I wrote myself into a corner. Or rather, I wrote a character into a corner that needs a dramatic death (not happening) or a seeming miracle to get out of. Except… The solution is based on a real person who I knew, and something that almost* happened to me, and that fits prior events in the story world.

But would readers buy it, or is it too deus ex machina? That’s the problem with fiction, alas. Readers have higher thresholds of disbelief than does the real world. As Rod Machado said, paraphrasing Oscar Wilde and a number of others, “Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense.” And it has to be in-world plausible, which … requires a more delicate touch than does reality. Darn.

So, what do I need to do to make things work? Well, readers need to know that the MC has traveled with his teacher to various places in Europe. There’s a short story that shows that, although it was more of a “visit friends and do research trip” than a trouble-shooting trip. So … I need to hint early on that the MC has, indeed traveled to various places, for good reasons, with his teacher. That allows me to set up …

A meeting closer to home, which is also plausible, because the sort of person who calls in the MC’s teacher for advice/aid/troubleshooting is going to have resources of some kind, be they magical, financial, political, social, or what-have-you. And is not going to be an American, since canon is that the MC’s teacher and airlines … would be entertaining, after the fact, if watched from the Moon. (He has little patience for bureaucrats, and an ego as large as the orbit of Saturn.)

Since the MC has a skill-set that fits what is needed on the US side of the pond, having him get called in as a back-up back-up assistance at a meeting also fits canon, so readers won’t say, “Hey, hang about. Where did the MC suddenly become a master of ninjitsu/obscure Asian languages/emergency medicine/ wilderness survival/whatever?” Doing that leads to book-walling, unless you either foreshadow the heck out of it, or you are writing a certain type of romance sub-genre, where most readers won’t care. They’re reading for something else.

So far so good. The author has established that the MC might have met someone doing something readers vaguely remember. The MC also has the skills that fit being called in by the Authorities to provide just-in-case support. Readers also know that the MC’s teacher has the resources to pull certain strings, but really prefers not to because of the possibility of future need. On the other hand, having the teacher bail out the student? Nah, that would break both characters, and canon is that the teacher really does not like interrupting an on-going learning experience. And there are some things he just doesn’t mess with. See bureaucrats.

The pieces can be made to work. It will take a lot of careful foreshadowing, adding something early in the story, changing a name so it doesn’t jump up and down and hit readers over the head,** and making darn sure it is reasonable for fiction. Because I can easily see a late acquaintance of mine doing something along the lines of what I have planned, but that’s reality. Fiction still has to be more tightly plotted and to make sense in world without breaking anything unless there is a very, very good reason and it is foreshadowed and isn’t simply because the author wrote himself/herself/oxself into a hole.

I’ve not had this problem before, but I wrote myself into it, and I can plot and write myself out of it. Try to avoid things like this, though. “And a miracle happens,” makes a funny science tee-shirt, but doesn’t work well in fiction unless you foreshadow the heck out of it, it makes sense in-world, and you don’t repeat it multiple times in a series.

*I couldn’t get to New York City on 48 hours notice, alas.

**I’m not Charles Dickens. Too, being cute with names doesn’t work here.