I am not a James Bond fan. Hold on, before my James Bond fans hang me in effigy…you can’t like everyone. One of the main reasons I don’t like James Bond is that many of the situations, and the ways that he gets out of them, aren’t plausible. I know, I know…the fun is often in watching someone do the impossible even if it’s fake, but sometimes stories go too far and that is where they lose little ol  me.

Our readers are not stupid. They are just like us only on the opposite end of the writing world. We write it, they read it…ying and yang…so if we write a scene and find ourselves saying, “wow, that was cool, but so not real”…chances are our readers are sitting on the other end of your book saying, “wow, that was ridiculous”.

I do believe in writing so that the reader suspends belief. If you want to add things in that seem, or are, impossible then you have the write the story in such a way that the reader asks “can they” and then leaves your story thinking, “maybe”. You cannot have your hero shot 900 times and survive because he was wearing bullet proof underwear…that’s ridiculous…however, you can have your hero shot 900 times and survive of he’s just invented a personal force field (as long as it isn’t 1865)…that’s plausible.

I know that some folks love a good story filled with impossible rescues and crazy situations but if you are going to write those into your piece, at least do the research and make it plausible so that you don’t lose readers like me. There is a fine line between fantasy and science fiction folks…don’t cross it unless you have to…and if you do, label it as such so that the reader understands what they are getting themselves into…

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