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Addressing Fridge Logic in your stories

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GAP Formerly G.G. from Who Knows? Since: May, 2011 Relationship Status: Holding out for a hero
Formerly G.G.
#1: Apr 2nd 2012 at 9:04:08 AM

While it may not be possible to avoid Fridge Logic, I wonder if anyone has managed to address any thing in the story that doesn't make that much sense? Lets say you have a fantasy setting where it is possible to use magic and there is healing magic that can restore organs but that person is dying and the magus and/or doctor cannot do anything with said magic and the patient dies anyway. Here is the fridge logic, why didn't magic work that time where it some chapters of the story in question it worked well? There are better examples of this in the Headscratchers forums such as "why couldn't the save Aeris with a phoenix down" or "why couldn't revive Galuf with raise?" but how do you address the fridge logic in your stories when the readers, tropers or editors reveal it to you?

"Eratoeir is a Gangsta."
CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit Since: May, 2009
#2: Apr 2nd 2012 at 9:17:42 AM

You try to fix it. That's what I call lazy plotting.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#3: Apr 2nd 2012 at 9:45:58 AM

There are some mechanics that I refuse to use, because they're just too hard to handle coherently. (Time Travel, for instance.) Of course, I don't begrudge anyone else who's willing to take a stab at them.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#4: Apr 2nd 2012 at 9:49:14 AM

[up] This.

Or, if there is an important reason for this to happen in terms of plot, create a reason that is, ultimately, consistent with how your world works. Just because you know what laws govern the universe doesn't mean that your characters do, but that doesn't mean that you can get by not knowing them.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Ahr river
#5: Apr 2nd 2012 at 9:51:39 AM

Usually most of the fridge logic that happens in my story is because I'm dealing with two parallel stories — what is really happening, and what the reader sees.

Read my stories!
Morven Nemesis from Seattle, WA, USA Since: Jan, 2001
Nemesis
#6: Apr 2nd 2012 at 10:09:14 AM

You have to have some kind of limitations and luck in your healing magic, in that example. Modern medicine can do amazing things, and yet people die of things that sometimes can be fixed. Think about the ways that modern medicine fails and think of magical analogs. Sometimes there is a critical difference between two nominally identical situations — a nicked artery, say, that overwhelms the healer's ability. Some patients may be more responsive to healing magic than others — some, even, may not tolerate it at all ( a magic allergy is a reasonable idea, for instance). There's a question about whether the correct diagnosis is made quickly enough — if the healer spends all their time fixing the big obvious problem that's not the actual thing killing them, for example. There's mistakes, accidents, incompetence, exhaustion.

A brighter future for a darker age.
Night The future of warfare in UC. from Jaburo Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
The future of warfare in UC.
#7: Apr 2nd 2012 at 4:32:28 PM

how do you address the fridge logic in your stories when the readers, tropers or editors reveal it to you?

Short Answer: they have not done so to my knowledge.

Long Answer: I'm the only one with a full set of facts. People have thrown out apparent Fridge Brilliance (it's not) before, but in the end, everything is proceeding in a roughly logical way. If, like me, you have all the facts. Which neither the characters nor the readers do. Bits are revealed as time goes by.

Nous restons ici.
burnpsy Since: Sep, 2010
#8: Apr 3rd 2012 at 6:45:01 PM

Much like what Night's saying, I really am the only one who knows all the details. Though I'm working with games, the people helping me only know what they need to.

When I see anything that would need to be addressed, I either fix it or, if I like it better the way it is, I have the characters discuss it later.

Pyroninja42 Forum Villain from the War Room Since: Jan, 2011
Forum Villain
#9: Apr 3rd 2012 at 8:02:05 PM

Really- you need to understand the implications of whats happening and what you're using to its fullest. Fridge Logic is the result of the reader realizing that what happened at a certain point is not what would happen, given the logic within the story's framework.

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."
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