MathiasCavanaugh.com

Her Lovely Blood, the latest novel I have started, makes use of the hand of fate and meddling gods to move the story forward. These sorts of stories can be problematic in that many similar stories I have read with this sort of plot device tend to over rely on it. Every time the hero gets into trouble, some god or another intervenes to save him. If not every time, then somewhere around 90%.

I am consciously trying to make sure that while the gods do interfere from time to time, their interference is minor and not simply to get my heroine out of impossible situation after impossible situation. Oh, the number of stories I have read like that which have bored me to tears! The heroine herself will have to eventually succeed or fail because of her own abilities.

Too much meddling by all-powerful or even quasi all-powerful beings and you are left with a shell of a story. It may be wrapped up in the greatest prose ever, but the story will be predictable with the reader immediately trying to figure out what the gods will do to save the main character as soon as [insert death defying situation here] comes up.