How Much Realism To Include

[Bamagan]

This is a blatant attempt to steal some attention from the 403rd AI rejection thread.

My question: how much realism do you try to inject in your stories? I'm talking more about what you might call mechanical realism or verisimilitude, so it's applicable even in a fantasy setting. For example, if you've got a scene with a swordfight, do you try to impress the audience with your knowledge of actual sword-fighting techniques, or do you opt for something more minimalist? Likewise, if you're writing about real places or real professions, how much detail do you prefer to include?

For my part, I'm generally aiming for somewhere in the vicinity of plausible. Basically, I just want to avoid jarring inconsistencies that would leave even readers as uninformed or unfamiliar as myself scratching their heads. I accept that real experts, and anyone who at least fancies themselves an expert, will probably be able to find faults with my depictions, because I'm not willing to put in sufficient work to fool them.

Anyone else care to weigh in?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I think we have a similar take.
My question is always "how much detail do I need to advance the plot?"
I've read a number of books and stories where the author is clearly VERY knowledgeable about a certain area and they get bogged down in details that don't matter.
When your sailboat gets to the pier I don't care what knots they used to secure it.

 

[Bamagan]

I think we have a similar take.
My question is always "how much detail do I need to advance the plot?"
I've read a number of books and stories where the author is clearly VERY knowledgeable about a certain area and they get bogged down in details that don't matter.
When your sailboat gets to the pier I don't care what knots they used to secure it.

Unless, in a later scene, someone gets tied down using a halyard bend, of course. Foreshadowing!

 

[StillStunned]

I completely agree. Never let knowledge get in the way of the story.

 

[SimonDoom]

Enough to keep the reader in the story. Verisimilitude. That's enough. No more than that is necessary, UNLESS realism is a specific purpose of your story. It almost never is in my stories, which I regard as erotic fantasies.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I use motorcycles in some of my stories. I've gone so far as to map your distances to make sure a bike can actually make it in a day. I also reference local businesses and stuff, but diffuse it with imaginary places as well.

On the other hand, most of my work is T/CD and involves anal. I absolutely do not go through all the prep involved nor do I mention condoms or STDs. Let the reader fill that shit in. If they're into reading about anal, they know what's involved and it's a lot less interesting than the fucking, so...

Others have already said it, don't get so bogged down in the details that it stops the story.

 

[MrPixel]

I go for as much realism as I can muster, hopefully without getting pedantic. So much so that I hope readers recognize the real places as backdrops for the characters.

One I just finished for the sports event this spring has fine details about the sport, although some may send an interested reader searching the internet for the more obscure technical jargon.

 

[Bazzle]

I've not yet put my protagonists in anti gravity boots.

I try and paint a picture with the words so the reader can latch on to something?

 

[ElectricBlue]

As real as you need it to be, taking into a account a reader's knowledge of Arthurian Britain, for example, or the atmosphere on Titan, or a non-existent granite island where the mermaid lives.

The evocation of my favourite cafés, on the other hand, is complete down to the dust on the floor - in my mind, but not always described in such detail, but the reader can see it if they choose to.

 

[HordHolm]

This is a blatant attempt to steal some attention from the 403rd AI rejection thread.

My question: how much realism do you try to inject in your stories? I'm talking more about what you might call mechanical realism or verisimilitude, so it's applicable even in a fantasy setting. For example, if you've got a scene with a swordfight, do you try to impress the audience with your knowledge of actual sword-fighting techniques, or do you opt for something more minimalist? Likewise, if you're writing about real places or real professions, how much detail do you prefer to include?

For my part, I'm generally aiming for somewhere in the vicinity of plausible. Basically, I just want to avoid jarring inconsistencies that would leave even readers as uninformed or unfamiliar as myself scratching their heads. I accept that real experts, and anyone who at least fancies themselves an expert, will probably be able to find faults with my depictions, because I'm not willing to put in sufficient work to fool them.

Anyone else care to weigh in?

Funnily enough, I know a fair bit about swordfighting (20 years behind the blade), and I've only once tried to include my knowledge in a story. I rapidly discovered that the bulk of my knowledge is a hindrance rather than a help. My advice is to veer towards minimalist - what good is it to write paragraphs of parry-ripostes? The audience is lost/bored/elsewhere within a few short sentences if one isn't careful.

 

[alohadave]

For example, if you've got a scene with a swordfight, do you try to impress the audience with your knowledge of actual sword-fighting techniques, or do you opt for something more minimalist?

Less detail. Combat scenes that go into detail are excruciating to read, and I'll skip over the detail. Others may like that, but it's really only important to know who won, who lost, and injuries that affect the story.

 

[StillStunned]

I've been writing, off an on, a planetary romance set on (in?) Jupiter, with flying ships and so on. I handwaved the gravity issue with a combination of centrifugal forces and buoyant gases.

And then a bit ago I learned that Saturn actually has a gravity that's pretty much identical to Earth's. Now I'm wondering whether to move the story to Saturn just for the sake of "realism".

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I've been writing, off an on, a planetary romance set on (in?) Jupiter, with flying ships and so on. I handwaved the gravity issue with a combination of centrifugal forces and buoyant gases.

And then a bit ago I learned that Saturn actually has a gravity that's pretty much identical to Earth's. Now I'm wondering whether to move the story to Saturn just for the sake of "realism".

Sometimes you just get lucky though. In my Sci-Fi series, I came up with a scheme for accelerating faster than light travel by equating it to tuning a chord in music and creating overtones. Passed by a friend that has an advanced degree in theoretical physics. "Yeah, that could work."

Mega dab, BOOM!!!

 

[StillStunned]

Sometimes you just get lucky though. In my Sci-Fi series, I came up with a scheme for accelerating faster than light travel by equating it to tuning a chord in music and creating overtones. Passed by a friend that has an advanced degree in theoretical physics. "Yeah, that could work."

Mega dab, BOOM!!!

Galileo and his dad would be proud!

 

[KeithD]

My question: how much realism do you try to inject in your stories? I

It's different for each story, but I try to bolster realism by pinning the corners of the story down with some actual facts--actual places, actual events, realistic emotional responses. etc.

 

[MrPixel]

Funnily enough, I know a fair bit about swordfighting (20 years behind the blade), and I've only once tried to include my knowledge in a story. I rapidly discovered that the bulk of my knowledge is a hindrance rather than a help. ...

I ran into a similar situation; my direct experience with the sport I wrote about was 50 years ago. I started to research to make sure I wasn't misremembering, and discovered that the rulebook had been turned upside down and shaken in the interim. Didn't require a lot of rewrite, but it did make me sit up and take notice of how much I thought I knew was out of date.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's different for each story, but I try to bolster realism by pinning the corners of the story down with some actual facts--actual places, actual events, realistic emotional responses. etc.

I do a twist on this. Most of my stories take place in anonymous places, but I base them on places I have encountered, and I'll include details about weather, plants, scents in the air, things like that which which I am familiar, to ground the story in a setting that seems real and to let the reader encounter it as the character encounters it.

 

[KeithD]

I do a twist on this. Most of my stories take place in anonymous places, but I base them on places I have encountered, and I'll include details about weather, plants, scents in the air, things like that which which I am familiar, to ground the story in a setting that seems real and to let the reader encounter it as the character encounters it.

I like to place mine in actual places--usually somewhere I'm familiar with--not just locales but often places of (funny) business, as well. I get a kick out of commenters saying they are from there or know that place and identify with what I've written. For instance, I've had a whole round of exchanges with someone who identified with the setting (and type of sex partner) of my current story, "Distracted," and complimented me on getting the atmosphere right. Not long before that, I had a commenter assume from one of my stories that I'd been a stripper at a specific club in Baltimore and they wanted to reminisce--maybe we'd bumped and grinded there at the same time? (Well, no.). One of my Christmas stories this year was set on the West Virginia University campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, on a snowy evening. I had a comment on an evening the reader had spent trying to maneuver a steep hilly street I put in my story in the snow--slip sliding away just as I had done some fifty-five years ago when I visited that campus in the snow. Readers will invariably give you a 5 when they can make a connection like that.

 

[SimonDoom]

I like to place mine in actual places--usually somewhere I'm familiar with--not just locales but often places of (funny) business, as well. I get a kick out of commenters saying they are from there or know that place and identify with what I've written. For instance, I've had a whole round of exchanges with someone who identified with the setting (and type of sex partner) of my current story, "Distracted," and complimented me on getting the atmosphere right. Not long before that, I had a commenter assume from one of my stories that I'd been a stripper at a specific club in Baltimore and they wanted to reminisce--maybe we'd bumped and grinded there at the same time? (Well, no.). One of my Christmas stories this year was set on the West Virginia University campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, on a snowy evening. I had a comment on an evening the reader had spent trying to maneuver a steep hilly street I put in my story in the snow--slip sliding away just as I had done some fifty-five years ago when I visited that campus in the snow. Readers will invariably give you a 5 when they can make a connection like that.

If I were better traveled, I would do this.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

If I were better traveled, I would do this.

Google is your friend. I'm working on a story that takes place in Philly. I've never been there but have managed to include some nice local references just a little research.

 

[KeithD]

If I were better traveled, I would do this.

I am, as a matter of fact, very well traveled. But I extend that by being very well read and knowing how to use Internet search. Everyone else can read broadly and learn to use Internet search as well. To the extent they will, they will become more versatile (and interesting) writers, I think.

 

[KeithD]

Google is your friend. I'm working on a story that takes place in Philly. I've never been there but have managed to include some nice local references just a little research.

Right on cue (and right on).

 

[MrPixel]

Google is your friend. I'm working on a story that takes place in Philly. I've never been there but have managed to include some nice local references just a little research.

I did the same thing with Miami. Nobody choked on it. I did get one protest about denigrating The South in a fictional travelogue, but in that case I had lived in the region for many, many years and had weaved in some roman à clef about the region.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

This is a blatant attempt to steal some attention from the 403rd AI rejection thread.

My question: how much realism do you try to inject in your stories? I'm talking more about what you might call mechanical realism or verisimilitude, so it's applicable even in a fantasy setting. For example, if you've got a scene with a swordfight, do you try to impress the audience with your knowledge of actual sword-fighting techniques, or do you opt for something more minimalist? Likewise, if you're writing about real places or real professions, how much detail do you prefer to include?

For my part, I'm generally aiming for somewhere in the vicinity of plausible. Basically, I just want to avoid jarring inconsistencies that would leave even readers as uninformed or unfamiliar as myself scratching their heads. I accept that real experts, and anyone who at least fancies themselves an expert, will probably be able to find faults with my depictions, because I'm not willing to put in sufficient work to fool them.

Anyone else care to weigh in?

Sometimes if I have done a lot of research for a story I find myself including information that I really don't need to, just because I spent time looking it up and think it's interesting. But the reader probably isn't here to find out interesting but useless facts. It's frustrating, because research does take time, but sometimes the trick is finding just the right balance between believable and detail-heavy. It's a weakness of mine, which is why I naturally shy away from e.g. historical time periods as settings.

However, as others have said, internet searches are your friend. And Google street view is amazing for coming up with believable locations and settings.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

I was revising a draft today and I got a little upset at past-me when the first-person narrator remarked that winters were getting milder in a city he'd never visited before. Based on my research, it's true but....

How would my narrator know that?

It was a classic case of a small anxiety spiralling out of control. My worry was that readers would ask how it's possible for the character to take his coat off and still be comfortable. Taking the coat off took priority in my mind, so it had to be justified. Except, it didn't... I added a 'bad' detail to satisfy an imaginary (irrationally disgruntled) reader when I could've just had the guy take his coat off and say nothing of it.