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What does it mean to keep a story “real”? Why do so many writers insist upon this, even for genres like science-fiction and fantasy? It’s all make-believe, right? Anything goes, right?
The answer to this question is not exactly. Even in the realm of fantasy, there are limitations to what an author can do, mainly based on what readers will believe. There is always an underlying reason for what’s happening in a story.
For example, there are some short stories floating around focusing on digital erotica and dinosaur erotica. May seem farfetched, but the authors took themselves to task, wrote the stories, and found ways (I hope) for such stories to be plausible. (Maybe the main character had a bad batch of cocaine. One never knows until the story is read.)
To some, this might be proof that there’s nothing too far-fetched for publishing. I still maintain there are some things that an author simply can’t get away with in writing and expect the reader to believe without at least giving some kind of hint as to why it’s possible.
For example, let me refer to the Norse God of Mischief, Loki Laufeyson. In the surviving tales, Loki has gone on to not only father child but to bear them as well. In the surviving lore, in order to accomplish this, Loki had to change his gender. Due to the laws of nature, it was physically impossible for him to sleep with another man as a man and become impregnated. Though he was not of the human, there were still laws of nature that could not be broken.
In the fanfiction world, the fact that Loki is a shapeshifter and gender-shifter is not taken into account when writing about the births of his three well-known children, Fenris, Jorgmungandr, and Hela. It's done because it was done in the myths so therefore okay.
I have said this before, and I will say it again. This is simply not true. This is like writing a human in an atmosphere that has no oxygen and is not wearing something to aid his or her breathing in a very decidedly hostile environment. It cannot be done, not without some plot hint as to why it's being done. If the writer thrusts the reader into a confusing situation with no explanation as to why Event A is happening and how it will affect Events B, c, and D, then the writer's cause is lost.
As for the aforementioned erotica styles, while the chances of me ever picking up such novels are slim to nothing, I'm quite certain the authors found ways to make their stories plausible. A character high on meth usually finds something weird is going on around him or her.
The answer to this question is not exactly. Even in the realm of fantasy, there are limitations to what an author can do, mainly based on what readers will believe. There is always an underlying reason for what’s happening in a story.
For example, there are some short stories floating around focusing on digital erotica and dinosaur erotica. May seem farfetched, but the authors took themselves to task, wrote the stories, and found ways (I hope) for such stories to be plausible. (Maybe the main character had a bad batch of cocaine. One never knows until the story is read.)
To some, this might be proof that there’s nothing too far-fetched for publishing. I still maintain there are some things that an author simply can’t get away with in writing and expect the reader to believe without at least giving some kind of hint as to why it’s possible.
For example, let me refer to the Norse God of Mischief, Loki Laufeyson. In the surviving tales, Loki has gone on to not only father child but to bear them as well. In the surviving lore, in order to accomplish this, Loki had to change his gender. Due to the laws of nature, it was physically impossible for him to sleep with another man as a man and become impregnated. Though he was not of the human, there were still laws of nature that could not be broken.
In the fanfiction world, the fact that Loki is a shapeshifter and gender-shifter is not taken into account when writing about the births of his three well-known children, Fenris, Jorgmungandr, and Hela. It's done because it was done in the myths so therefore okay.
I have said this before, and I will say it again. This is simply not true. This is like writing a human in an atmosphere that has no oxygen and is not wearing something to aid his or her breathing in a very decidedly hostile environment. It cannot be done, not without some plot hint as to why it's being done. If the writer thrusts the reader into a confusing situation with no explanation as to why Event A is happening and how it will affect Events B, c, and D, then the writer's cause is lost.
As for the aforementioned erotica styles, while the chances of me ever picking up such novels are slim to nothing, I'm quite certain the authors found ways to make their stories plausible. A character high on meth usually finds something weird is going on around him or her.
