How to Suspend Readers’ Disbelief
In fiction, the concept of suspending the reader’s disbelief refers to verisimilitude and plausibility. Verisimilitude means “a similarity to the truth.” (This has nothing to do with political affiliation.) One meaning of plausibility means “appearing worthy of belief.” The distinction is subtle, and the absence of either plausibility or verisimilitude reveals a gap in realism—and that may doom a story to ignominy.
Fiction for very young children (i.e., picture books) doesn’t rely on the imposition of realism to delight the child and appeal to the child’s imagination. Very young children have few or no limits to their imagination, so anything goes. However, as children age and begin learning how the world actually works, then fiction needs to adjust to fit that growing knowledge. Adjustment may mean developing consistent magic systems, creating thorough histories of imaginary cultures, and understanding basic science.
I have three examples of this.
A client hired me to ghostwrite her story in the science fiction genre. In one scene there’s a gunfight. Relying on actual experience with guns, I described the bitter smell of cordite in the air following the gunfight. The client, who had no experience with firearms, objected, stating that the guns in her story used a fictional type of bullet and gunpowder was not used. I’m no mechanical engineer, but I explained to her that the type of bullet is irrelevant to that detail: if a gun fires a bullet, then something has to propel the projectile (bullet) down the gun’s barrel at high and sudden velocity. We came up with an alternate firing mechanism.
Another client hired me to perform a manuscript critique of his epic fantasy manuscript. Throughout the story in a fungi-dominant landscape, the author, who had no experience with horses, wrote of the horses in the story eating mushrooms. The problem was horses don’t eat mushrooms. (I have decades of equestrian experience, and I still researched that detail to be sure.) I explained to him that, with over 9 million horses in the USA alone, he could be sure that some of his readers would be horse owners and that they would realize right away he knew nothing about horses and lose their trust in him.
While editing a manuscript for another client, I encountered several details that simply didn’t pass the “sniff test.” In this fictionalized story of his ancestors, the author merely repeated folk wisdom he either imperfectly remembered or had overheard. One such detail was horse-related: a statement that mare’s milk was red. Feeling obligated to uphold fact, I corrected him: no, it isn’t. Another detail concerned distance and travel. Neither of us had been to Europe, but I suspected that, concerning the era in which the scene took place, a drive from Liège, Belgium to Calais, France with a leisurely lunch before returning to Liège that same afternoon wasn’t feasible. I did the research. Not only was that not feasible in the 1920s, it’s still not feasible. I suggested the author revise that section.
Keep Your Readers’ Trust
The realism afforded through verisimilitude and plausibility lets readers trust you not to lead them astray. When you have that trust, readers will happily let you lead them into realms of impossibility and wild imagination. But if you break that trust, then you have lost that reader.
Upholding readers’ trust means getting the details right. Accuracy matters. If or when you sidestep accuracy, inform your readers in the author’s note before the story begins: let them in on the secret so they, too, can set aside doubt and accept those details that flout fact. Readers who know that the author knows that details were manipulated for the sake of the story will accept such manipulation as serving the story. Readers who detect errors—especially errors that can be verified by a 60-second Google search—do not become repeat customers because they cannot trust the author to do his or her research.
There’s no excuse for failing to do your own research, but copy editors often shoulder this burden in the best interests of the author and the story. Don’t think a detail is too small. Your readers will come from all social strata and every field of endeavor: someone will detect an error in fact and post that disappointment in a review to alert potential readers of the author’s carelessness.
Let’s make sure your story suspends your readers’ disbelief. Contact me for thorough, detailed editing of your manuscript.
