Realism in the Imaginary

One of the challenges writers face is creating a story that is believable. Readers need to absorb our words and feel emotions related to our work. It can be a difficult path to navigate and often times treacherous when trying to make things "realistic."

What is "realistic"? How can anything realistic be interesting?

I ask the second question because I have experience listening in on conversations and observing humans in the world. I have been present at social gatherings and public spaces. On one particular noteworthy night, I sat on a concrete wall listening to music and jotting notes on the people around me. It was for a high school sociology class and my experiment was to observe what was imbibed by the people around me. From my fuzzy recollection, I recall tallying the wine and ice cream consumed by the people. I noted approximate ages and the number of people. I theorized that the music in question affected the crowd's demographic and thus, the consumables present.

While I fantasized that I was doing very important research and made my observations with sarcastic side comments, it wasn't revolutionary and frankly, if not for my ability to find humor in the mundane, it would have been quite boring.

I generally don't write stories that take place in our modern time and world because I find them yawn-inducing. That's not to say that writers don't succeed at making the mundane entertaining, but consider those stories. Are they realistic? Drama is played up. Emotions are out of control. Every sensory detail is heightened. Who experiences life that way?

I don't believe that I do. Most of my life seems to fade from my mind once the day is over. What happened yesterday? Hmm, yes, read something, ate something, read something else, ate something else, possibly saw someone. There aren't noteworthy moments at every second of the day and that's key. When you read a novel, you are getting the crucial points that need to be made. You're not getting agonizing descriptions of every meal and the MC getting ready for bed (not usually). Each scene highlights an important moment and we even skip over the things that would get tedious.

Think about Harry Potter. Sure, Hogwarts is exciting. It's a school for witchcraft and wizardry but, at the end of the day, classes are classes and we would be tired if J. K. Rowling explained each in detail. Once we've gotten a basis for classes, time just flies. It's the start of term, then it's Halloween, now it's Christmas, then they're leaving for the year. Each book is a year, but not every moment is described which is why we find it entertaining.

This topic came to my attention because I read an article about books that depict "Realistic Romances" and the writer of the article posed the same question of what does that really mean and are there any realistic romances?

From my cynical mind, no, there are not any realistic romances depicted in most literature (I can't say all because there are always exceptions). Full blown romances that stand the test of time with nary a problem are unrealistic. I do not believe they are possible. Skipping all the awkward moments - even more unlikely. We're not perfect and our relationships with others are far from perfect.

People fall in love, they get angry or jealous, they break-up, they make-up, maybe they make-out, and then possibly it falls apart again. Then the same sequence happens again. Throw marriage in there or some type of commitment. You'll still end up with problems.

Now, I'm not against romance and I do believe that relationships can last, but there are a lot of forces that prevent that from happening and it seems most aren't able to handle it. I doubt I'm capable. So while the concept of love conquers all and it being a strong force to reckon with is nice (butterflies and daisies), it does not seem realistic. End of story. Try to convince me otherwise. Actually that would be fun. If you've got a point that differs, let me know. I love constructive arguments and differing opinions. It's how we learn.

If you want to read an opinion on Realistic Romances, check out this article by Gina Barreca from Psychology Today. This was the inspiration for my post today.