Fiction and Believability (paragraph, quote, stories)
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So here is an interesting question (or at least I will be interested to see the different opinions): Do you think fiction must be believable for you to enjoy it or be entertained by it?
When I was going through a BA writing program, this topic would come up quite often in different classes... with widely differing opinions from professors and students alike.
A lot of times, I will read a review of a novel on Amazon that is within a fiction category, and the reviewer will say something like, "This book is not at all believable." I suppose it depends on what you are looking for, but it was under fiction, right? Do we just assume that it is supposed to be believable, even though it's fiction? Sure, it can be; but must it be?
Personally, I don't want my fiction to be believable; the same goes for fiction that I read--to me, "believable" usually means boring. I want something way, way out there that will either make me laugh, or cringe, or shiver, become totally engrossed, etc. I want to be entertained. Yes, I know it totally depends on the genre one is writing or reading, and mainly, I'm talking about horror, suspense, and some sorts of speculative fiction. But, I actually go out of my way to make it unbelievable when I write.
So far, the reviews of the novels (on Amazon) I've written have seldom contained that "unbelievable" comment because it's 100% obvious from the first page (usually) that it's not at all believable. As I said, I go out of my way to take things waaaay over the top. I like to take a theme and really load the hyperbole onto what might be a cliche type of story without the hyperbole. I love to make my characters act in very bizarre, extreme, or unexpected ways. (my stuff is essentially horror, supernatural, suspense, social satire, parody, dark erotica, or very dark humor--or a combination). I try to concentrate on pure entertainment value.
I know a lot of times, a critic will say something like, "Okay... but still, the story or characters must be believable even within their "fantasy world." So, even if I accept that Rachel can flap her arms and fly, she must still act in a believable way within the "rules" of the story world. Well, I understand that opinion, but I can't even accept that. Personally, I don't really accept any limits on fiction at all. (I guess that's why I thoroughly enjoyed Barthelme's "The Dead Father"--yeah, he may well have written that one while he was on an acid trip!)
So...... can you enjoy a fictional novel that is not at all believable (especially horror and other dark themes)? Can it still entertain you even though you roll your eyes every ten seconds and say, "that could NEVER happen"?
So here is an interesting question (or at least I will be interested to see the different opinions): Do you think fiction must be believable for you to enjoy it or be entertained by it?
When I was going through a BA writing program, this topic would come up quite often in different classes... with widely differing opinions from professors and students alike.
A lot of times, I will read a review of a novel on Amazon that is within a fiction category, and the reviewer will say something like, "This book is not at all believable." I suppose it depends on what you are looking for, but it was under fiction, right? Do we just assume that it is supposed to be believable, even though it's fiction? Sure, it can be; but must it be?
Personally, I don't want my fiction to be believable; the same goes for fiction that I read--to me, "believable" usually means boring. I want something way, way out there that will either make me laugh, or cringe, or shiver, become totally engrossed, etc. I want to be entertained. Yes, I know it totally depends on the genre one is writing or reading, and mainly, I'm talking about horror, suspense, and some sorts of speculative fiction. But, I actually go out of my way to make it unbelievable when I write.
So far, the reviews of the novels (on Amazon) I've written have seldom contained that "unbelievable" comment because it's 100% obvious from the first page (usually) that it's not at all believable. As I said, I go out of my way to take things waaaay over the top. I like to take a theme and really load the hyperbole onto what might be a cliche type of story without the hyperbole. I love to make my characters act in very bizarre, extreme, or unexpected ways. (my stuff is essentially horror, supernatural, suspense, social satire, parody, dark erotica, or very dark humor--or a combination). I try to concentrate on pure entertainment value.
I know a lot of times, a critic will say something like, "Okay... but still, the story or characters must be believable even within their "fantasy world." So, even if I accept that Rachel can flap her arms and fly, she must still act in a believable way within the "rules" of the story world. Well, I understand that opinion, but I can't even accept that. Personally, I don't really accept any limits on fiction at all. (I guess that's why I thoroughly enjoyed Barthelme's "The Dead Father"--yeah, he may well have written that one while he was on an acid trip!)
So...... can you enjoy a fictional novel that is not at all believable (especially horror and other dark themes)? Can it still entertain you even though you roll your eyes every ten seconds and say, "that could NEVER happen"?
I agree that some, in setting, isn't 'believable' but you can get beyond that IF the characters match the setting. Sometimes this happens in genres. If its set that warpdrive is unstable beyond warp ten, but they routienly travel at warp fifteen, then somewhere there needs to be an explanation. It can be a paragraph of the old time engineer remembeing when they couldn't do that, but now with the new x its routine. But it needs adressing, just to show you remember the 'standard'.
As for characters, each is created from a different paintbrush, but unless they are meant to be misfits they have to work in their world. They in part define what is 'normal' without it having to be blatent in case of fantasy. But they still have to be built with the motivations to do as they do. If they step out of the zone they live in, its is usually an important thing. Say the woman who has always done as expected but suddenly decides to say no and leaves. You don't have to say why right then, but can work it in, but for me I like to see what makes them up and how they respond to life, especially out of the mold.
If you use more opressive settings, you need to understand how it effects people. Don't guess, do research. Not everyone reacts the same, but there is going to be a general effect on even the most resistant. If you want the reader to believe its as bad as you mean it to be, the situation and the people need to match or you lose a lot of the power of the story.
For me, even in fantasy, I look for the connection to reality. It may be theirs, not ours, and maybe they can fly. But if you set up a rule about how they fly, those who don't pass the rule shouldn't be able to. In fantasy a great deal of the little details are in this kind of thing. Its far better than sticking in a list of the rules and having the reader zone out as they skip it over.
So I guess you'd have to put me in the catagory of no it doesn't in terms of what is familiar. You can make your own familiar with its own rules. But I'd be in the yes catagory over how this is handled. If a fairy with a deformed wing can't fly, she shouldn't. Or if she does its an important part of the story how and why. I see sloppy planning if its supposed to be unnoticed.
I think it means something more than literally believable. Stephen King, in his book, On Writing, said, "you must tell the truth". Now when we look at HIS writing about vampires and other horror situations, obviously he is not being literally truthful--but you believe his stories. The "truth" means that the story must, at its core, contain truths that resound with the reader. The characters, whether enmeshed in a zombie apocalypse or in 2012 New York City or a farm in Kansas in 1856, have to think and behave in a way that is believable. This doesn't necessarily mean it's the way YOU would act or react, but it has to keep you reading.
So, if the main character in your horror novel (and please don't say "fictional novel", it's redundant--there's no such thing as a NON-fiction novel, right?) is madly in love with Zombie Woman and she is tragically destroyed before his eyes by the Zombie Killer, and he just shrugs and says, "oh well", no, it is not believable.
Interesting responses and opinions so far. This is the type of thing I was hoping to see on the thread.
Oh, the "fictional novel" thing... I just put that there because the line is a little blurry when we get into what is called "creative non-fiction" (wow! how "creative" did you get with that biography??? ). I probably shouldn't have included it though, because obviously I'm referencing pure fiction here.
One of the axioms of movies is "the willing suspension of disbelief." Storytelling is a form of leading the reader down a certain path that has various sights and events along that path. If you are leading a reader down a path in ancient Japan and there is an Eskimo with a Bud lite braising a steak on a pizza oven in one scene, the reader is going to pop out of that "willing suspension of disbelief".
Authors build a "world" (Jungian definition) and then populate it to form a story. If the world is inconsistent then the dissonance works against the reader becoming engrossed. There are times when that is used intentionally, and times when the author is just plain clueless. Stories by clueless authors tend to be less enjoyable.
When a reviewer comments on a story being unbelievable, many times that is a shorthand way of saying that there are inconsistencies and gaps that not only make the story improbable, but impossible and disjointed.
Plausable is the key word. I like sci-fi and fantasy too, but given the situation of the world in the book, it has to be believable. The things that bother me the most are the inconsistancies (when a character is a always cool cucumber but in the most important scene in the book that character totally loses his nerve) or implausibility (OK, not a book, but Law and Order Crimininal Intent has the worst story lines, with a cop knowing the specifics of all forms of pollen native only to a small region of Southern Africa and same cop walking into an autopsy and digging around in the body to find evidence).
So though a book might have futuristic or supernatural qualities, the author still has to make it "believable".
Interesting responses and opinions so far. This is the type of thing I was hoping to see on the thread.
Oh, the "fictional novel" thing... I just put that there because the line is a little blurry when we get into what is called "creative non-fiction" (wow! how "creative" did you get with that biography??? ). I probably shouldn't have included it though, because obviously I'm referencing pure fiction here.
I do get that, since especially with the new tendency to spill it all, sometimes if you want the book to sell you may resort to a little 'creativity'. You have to allow in a memiour, which I like to read, that someone who is seventy may not rememeber each detail of when they were fifteen exactly right, but the stories with very blatently 'blurred' passages (hard to disprove) which mostly suggest are I think what you mean. It's a disservice to the non-fiction world to not have a name for this....
But a true fiction book in novel length is by defination 'fiction', even if its quite clear where they idea came from with all the names changed. Maybe they should write them like that?
Dang, I hate typing in a cave. Ceiling fan lights went out and can't call anyone until tomorrow as its the part that makes them work, not the lights. It makes it feel like 2 am all day long with the small lights in big room...ugh
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). I probably shouldn't have included it though, because obviously I'm referencing pure fiction here.
