Disbelief? Suspend it!
by Saladin Akara on April 6, 2009
in General Writing, Hints and Tips
Following on from my previous post on realism, I was reading an article by Vicki Hinze on the Fiction Factor website. It discusses suspension of disbelief when writing fiction.
But, what is this idea of suspending disbelief? It’s all about making your readers be able to believe that what you are writing is, or could be, real. Whether it’s a romance, action-adventure or fantasy piece you are writing your readers need to be able to believe in what they are reading. Elves? Not in the real world, that’s for sure? Don’t be silly! If you can suspend their disbelief, however, then it could well be possible that elves do exist in reality.
It’s all in the detail.
How do we do that for a novel without an atypical or unusual element?
In a word, details.
And in that quote, Vicki sums up the concept perfectly. It is the tiny, seemingly unimportant details that are key to suspending your reader’s disbelief. From making sure your characters are believable and relatable through giving them ‘real’ personalities, to giving enough prior background for an event to be plausible.
An example by Vicki speaks of snow in Florida. Sure enough, a snow storm in Florida wouldn’t happen in real life (I think. Do feel free to correct me if otherwise), in your novel it could well be. A change in weather fronts and well developed plans by Organisation X to affect weather against the natural order? Sure, that could well make snow fall in Florida.
Consistency is key.
Throughout your novel or fictional piece you need to be consistent to maintain the suspension of disbelief. To continue the the ’snow in Florida’ example: Suddenly throwing in this Organisation X and all related factors in the chapter immediately before or after the snow storm will look very much like a desperate ’saving grace’ attempt that will make the reader stop, think and still believe it couldn’t happen.
Before and after the event, you need to continue suspending disbelief. As another extreme example: There is snow in Florida for the above-stated reasons one day, on the next, blistering heat once again. No, doesn’t sound real to me either, considering the information we’ve been given already. “Boo!” at the writer!
Informative delivery.
Vicki goes on to speak about how you give this details and ‘facts’ to the reader, and brings up an interesting point:
It’s widely accepted as fact that a reader believes what one character says to another far more readily than the reader believes what an author says to them.
And that, I think, gives point enough on how best to deliver the information that builds believability.
Over to you.
What methods to you use to suspend disbelief as a writer? As a reader, what are you most likely to notice that will reinstate your disbelief? Or what do you like to see to enable suspension of disbelief?
Hey Matt,
Michael Crichton was a master of this. Reference works like The Andromeda Strain, Prey and Timeline. He writes with authority, as if these had to be true and real.
Good advice for writers of fiction here for sure.
George
Hiya George,
Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll take a look; not really read any Crichton, so should be interesting.
Matt
(Posted this already but it evaporated, if two turn up… not me honest.)
Often when I am reading or watching a story that requires suspension of disbelief I notice small Info snippets fed into the story well before the relevant scene occurs. Yes, sometimes as dialogue and sometimes as a rouge artefact that starts to paint the required picture. Obviously they are introduced to ease the transition from “here” to “there”.
“Here” also brings in another technique, how often do you see unbelievable events in the real world or the opposite, real characters in an unbelievable world. Even Star Wars grounded you into the angst ridden farm-boy persona (here and now), of Luke before the arc launched him to greater events that stretched your belief.
BTW nice post on a difficult subject.
Andy
Hiya Andy,
Thanks for the comment; it’s good to see you here.
I agree entirely with your points raised: The snippets of info build up a foundation so that when the event occurs, the reader can more easily believe it.
Luke Skywalker is a great example of another method for suspending disbelief: Ordinary, relatable characters add something the reader can empathise with. As such, even if the entire world needs suspension of disbelief, realism is maintained.
I look forward to seeing you around some more, Andy.
Matt
P.S: I noticed on Monday morning that the site was down for a little while, which may have been the cause of your post issue. Unfortunately, not being at home, I had no way of trying to fix the downtime.