Realism in Fiction

Does fiction have to be realistic? That seems like an odd question considering there are stories containing magic and time travel and other things you cannot find in real life. So really it depends on what you mean by realistic.

If you mean, do stories have to be possible in our real lives, then obviously not. However, they do need to be internally realistic, meaning whatever happens in your story has to follow the rules of that story world.

How do we know what the rules are? That’s your job as the writer. You should know all the rules. You won’t tell the rules to the reader: that would take too long and be too boring, but you will show them through clues in the story.

When someone starts reading a story, they know nothing about your story world, so they will make a picture of it in their minds using three things:

• Their own experience
• Their assumptions of the story
• Clues that the writer gives

The Reader’s Experience

Everyone has unconscious defaults about how they see the world. If the first line of a story is “I wake up in bed” the reader will probably picture a bedroom similar to their own. Since we don’t know anything about the main character, the reader might picture them as the same gender as them, about the same age, etc. They will picture something in the present day in their own country, since that is our default. The only difference would be from the next points.

As a writer, you can’t do anything about a reader’s experiences, of course. So why is it important? Because you also have your own unconscious defaults you work off. It is good to try to see your story from other perspectives so you won’t be assuming anything of the reader they wouldn’t know.

The Reader’s Assumptions

These are expectations that the reader will bring based on things like the title of the story, the cover art (if any) and the writer, if they know who it is and have read other things by them. For example, if you start reading a story called the Death Cult, you won’t expect a funny story or a Victorian-era romance, or a story about cute animals. It could be any of those things, of course, but you won’t expect that. Similarly, if you read a story by Agatha Christie, you expect a murder mystery, possibly in England, in the early 20^th century. At least if you’ve heard of Agatha Christie. If not, you won’t have any expectations based on her name.

There is not a lot you can do about the reader’s assumptions, although you could subvert their expectations by using a different type of cover image to make readers think it is a different type of story (at least if there is a reason to do that. Don’t be sadistic).

The Writer’s Clues

It’s best to tell your reader about your through clues mixed into the story. For example, let’s look at a possible opening paragraph.

“I awoke and sat up. The tent was still dark.”

We don’t know much but we know they’re not in a building. Camping for fun or a nomad? We don’t know.

“Outside, I could hear the cyber-camels grunting and clanking about.”

Big assumption shift. Cyber-camels are not real, so we know this is a fantasy or science fiction story. Cyber means robots, so it is probably taking place in the future. Camels are in the desert, so maybe the tent belongs to nomads or Bedouins living in the Sahara. The cyber-camels clanking means they are made of metal, confirming they are at least partially robotic.

“There was a click and a glow and a transparent image of my wife appeared next to the bed. ‘You’re awake,’ she said.”

We already know this is science fiction, so a hologram is not surprising, but this shows it is possible in this world. We also know the character is married, probably a man (but not necessarily) and that holograms here can see somehow and aren’t just pictures.

In these three sentences we have set up a lot of rules about the story world. That is important since it helps the reader picture the world and understand the story better. However, now that we have these rules, we cannot break them without an in-story explanation. That would be unrealistic. Some ways we might break the rules are:

• Characters later don’t know what a robot is
• Cyber-camels move silently
• Holograms cannot see suddenly
• The character never mentions a wife again and acts as if they are single
• Have cyber-camels suddenly be able to fly when they haven’t for the whole story

If a character didn’t know what a robot was but it turned out they were from a faraway place that didn’t have technology, that would make sense and wouldn’t break the rules. But if someone who owned cyber-camels saw a robot and was amazed that it had metal legs, the reader would be confused. And we never want the reader to be confused. Unsure of what’s happening or not knowing what is real, sure. But not confused about the story.

In Conclusion

1. Be aware of the rules of your story, whether they are exactly like our present day or wildly different. Also be aware that the reader’s present-day life might be quite different than yours, so their expectations of the default could be different.
2. Give clues to what the world is like. There might be times when you have to just state it, but it is usually better to work it into the story.
3. Once you have decided on those rules, stay consistent. If there are exceptions to the story rules you have made, make sure there is a reason and that the reader knows the reason.