Reality in Fiction

Browsing through a website designed for fiction writers like myself, I found an interesting article about the use of horses. This got me thinking about my own writing and that of others. Despite writing fiction, we must remember that certain rules still exist.

Whether the world we are writing is full of vampires, demons, elves, magic, or spaceships and laser guns, we must remember that our readers need to be able to suspend disbelief (something that will be covered in upcoming articles) to remain interested in our work.

The use of horses is a brilliant example:

The average reader might not pick up on mistakes like these but horse owners/riders will. They will be quick to point out the mistakes to their friends as well

So, what can we do to ensure that we keep a realism that will ensure our readers continue to read? The most obvious thing to do is research what we will be writing about. This way, we know the constraints available to us, and should we wish to stretch those constraints we can do so with a sure background knowledge. This again will ensure that our readers can maintain that all-important suspension of disbelief.

The lesson to be had here is a simple one: Though writing in some fantastical world, we need to apply basic rules of reality throughout. One other example is the laws of physics.

What other examples can you think of? What do you do/like to see kept ‘real’ as a writer/reader?