Dos and Don’ts of Writing Believable Speculative Fiction
One of the things I love about speculative fiction is the way it lets you play with impossible, outlandish concepts while still exploring age-old questions about the human condition. How ironic, then, that readers of science fiction and fantasy are some of the toughest crowds when it comes to issues of believability.
You might think someone who has no problem accepting dark elves or faster-than-light space travel would also cut you a break when it comes to the smaller details, but noooo. In fact, it’s my generous acceptance of your fantastical premise that means I have absolutely no patience remaining for anything that breaks the spell you’ve cast.
Still, I know firsthand how frustrating it can be to get back feedback from someone who “just didn’t believe” an aspect of your story. The comment can feel so vague and subjective. What does it really mean? And how do you fix it?
Here is a checklist of potential problems and tools I use when I try to diagnose and revise my own work.
- Problem: It’s a cliché. When I first started writing, I found that when someone said they found something hard to believe, it was actually a nice way of saying that it was something they’d seen too many times before and/or was so bland it felt unrealistic.
Solution: Specificity. Sometimes I just hadn’t included enough details to make the character/setting/conversation unique. A lot of the time, it was all in my head, I just hadn’t figured out how to get it on the page, or in what order to present it. With complex world-building, that’s always a challenge.
2. Problem: It’s too on the nose. This is a cousin of the cliché. It usually refers to dialogue and means something is too earnest, with no subtext. “How are you doing today, Bob?” “I am horrible, Francine. I have realized I am a fool. I have forsaken the love of a good woman and need to repent. I can only pray she will forgive my treacherous heart!”
Solution: Complexity. Characters who don’t say what they mean, who don’t practice what they preach. Who have interests and actions that don’t directly serve the plot. Multiple plot threads. No heavy-handed metaphors. And finally, trusting the reader enough to realize you can be subtle.
3. Problem: Incorrect detail. Nothing blows your credibility like a fact error. If you’re writing a war epic and your “brilliant” general uses non-sensical tactics and calls weapons by the wrong names, God help you, your readers will never stick around long enough to buy your poignant redemption ending.
Solution: Research, lots and lots of research. And beta readers. Find subject matter specialists and ask them to tell you where you screwed up.
4. Problem: Unrelatable /Melodramatic Characters. This can also be related to “too on the nose” writing. It’s when your character’s actions or emotions seem too extreme or unintelligible.
Solution: Clarifying motivation. If a reader is clear on why a character is reacting a certain way, as well as what is at stake for that character, their actions are more likely to feel reasonable (even if they aren’t what the reader would do themselves.) If that’s not the issue, other options include:
a. toning the actions/words down;
b. making some of their statements internal dialogue (a character might be more likely to think something extreme than say it out loud); or
c. trying a reaction at the opposite end of the spectrum. Sometimes a victim goes into shock and feels no emotion at all.
5. Problem: Deus ex machina. Something in your story happens that seems too convenient, too coincidental. This often occurs and the end of the story, when you’re trying to wrap everything up, so you invent something new – “A surprising twist!” you tell yourself. Well, no one is surprised; they are annoyed.
Solution: Lay your groundwork early. If a character is going to save the day at the last minute, it has to be a character we already know and love (or hate or underestimated, etc.) not someone we’ve never heard of. The gun (or wand, as it may be) must already be on the mantel. This doesn’t mean you need to have all details planned out from the beginning. It means when you finish your first draft, you go back and add it in.
6. Problem: Squishy perimeters. Also related to #5. The great thing about speculative fiction is that anything goes. But it also means that from page one, the reader is trying to figure out what is possible in your world. Once they “decide” what that reality is, they will be frustrated or confused if they have to revise their mental image substantially.
Solution: More groundwork. If you’re going to mix genres, best to telegraph that before you get halfway through the story. If magic is the key to winning the war against the Dark Lord, we need to know how the magic works – what it can and cannot do – from the beginning.
7. Problem: Your story is based on something that actually happened or someone who really lived, and still no one buys it.
Solution: It’s about “truthiness,” not facts, as Stephen Colbert says. Something has to feel true, not just be true. So how do you do this? Sometimes you need to show all the steps that led up to an improbable event (How else did Life of Pi author Yann Martel get me to google whether a little boy actually survived on a lifeboat with a tiger?). You can include specific details that sound too strange to have been made up (Not just a tiger, but a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker) or have a character voice the reader’s objection aloud so another character can address it directly (as the two officials from the Japanese Ministry of Transport do to Pi).
8. Problem: What about this? And this? And that? Your beta reader is asking a million questions, and if you answered them all, it would change the focus of your story. And you feel strongly about that focus.
Solution: Ignore them. Not every story is meant for every reader. If you are writing a soft scifi novel that examines social and interpersonal issues, you may decide you don’t need to include the design specs for the spaceship your characters are on. That may alienate some readers who want hard specifics, but it is OK to decide that you are doing something else.
9. Problem: More nitpicks! This is a variation on #8, with a much tougher fix.
Solution: Consider there may be something fundamentally flawed in your work. Sometimes if a reader is not connecting emotionally to a story, they will search for a very concrete reason that sounds better than “Yuck” or “Yawn.” Fix their nitpick and the problem remains. In these cases, having multiple readers can help you identify a common problem beyond individual taste. If that doesn’t work, try going back to basics. Is it clear what your character wants in each scene and what stands in their way? Is it clear what they stand to lose if they fail? Keep working, keep trying to get better.