Plot points—Luck of the draw

If you are working on a complex plot sequence like a fight, and the outcome for some minor characters is no consequence, it can be difficult to match characters against each other.  I don’t know if anyone else does this, but when I’m faced with this situation, I leave the results up to chance.

When I had a complex fight to choreograph, I had an uneven number of characters who would be fighting in pairs, while one character would sit the first round out.  I had no clue how to match the minor characters up, so I wrote all the names of the minor characters on slips of paper and put them into a hat, drawing two at a time in order to pair them up for the fight.  When it came time to write each fight sequence, I cast a die to determine who won the match.  That left me free to concentrate on planning the fights of the main characters who would eventually face off.

In another book, I had to choose who would be afflicted with a genetic defect.  Again, I chose to draw names from a hat for characters other than the two main people I already knew were going to be afflicted.  That particular draw turned out so that more women were afflicted than men, but I worked it into the plot the way I drew it, and if anyone asks, I will tell them that for that particular corner of the universe, that’s just how the luck of the draw turned out.