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| Photo credit: seasonal wanderer on Flickr |
Regardless of however the title may or may not sound, I’m
not really referring to mind control—I’m referring to suspension of disbelief.
As writers, you have the unique ability to make anything
possible. You aren’t bound by laws of physics or reality or even time—whatever you
can imagine, you can create on the page. Dragons, zombies, angels, horned
beaver-goats—writers set the rules to the worlds that they create.
But as Aunt May so famously told a young Spiderman: with
great power comes great responsibility.
With every book (or series) you write, you set up the rules
of that reality. Whether it’s literary fiction, epic fantasy, sci-fi,
paranormal, etc., it’s your job as the writer to establish some form of
boundaries and guidelines. In the Harry Potter series, for example, J.K. Rowling established early on that even the most
powerful wizards prefer performing magic with wands, while in Eragon (Christopher Paolini), magic was
performed without the use of any wands whatsoever and in The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Rae Carson), magic could only be performed with the
aid of the rare Godstone.
The key is to set up rules that fit with whatever genre you
write in. Readers of fantasy expect a certain amount of, well, the fantastic—whether
its dragons, magic, elves, all of the above or something entirely
different—there are expectations within the genre that you as a writer in that
genre have to adhere to. If The Lord of the Rings ended with an alien invasion or a stampede of pink squirrels made
of sugar, readers would riot because it completely breaks the rules that J.R.R.Tolkein so carefully established.
Beyond world rules however, writers have the important job
of ensuring that their characters don’t act out of character, and thus break
the readers’ suspension of disbelief. If Katniss, for example, started flirting
with Cato because he was cute, or Harry Potter decided to join Voldemort and
become a Death Eater, to say that they’d be breaking character would be a huge
understatement.
There are two very simple things writers must do to ensure
suspension of disbelief:
- Set up the rules. Establish (or hint at) world rules quickly, as well as the rules (or personalities) of your characters.
- Stick with them.
It’s ok to occasionally break a rule, but make sure it’s
justified—establish a new rule that renders the broken rule obsolete, or give a
character a motivation for his otherwise unbelievable action, but make sure
it’s fully explained in your book, or risk losing that suspension of disbelief.
Have you ever read a book that shattered your suspension of disbelief?
What do you think caused it? What’s your favorite example of suspension of
disbelief?
13 comments:
Ah, suspension of disbelief.
Unfortunately, no one person has the same SoD. One person who might be nitpicking at the implications of Hogwarts (where's the sex ed?) might not be bothered on how realistic Twilight's vampires might or might not be (wait, I thought vampires couldn't have sex...).
But there's a point where most of your audience are willing to suspend that disbelief.
Ah yes, what you're referring to is a completely different animal on it's own--when readers question the rules themselves. That problem is unfortunately much more difficult to guard against because, as you said, what one reader accepts, another can question. Generally, however, if your rules line up, most of your audience will be willing to suspend their disbelief, at least to a point.
I once took a playwriting class from Danny Simon (brother of the more famous Neil Simon). He suggested that maintaining believability rested on how QUICKLY you suggested "unbelievable" actions. He mimed a clown putting on face makeup and showed that if the clown did it too quickly -- you know, sketched eyebrows through his hair right away -- it wasn't believeable. But if he did it SLOWLY, it was so much more convincing. Although I took this class more than 30 years ago, I've always remembered this very important message.
That's a really interesting point--and it certainly makes sense. Readers are much more likely to believe something that's been carefully demonstrated and explained than something that's just casually mentioned.
Great post, Ava! I think another point that helps with suspension of disbelief is the level of detail a writer employs, both in the creation of the world and the action of the character. It's those fully-realized, minute details (not dumped and lumped together, but woven in carefully), which can really make the reader feel it's all real.
Excellent point! I think that's a large part of what made the Harry Potter series feel so real. Out of the fan base, very few people questioned the rules J.K. Rowling set up, and I think you're right that the amount of detail had a lot to do with it.
I made a similar point with raptors once... http://www.christinetyler.net/2011/08/good-raptors-follow-rules.html
Have you ever heard opf something called ''Sanderson's first and second law''?
No, can't say I have.
Hi Ms. Jae. Nice article. I think about this issue quite a lot that how much of the real rules you can break in fiction. BTW I was wondering how much time on an average do you spend on a single article here? And, I remember once I asked you how do you earn money from this blog and you said you don't. But now I'm seeing you have finally decided to use Disqus ads. Are they any good in terms of earnings?
Hi Farhan,
I still don't make money. The Disqus ads just sort of appeared with one of the updates. They usually just link out to other articles, so I haven't really paid it much attention.
As for how long I spend on each post, it really depends. Sometimes when I'm on a roll, I can finish a post in fifteen minutes. Other times it can take up to an hour or more. All depends. :)
I see. Thanks for replying.
Of course.
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