Category Archives: Writing Believable Make-Believe
Writing: Your Characters Must Earn (or Have Earned) Their Skills
If you want your reader to believe in your make-believe world and suspend disbelief, make sure to show that your characters have earned their skills, knowledge, and powers. Michael Jordan is quite possibly the world’s greatest, most skilled basketball player. … Continue reading
Writing: Use Realistic Numbers, Sizes, and Time Limits
Both mainstream and speculative writers need to make sure they do their research on numbers, spaces, sizes, and time limits. If your readers don’t trust your numbers, they won’t trust you, nor will they suspend their disbelief for you again. … Continue reading
Writing: Keeping Character Confrontation Results Realistic
If you don’t prove your character deserves to win, no amount of writing technique is going to get your readers to suspend disbelief and buy into your story. Picture a baseball field. Imagine that Roger Clemons has taken the mound. … Continue reading
Writing: Why the Laws of Thermodynamics Are Important to Your Story
Even writers of epic fantasy stories need to be grounded in a good understanding of the effects of the three laws of thermodynamics. In Back to the Future 3, Marty McFly finds himself trapped in the Wild West during the … Continue reading
Writing: How to Govern Your Make-Believe Elements
Even if you are writing speculative fiction that defies the laws of physics, you must give yourself boundaries. Otherwise, you will destroy your story. When I was growing up, I had a few favorite movies that I watched over and … Continue reading
Writing: Making Sure Your Make-Believe Elements Work Correctly
If you want to make your make-believe elements feel believable, they have to work correctly and logically within the world you have created. For the past few weeks, I’ve been writing a series of posts about writing speculative fiction, … Continue reading
Writing: Character Reactions Can Make Or Break Suspension of Disbelief
Character reactions to and use of your make-believe elements can make or break your reader’s suspension of disbelief. I’m a huge Yankees fan. During baseball season—especially the final few weeks and the playoffs—I do whatever it takes to keep track … Continue reading
Writing: Using Imperfection to Make Fiction Feel Believable
Everything we experience will face the forces of failure, breakage, and decay. Your make-believe elements should be the same. Their imperfections can make them feel real and create the suspension of disbelief in the reader. For the past few weeks, … Continue reading
Writing: Make Fiction Feel Believable With Sensory Details
Sensory details can make the unbelievable elements in your story feel real. The trick is making sure you, as the author, know how your make-believe elements feel to begin with. In other words, sometimes this (below) is a necessary part … Continue reading
Writing: Make Your Make-Believe Elements Feel Believable
Getting your reader to suspend disbelief requires you to make your make-believe elements feel real. Fortunately, you have several techniques at your fingertips, which we will be discussing this week. It’s October! Tis the season for walking in brisk, cool … Continue reading
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