Believability

Much of what writers do is create fake worlds that people believe in. That's most obvious in fantasy and sci-fi. But it's any world--cop novels, detective novels, legal thrillers, romances, blow-up-the-world thrillers, cozies (I know a couple of cozy writers who have readers write them wanting to move to the fake towns they've created). And we all have different thresholds of what we believe. We've all watched movies where we've thought, "Oh, give me a BREAK. Like she's going to go in that house with the lights off and not even turn them on . . . when there's a killer on the loose." And yet, do a good enough job of creating a world, and pal, I am along for the ride.

As a writer, I have been amused sometimes by the occasional review or email from a reader that questions something in one of my books--and it's usually not a big plot point. It's something small. In Spanish Disco, I remember one woman not believing the main character could have gone to a certain NYC club because my character was "too young." The reader could not have been a New Yorker, and definitely didn't know the term "club kid" (which I used in the novel), because my sister went way underage to that same club. In other words, what she didn't believe . . . was real.

So this got me thinking about what goes into believability. As they say, it's all in the execution, but I tend to think the following:

Odd character traits are supported by back story. I think of this in recalling an old acquaintance of mine writing a detective novel set in a very gritty city. The woman was a devout Christian, and she refused to have the detective curse. Rather, he would say things like "Gosh darn!" I pointed out time and time again that real detectives in real cities don't speak like Boy Scouts. But when I was critiquing her, I was in my 20s and hadn't honed my critiquing skills. What I really MEANT was if she was going to insist (which she did) on having an Aw Shucks detective in that setting, she was going to have to do an exceptional job of building his back story so I believed it. For example, she could have made him a Mormon or a devout Christian who once promised his grandma never to let the job turn him into a cursing, drinking pessimist, and so he works at that, much to the amusement of his partner. It doesn't have to require more than a few lines here or there, some mocking by his partner, whatever . . . for us to "buy" this character.

Details are authentic. I am worldbuilding in 2020 right now, at the fall of civilization. I spend a lot of time thinking about what life will be like then. I decided as workers and food supplies dwindle, finding a real bakery in NYC will be darn close to impossible. So when Aleks brings home real NYC rye for the soup they are going to have, it's a big deal that he went out of his way to the ONE bakery still open part time on their side of Manhattan. It's a small detail, but I think it's authentic.

Which brings me to details. There are the macro and the micro. You can have your high concept, but the LITTLE things are what will work to support it.

Accept that fiction must make sense. I can think of numerous healthy debates with writer friends over certain plot points. While they were able to make a plausible case for the REALITY of plot point A or B (similar to my example of the Spanish Disco detail), in the fictional world, it all has to be supported.

And finally . . . don't ask us to suspend TOO much disbelief. You can't pile it on . . . if a character just witnessed three murders and the killer is still on the loose and the cop says, "You're a target, I'm going to post a cop car outside your house," the average person will gratefully accept said protection, not protest it. The average person won't then (thank you, Psycho) take a shower or blast music or whatever, so they can't hear the killer. The average person is going to ask the cops to search the house. The average cops are going to DO so. ONE implausibility for the sake of plot . . . okay. A PYRE of ridiculous stuff and the manuscript goes up in flames.

Thoughts? What makes a book utterly belieavable for you?