And God Intervenes . . .

By Karin Schroeder

And so Apollo fell madly in love with Daphne, the daughter of the river god, Peneus. But Daphne had vowed never to marry, dedicating herself to Artemis, goddess of the hunt. When Daphne refused Apollo’s amorous advances, he chased her into the woods. Daphne cried out to her father for help, who changed her into a Laurel tree, leaving Apollo grief-stricken.

A popular Greek myth of old, one I'm sure many of you have read in the past.

But did you notice the ending? How Peneus, a Greek god, rescues his daughter from Apollo?

Believe it or not, there's actually a name for this type of ending.

‘Deus ex machina' Literally meaning, "God by machine."

In the past, the Greeks and Romans playwrights would introduce a god, via a crane, into their dramas. These gods would then save the day for the drama's characters, much as Peneus did for Daphne.

Quite a popular ending, in its time, I imagine.

But today, the meaning of this phrase has altered slightly, coming to mean a person or thing that is suddenly introduced into a piece of fiction or a drama, providing a contrived solution to an apparently impossible dilemma.

Unfortunately, deus ex machina endings have also become clichéd, a tired technique best reserved for the Greek and Roman mythology of the past.

Why?

First off all, let's look at this in terms of the romance genre. Your hero and heroine meet and discover they have different hopes and dreams. Sparks fly-and conflict instantly develops. Eventually they solve their conflicts and fall in love.

The key word here is they. Your hero and heroine must solve their own conflicts--not someone or something else.

Here are a few of the flaws of deus ex machina endings:

By allowing another person or thing solve a problem for your hero or heroine you relegate your hero and heroine to a passive role. Suddenly your hero and heroine have become observers, rather than active participants in their story.
It is the god-like character or thing that suddenly intervenes that reaps the true rewards, the wonderful sense of accomplishment, not your hero and heroine.
Your hero and heroine are not given the chance to truly prove themselves as strong, self-reliant characters. Even worse, their conflicts are never given a realistic chance to play out to a true and believable ending. The result? This leaves your reader feeling strangely dissatisfied and betrayed.
If your hero and/or heroine are in a such a fix that they have to be saved by a god-like character, then you, as a writer, most likely backed them too tightly into that corner. With no other possible solution, you had to resort to someone else saving the day for them.
The very technique in itself is artificial and imposing. The core conflict is dodged and avoided.

If you've only now, while reading this, discovered you have a deus ex machina ending, don't despair. Many a writer has fallen into that trap--including myself. There are solutions for both the writer and the manuscript. In fact, several are listed below:

Don't put your hero and/or heroine into such a desperate situation that there are no solutions left. If you can't figure out how to get your hero and heroine out of that dark, dank dungeon, back up and open a window, so to speak.
Natural or accidental catastrophes make for great stories--in non-fiction. In fiction, unfortunately, these tend to look contrived. You want everything to be linked to your core plot. For example if the heroine's best friend is killed, then the murderer who is secretly stalking the heroine must be the one who killed the friend.
If your hero or heroine are arguing, with each other or another character, then they must resolve that conflict. Don't suddenly make your heroine fall down a hidden ravine and die, conveniently ending their argument.
And finally, craft active characters, not reactive ones. Strong characters that ‘demand' to solve their own problems, instead ones that listlessly sit by, hoping and praying someone else will save them. When all seems lost, these characters ‘create' solutions.

Now, writers go forth and create powerful endings!

An active member of SARA, Karin is busy finishing the rough draft of her western historical, The Right Man, which placed First in the 2000 Merritt Contest.

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