Brandon 2
KitaVerisimilitude in writing
April 2nd 2007 12:14
There's an Ad I remember. It features a mother searving soft drink to her two flawless kiddies. They yell out, "Hey Mum, what's to drink?" and she's like "Oh it's SunnyJuice (or something)" and the kids yell out "Wow, SunnyJuice that's our favorite!"
This is the point where a computer animated anthropomorphic Sun jumps off the bottle, yelling "That's because SunnyJuice is made with the goodness of real juice..."
He doesn't get very far because the kids and their mother wig out, screaming bloody murder, "He's gonna kill us, run! Mum! Hurry!"
Why does this work? It works because it combines the original typical non-realistic scenario, and gives it a realistic quality. It lends Verisimilitude.
Verisimilitude is the giving of realness. Of course, a Sun isn't REALLY going to jump of a bottle. Neither is a Boy going to find out he's a Wizard and go off to Hogwarts, or a Professor of Symbology get chased around by an angry pale dude. However, the trick is to think; if it DID happen, what would people do?
We've seen a few examples of the potential for human reaction to extremities. Whether you believe it of not, there are people describing paranormal experiences, ability to use magic, mind reading abilities, alien visitations. How did they react? What about the apocalyptic fever post 911? The Spaghetti Tree incident? What about the Flat Earth Society? OR the guy who got confused at one of the big Zombie walks and drove his car into eight of the 'undead'?
One thing is, don't make your character accept everything so easily. If you'd be skeptical about being told you're actually the spawn of a demon from another dimension, then so would your character. Allow them to be as flawed, as cynical, as stupid and as scattered as real people. They don't have to experience the same reality, but at the same time, they have to experience unreality in a very real way.
Meaning of course - if a Sun has arms and a voice?
They'd probably run.
This is the point where a computer animated anthropomorphic Sun jumps off the bottle, yelling "That's because SunnyJuice is made with the goodness of real juice..."
He doesn't get very far because the kids and their mother wig out, screaming bloody murder, "He's gonna kill us, run! Mum! Hurry!"
Why does this work? It works because it combines the original typical non-realistic scenario, and gives it a realistic quality. It lends Verisimilitude.
Verisimilitude is the giving of realness. Of course, a Sun isn't REALLY going to jump of a bottle. Neither is a Boy going to find out he's a Wizard and go off to Hogwarts, or a Professor of Symbology get chased around by an angry pale dude. However, the trick is to think; if it DID happen, what would people do?
How can you lend verisimilitude to your writing?
We've seen a few examples of the potential for human reaction to extremities. Whether you believe it of not, there are people describing paranormal experiences, ability to use magic, mind reading abilities, alien visitations. How did they react? What about the apocalyptic fever post 911? The Spaghetti Tree incident? What about the Flat Earth Society? OR the guy who got confused at one of the big Zombie walks and drove his car into eight of the 'undead'?
One thing is, don't make your character accept everything so easily. If you'd be skeptical about being told you're actually the spawn of a demon from another dimension, then so would your character. Allow them to be as flawed, as cynical, as stupid and as scattered as real people. They don't have to experience the same reality, but at the same time, they have to experience unreality in a very real way.
Meaning of course - if a Sun has arms and a voice?
They'd probably run.
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