Suspension of Disbelief Only Goes so Far
If you have a formal literary education of any kind, you’ve likely heard, at some point during your creative writing courses, that to enjoy fiction, readers must “suspend their disbelief” to a degree.
Naturally, this is true. Real life isn’t a novel, and unless you’re looking for something with a tragic ending, you probably like your books to have a neat and tidy finish. That is sometimes referred to as “a satisfying ending.”
However, if you’ve been to college for journalism or creative writing, it is almost certain that you ALSO heard the term “fiction has to be believable.”
Of course, that’s an oxymoron, but what that phrase means is that nonfiction is what it is: if the guy got struck with lightning four times in his life, then he did. But if you put that in a fiction novel people are going to roll their eyes and toss it over their shoulder as “unbelievable.”
Therefore, it’s important not to go too far out with a plot or a plot device. I recently read a book that had such excellent descriptive writing that I didn’t want to put it down, but the plot was so ridiculous I had to. In it, a detective happened to “stumble on” a dead body that looked just like her. So, in order to solve the crime, the police force got together and pretended that the person hadn’t really died and the detective took that person’s place amongst her friends and family to try to figure out why she was killed.
And none of the dead girl’s friends or family members would realize it wasn’t her? Particularly whoever killed her and knew she was dead? It was, in short, ridiculous. Great writer, great talent, but where in the world was the editor to challenge her with a plot that was utter nonsense? And they pick on “unknown” authors? Wow.
There was a similar book that got a celebrity endorsement so it was an instant bestseller, but it was about a girl who raised herself all alone in a shack and never once got harmed, never got sick, never had an emergency, her shack never got a leak in the roof, her boat never got a hole in it or needed repairs, and she grew up beautiful, fit, healthy and normal with absolutely no one in her life since she was about seven. Then she learned to read at 14 and six years later became a published author writing Einstein level botany.
Well, this one had a celebrity endorsement, so it was going to do well no matter what, but the other one got a lot of negative reviews. Of course, famous authors can afford to make those kinds of bizarre mistakes, as can those who have a celebrity waiting in the wings to promote their book.
If you are not yet known as an author, however, well…you CAN’T afford to make those mistakes. So be careful about how much you’re asking your readers to “suspend their disbelief,” because the last thing you want is your first novel being so unbelievable that nobody wants to read your second. Write on!
Naturally, this is true. Real life isn’t a novel, and unless you’re looking for something with a tragic ending, you probably like your books to have a neat and tidy finish. That is sometimes referred to as “a satisfying ending.”
However, if you’ve been to college for journalism or creative writing, it is almost certain that you ALSO heard the term “fiction has to be believable.”
Of course, that’s an oxymoron, but what that phrase means is that nonfiction is what it is: if the guy got struck with lightning four times in his life, then he did. But if you put that in a fiction novel people are going to roll their eyes and toss it over their shoulder as “unbelievable.”
Therefore, it’s important not to go too far out with a plot or a plot device. I recently read a book that had such excellent descriptive writing that I didn’t want to put it down, but the plot was so ridiculous I had to. In it, a detective happened to “stumble on” a dead body that looked just like her. So, in order to solve the crime, the police force got together and pretended that the person hadn’t really died and the detective took that person’s place amongst her friends and family to try to figure out why she was killed.
And none of the dead girl’s friends or family members would realize it wasn’t her? Particularly whoever killed her and knew she was dead? It was, in short, ridiculous. Great writer, great talent, but where in the world was the editor to challenge her with a plot that was utter nonsense? And they pick on “unknown” authors? Wow.
There was a similar book that got a celebrity endorsement so it was an instant bestseller, but it was about a girl who raised herself all alone in a shack and never once got harmed, never got sick, never had an emergency, her shack never got a leak in the roof, her boat never got a hole in it or needed repairs, and she grew up beautiful, fit, healthy and normal with absolutely no one in her life since she was about seven. Then she learned to read at 14 and six years later became a published author writing Einstein level botany.
Well, this one had a celebrity endorsement, so it was going to do well no matter what, but the other one got a lot of negative reviews. Of course, famous authors can afford to make those kinds of bizarre mistakes, as can those who have a celebrity waiting in the wings to promote their book.
If you are not yet known as an author, however, well…you CAN’T afford to make those mistakes. So be careful about how much you’re asking your readers to “suspend their disbelief,” because the last thing you want is your first novel being so unbelievable that nobody wants to read your second. Write on!
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