Confluence of Events
When I'm writing I'm always looking at the plausibility of events.  Would it really happen that way?  Am I pulling a rabbit out of the hat, making something happen simply because it needs to happen?  But what about the surprises in life?  Sometimes, unlikely things just happen.  We can simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  For instance, three days ago I drove up to see the observatory on the top of Palomar Mountain.  It was a beautiful drive out, but on the way back I took a wrong turn.  I drove for about three miles before I realized my mistake and began to backtrack.  While driving back, we saw a helicopter flying around, and then lost view of it as it descended somewhere ahead.  When we got to within a hundred yards of my original wrong turn, we saw dust and dirt swirling around and quickly closed our windows as the helicopter we had seen before ascended from an open area to the right of the road.  A car approached us from the other direction, so I glanced at the helicopter for only a moment before looking back at the road to verify I was still driving on my side of the line.  As usual, I was fine.  I'm a decent driver and can usually manage the basics like staying on my side of the road.  Unfortunately I can't say the same about the other driver.  When I realized she was crossing the line, I pulled quickly to the right but she hit me at a point near the end of the passenger door and scraped to the end of the bumper (estimated $2100 damage).  The lady driving the other car apologized but said that she lost her attention because she was "afraid" of the helicopter.

Now here's the point I'm turning over in my mind.  In order for this accident to occur, I have to make a wrong turn, then I have to drive for a pretty good distance before returning to arrive at exactly the same time as the helicopter lifts off and a distracted local driver approaches me from the other direction.  I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  So, could I use this scenario in a story?  Things are supposed to happen for a reason in fiction.  But I think there is one major exception.  You can use fateful events as the hook or push into the story as long as you're faithful in making everything else happen for a reason.  So, I could write a story that starts with this fateful collision and then follow the drivers or passengers to show how they are changed.

I could also turn what seems to be a fateful event and reveal that it wasn't so fateful.  Perhaps the people in the helicopter were looking for me and the other driver was in on it.  When they spotted me returning, they quickly drew up the plan to distract me with the helicopter so the driver could hit me.  Maybe they were hoping to disable the car, but my quick reaction turned it into just a scrape, sending them to plan B (I'm looking over my shoulder now).  Or maybe the fateful event occurred because the "fates" conspired for it to happen to further their supernatural agenda.  I was meant to meet the distracted driver who will ultimately lead me to the holy grail.

In the real world, sometimes shit happens.  In fiction, it has to be a little more interesting than that.