For novels, reality is not all it’s cracked up to be

Life. It’s deep, right? I mean, just look at the word.

Life.

Wow, man. Just, wow.

But here’s the thing. Real life is very often extremely boring. That’s one of the main reasons we read and write books in the first place.

Want to know one of the absolute worst ways you can defend yourself from criticism as a writer? “But this really happened!”

When you’re writing a novel, your job is not to transcribe real life. Your job is to tell a story.

The limits of verisimilitude

If verisimilitude helps the story? Great. Drawing upon real life can add authenticity and immerse readers in a world they may never have visited.

But the story comes first. Just because something really happened in real life doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to make a good story.

Look, I brushed my teeth this morning, then I rinsed with mouthwash. That really happened!

Anything can be made to work in a novel, but it would take world-historical levels of genius I do not possess to make you want to read a book about my morning dental routines.

In real life, people get depressed and don’t get off the couch for a month. They do a bunch of boring chores. They fall in love without getting into knock-down, drag-out fights and maintain friendships where everything seems easy.

In a novel, unless your voice is so scintillating you can get away with writing novels about paint drying (and there are about ten people like that on the whole planet), chances are your protagonist needs to stay active, encounter obstacles (interior and exterior), and experience change. If your protagonist is bored, your reader is going to be bored too.

The imperatives of storytelling just aren’t the same as real life.

Keeping characters active and giving them ups and downs

In real life, people really do stall out in spirals of inaction.

But when you’re telling a story, the best way to evoke idleness is by giving a character something insanely idle to act upon, like counting the number of red Froot Loops in his kitchen cabinet to win a petty feud while his apartment descends into squalor and he gets fired from his job.

In real life, some relationships really are easy and drama-free.

But there’s a reason Romeo & Juliet is one of the quintessential love stories, and nearly every culture on Earth has its own version of the archetype. Iconic relationships in fiction tend to have immense obstacles. Nothing is easy, which makes forbidden love feel “earned.”

Active characters encountering obstacles, experiencing ups and downs of increasing intensity, and emerging from the events in a new place. If you string together scenes where characters are trying to get what they want and face obstacles nearly as powerful as they are, chances are your readers will keep reading.

Even writers who famously home in on the quotidian elements of life and relationships (Sally Rooney, Karl Ove Knausgård, Rachel Cusk, etc.) usually center a character who is actively trying to figure something out or untangle specific questions. They’re active and coming into conflict with their worlds, even if they’re very internal quests.

You don’t need to have fireworks and explosions in your novel. But even if you’re writing something “quiet,” dialing up real life can help.

Dialing real life up to 11

Allow me to date myself with a tangent, but growing up, I was a big fan of The Wu-Tang Clan, who created an elaborate fantasy world based upon martial arts mythology, Al Pacino movies and, I’m told, cash ruling everything around me.

People call rap “real” because it deals with real life issues (i.e., the aforementioned cash ruling everything around me), but my favorite rap artists take those real issues and place them in a fantastical-feeling world, such as Deltron 3030, and, more recently, xaviersobased.

When you take the completely boring trials and tribulations of real life (i.e. cash ruling everything around me) and place them in a foreign surrounding (i.e., Staten Island Shaolin), things like credit card debt and student loans aren’t mundane, they suddenly appear poignant and powerful.

Now, my intention here is not to tell you to write Wu-Tang Clan-inspired fiction (although, actually, that’s not a bad idea).

But consider taking “real” life to the next level.

It’s totally fine to draw upon real life as it is actually lived. And at the end of the day, what’s most important is writing the book you want to write.

We don’t read novels about the 99.9% of planes that take off and land safely. We want to read about the 0.1% where nearly everything goes wrong. Even “quiet” novels tend to have intensely personal stakes.

What feels “real” in a novel doesn’t often correlate with real life

When you focus on real issues and engage with emotional truths in a strange world, a funny thing happens: your book seems more real.

Think about the unique worlds crafted by your favorite writers, even the ones that take place in “real” life. Great books are transporting. They take you away to a new place before they bring you back to what you know.

To put it another way still, when a sales rep goes to a chain and tells the buyer about the books on the upcoming list, they need something to point to that makes a book stand out.

They need to be able to say, “This is what makes this book different.” A unique character, a unique way of telling the story, a unique plot, a unique world. Something, anything that sets a book apart from the thousands of other books that are published every year.

And I’m here to tell you: Real life isn’t enough on its own.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

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Art: The Dragon by Kunisada II Utagawa