To succeed and hold the reader, all fiction must be believable. No matter how bizarre the story-line, we have to believe in the characters and in the message the author is sending
Although we know that there is no such place as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we’ll gladly suspend our disbelief sufficiently to let J.K. Rowling tell us stories set there. Similarly, in Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton manages to convince us that an island exists on which dinosaurs roam; and Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels – although set in a spy fantasy world that has never existed – continue to sell in their millions, fifty or more years after they were written.
On the other hand, we’ll reject a contemporary novel set in a city very much like our own for being totally unrealistic. So what‘s the difference?
The difference comes down to three things:
Research: For Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton undertook a mountain of research and came up with a plausible way of cloning dinosaurs from the blood of mosquitos trapped in amber. It doesn’t matter that it’s impossible to do, the reader is prepared to suspend disbelief because the science of the book is so credible. The author took the trouble to research his subject, and so we trust him. Make sure your facts are correct. Build up you reader’s trust by researching your subject thoroughly. There is an old adage, ‘write about what you know’, but rather than don’t write about something, research it until you do know.
Believable Characters: When characters are three-dimensional and rounded, we believe in them. And if the people are real, then the world they inhabit appears all the more genuine.
Suspension of Disbelief: The reader starts out wanting to believe. Belief is the default setting and for that to change something has to go badly wrong. Whenever a reader opens a new book he is in effect saying to the author: “Entertain me”. It’s up to you to ensure that you keep the faith with your reader.
One thing guaranteed to lose your reader’s trust is “genre flipping”. People like what they like and they like to know what they’re reading. On the whole, people who read mysteries like to read mysteries and not vampire stories. People who read Westerns might not be too keen on Romance or Science Fiction.
In case you need telling: don’t write a Western in which vampires appear half way through. Similarly, don’t pepper your whodunnit with aliens from the Planet Zog. At least not until you’ve made your second million from writing. After that, they’ll let you do pretty much what you want.
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