthy but heartfelt “yeah, this writer pulled the ending outta their ass”.

How to avoid such a sad assessment of your precious creative work? I advised this person that It’s all in how you craft the setup.

So—for example— at the very start of the Discworld books we meet Lady Luck (though she isn’t specifically referred to as such) and we learn that one of the characters who constantly gets Deus Ex Machina’d happens to be her favorite piece in the cosmic game. This setup alerts readers to be ready for weird coincidences. They were warned. The rest is on them.

That example is humorous, but my very favorite serious one is in Moby-Dick. [SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t read this classic] At the very start, the narrator makes a point of explaining how deadly the harpoon rope can be. How you want to make sure no loop of it ever, ever gets anywhere near your neck. Okay, yeah, noted.

But… by the time you’ve been through the whole adventure and learned everything there is to know about whales, whaling and the whalers who wail on whales, you’ve forgotten the warning about the rope. Just like Captain Ahab forgot it. So when it happens you have this... guilty feeling like you should have known better yourself.

I use that as my personal guidepost. Does it hit that same “OMG of COURSE, dammit” feeling? Then it’s not a Deus ex Machina— just a perfectly crafted callback.