For the A-Z challenge, I am posting writing and editing tips to help you improve and enhance your writing.
V is for Verisimilitude
The appearance of being true or real (Oxford Dictionaries)
Writing is always a balancing act. You want to transport your reader, to take them on a journey, possibly have them experience things that they wouldn’t normally experience through your characters. So why the need for realism, for truth? After all, this is fiction right?
Well, yes it is, and in a way, writing fiction is lying. We writers of fiction spend our days lying. But as anyone who has ever successfully lied to their parents about where they were the night before, or to their teacher about where their homework is, or to their boss about how they were really sick the day before and just couldn’t possibly have made it to work, the secret of a good lie is that it rings true.
Fiction is just like that. You are methodically, carefully and imaginatively building a world for your characters. A world that doesn’t exist. The appearance of truth is essential to help build that world, that lie. One wrong move, one wrong word and the illusion collapses.
So how do you ensure that you keep the ‘reality’ of your fictional world intact? Here are the pitfalls to avoid:
- Something unusual happening in your fictional world that you haven’t prepared your reader for
- A character that notices something they wouldn’t notice in real life, says something they wouldn’t say, or does something they wouldn’t do
- In fantasy, a character not using a skill that you have given them when they should do so
- Unrealistic dialogue that is used to convey information
- In historical fiction particularly, an object, custom, behaviour that didn’t exist or wouldn’t have happened in the time in which your novel is set
- This is as important in fiction as it is in films. For example, if your character has his hands handcuffed behind his back, don’t have them in front of him two minutes later (as in Reservoir Dogs).
Much of writing is about building believable and compelling worlds, but those worlds must follow a logic that the reader can relate to, understand, and around which you can create interesting and dynamic stories.
Great advice, nearly at the end of the challenge!
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Thanks Rosie – can’t quite believe it’s nearly done 🙂 Hanging in there!
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Good thoughts on keeping our fiction realistic. LOVE your ‘V’ Word!
Trisha Faye
http://www.chrysnjay.wordpress.com
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Thanks – it’s a lovely word 🙂
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Glad that I found your blog before the #Challenge was over and am now following. Great theme, good tips for this fellow writer. Thanks!
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You’re very welcome. Can’t believe the challenge is almost at its end 🙂
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Fab last statement.
Re Reservoir Dogs: Gosh, well spotted. Great recommend for you as eagle-eyed proofreader!
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Thanks June but not my spot I’m afraid 🙂 I can only watch that scene through my hands – I find it really disturbing!
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Found your blog through the A to Z Challenge and looks like you have had a great theme going that a lot of writers would really benefit from 🙂 I will make sure I keep a note as who knows what the future may bring and it would be a handy reference? Only a few more days to go!! Special Teaching at Pempi’s Palace
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Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I’ve really enjoyed meeting new people through the challenge 🙂
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Good tips! Consistency and continuity are key, it seems to be. Readers can invest a lot of belief in outlandish fantasy worlds if they obey their own rules and hang together properly.
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Thanks Chris. Good point – fantasy worlds can be believable if there’s consistency.
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Ah, another balancing act. You are so right about the preparation and it has to better than real life, where people do behave out of character – the introvert shows leadership in a crisis or the extrovert is smitten dumb. Nobody will accept this volte face in your story if you haven’t hinted at it beforehand.
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Exactly – people can and do behave out of character but the motivation has to be there, it can’t be completely out of nowhere.
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