Books are like portals to different worlds. Worlds with magic, dragons, and time machines. They tell us stories about people we’ll never meet and lands we’ll never see. More importantly, they tell us something about our own world. They tell us stories of other people who live somewhere on our globe, in their small bubbles. We read stories about their struggles and their joy. We feel for them and think about them, although they don’t exist.
As a writer, you tell tales about life using words. Some of them are realistic. You could imagine it happening, but other stories are impossible. Hence, the dragons. However, if you want to use your creativity and create realistic stories, then read this guide, even if a dragon is involved, to balance realism and creativity.
8 Steps on How to balance realism and creativity in fiction.
Balancing realism and creativity in fiction can be a difficult task, but not impossible. Let’s tackle it by first breaking it into 8 manageable steps.
Step 1: Understand What Realism Means in Fiction
To write realistic stories, you first need to understand what realism means in fiction. Realism isn’t about depicting exactly how real life is. Real life is boring, and many readers read because they want to take a break from their lives.
Realism is about creating realistic experiences. It’s about writing moments that are logical and feel ordinary in the context of the story. It’s about making readers believe that your story is rational without taking away the magic.
A few ways to bring realism into your writing:
Focus on cause and effect: Realism comes from showing that actions have consequences. If a character says something rude, others should respond in believable ways that reflect how people would actually react.
Use consistent logic: Set rules for the world your story takes place in and follow them. If magic works one way in chapter 3, don’t ignore that in the climax, just so the hero can easily defeat the villain.
Account for emotions: Whether your character is a queen, supervillain, or janitor, they have a heart, and they should have emotions that make sense and are relatable. Such as love, envy, or greed.
Step 2: The What If method
The “what if” method is a brainstorming technique where you twist a normal scenario into something intriguing. You can start with something familiar, like “what if” something was different about your morning routine, or you can also look at existing prompts for inspiration and twist them to your liking.
For example,
- What if everyone went to sleep one night and only one person woke up?
- What if a young man found himself in the middle of a high-stakes heist?
- What if a missing child one day turned up at her parents’ doorway?
Step 3: Build a Believable World
A realistic world doesn’t have to look like ours; it just needs to make sense in its own context. Readers will accept talking dogs and alien colonies if you give them a reason to believe it.
Here are some tips:
Add familiar elements: Incorporate everyday concepts such as markets, schools, and hospitals. Those concepts aren’t just widely known, but necessary for civilization.
Show consequences: What would happen if your protagonist stole a hat? Would they get punished, and if so, how?
Add human touches: Think of a knight who forgot to clean their sword or a nurse who carries a picture of their partner in their wallet.
Step 4: Create Characters with Depth
Readers want to fall in love with characters. That’s why they are reading; they want to be on the journey. To hear what they hear, to see what they see, and more importantly, to feel what they feel.
Readers want stories about someone who could be alive. No one particularly enjoys being in the company of someone who is perfect in every way and always does the right thing. If you are writing about someone who is perfect and will do the perfect thing, then why are you writing? How will the character grow and transform? It will feel like there is no point for them to undertake this journey.
Two ways to create character with depth:
- Internal conflict. It’s the conflict of thoughts your character has with their beliefs, emotions, or desires.
- Strong motivations. No one does anything based on “just because.” Everyone has their reasons, whether they are fully aware of them, is another thing.
Step 5: Make Your Characters Speak Realistically
Your writer’s voice has a significant impact on the realism of your story. For instance, if you are writing about a five-year-old boy, he will not use complex and consistent language.
That doesn’t mean that you should limit yourself to the vocabulary of a five-year-old. Good advice is to write from the perspective of a five-year-old. What do they see from their point of view?
Also consider the voice of your protagonist. In dialogue, how do they speak? Everyone has their own way of speaking, and that should be reflected in the dialogue. Especially if you are writing from the viewpoint of a five-year-old who doesn’t know most of the words that you write.
What will affect dialogue:
Origin: Where were they born? Where did their parents come from? Additionally, education and socioeconomic status.
Personality: Who they are, what they like, and what they do not like show up in their speeches. If they are reserved, perhaps they will not participate as much in a conversation in a public setting.
Emotional state: The emotional state of the speaker in that moment is a significant factor in how their dialogue sounds. For example, a devastated character will not be as joyful as they usually are.
Step 6: Use Theme to Connect Realism and Creativity
Your theme is a deeper message you are trying to convey through your story. It’s what you are trying to say without explicitly stating it. In other words, the theme is the truth you want your readers to leave with.
For example, A love story might be about accepting who you are, or two characters taking up a quest might be about finding your place in the world.
The theme is like glue in the story. It ties storylines together and, likewise, realism and creativity. If you can ground all components of your story in a common denominator, your story can be about dragons and ghosts, but in the subtext, you are writing about identity and belonging. Therefore, even if your story takes place in an unrealistic world, with unrealistic situations, there’s something the readers can resonate with. Namely, coming of age and love.
Ask yourself:
- Does the theme give purpose to the creative parts of my story?
- Do these creative elements represent something?
- How does the theme connect to relatable human experiences in this fictional world?
Writing Exercise: Practice How to Balance Realism and Creativity in Fiction
Writing is much like a muscle; it needs constant exercise to grow. Try out these writing exercises to balance realism and creativity in fiction.
- Write a short scene (150-250 words) about a character walking to a coffee shop in a town they have never been to before. Keep the scene realistic, as if you were describing your morning.
- Now rewrite the same scene, except this time everyone has a third eye that can predict the future. It’s completely normal to have a third eye in that world, and it doesn’t occur to the protagonist that it might be odd.
- Rewrite it again, and now you are trying to convince the reader that it is ordinary to have a third eye, and they shouldn’t ponder over it. Use what you learned in this guide.
Wrapping Up: How to Balance Realism and Creativity in Fiction
Trying to create a believable story without limiting your creativity is never easy. Especially if you are writing about things that don’t exist. Therefore, it’s smart for you to sit down before the first draft and plan. You can start by brainstorming using techniques like “what if, creating digestible worlds, dimensional characters, playing with style, and using theme as a binding method.
Keep in mind that creative writing isn’t supposed to be a documentary. Readers know that the book they are reading isn’t a news report. Fiction isn’t journalism; you capture life through a different lens. Do not let credibility hinder you from writing.
