Should you allow reality get in the way of a good story?

I know Reality Ensues is a trope where characters who normally plot armor are all of sudden put in situations where it longer applies anymore. I know Realism is a thing but there are strange, fantastical and bizarre things that happen in the real world where it sometimes feels like life imitating art. I know Reality Ensues can be used well but should you allow reality to get in the way of your stories?

Never. Always make decisions that benefit the overall impact of your story. Sometimes though that is taking the more realistic route, but realism should never take precedence over what tells the better story. People don't read fiction - especially sci-fi/fantasy - for the realism of it all.

If you're ever in a spot where the realistic option is bad, but the unrealistic option is worse, then you might want to consider changing that part of the plot.

A good story will nearly always command suspension of disbelief over lack of realism. There's a reason we have the Acceptable Breaks from Reality and Necessary Weasel concepts. If you want your badass hero to shrug off bullets, then don't worry about whether your audience will accept Just a Flesh Wound or Made of Iron. Just keep in mind that you should probably provide some sort of In-Universe justification.

Of course, a lot of very good stories have been written that employ Reality Ensues deliberately, either for drama or satire. What happens when the Action Hero realizes that bullets actually injure him; that he can't jump through Soft Glass without a scratch; that falling from a height breaks his bones?

It all depends on the kind of story you want to tell.

What jars me out of suspension of disbelief isn't lack of realism per se, but lack of consistency — particularly, internal consistency. If you establish a rule in your canon, that rule should stay the same throughout, or be broken only with specific (and foreshadowed) justifications.

edited 29th Jan '18 7:54:59 PM by Fighteer

I'll second what Fighteer wrote. Realism should not stop your story from doing what it is doing; if it had to, the entirety of fantasy and science-fiction genres would not have been a thing at all. But consistency, yes, consistency has priority because if things are noticeably inconsistent then the readers start scratching their heads instead of enjoying whatever it is that they are reading and thus the story simply cannot do what it is supposed to be doing.

I agree about the consistency part. Doing the "coin-flip" method about realism (like the writers seem to do on Family Guy) gets irritating.

Otherwise, don't worry about it. But be prepared: There will always be that one annoying (and extremely punchable) fan who feels the need to obnoxiously point out the unrealism (for some reason, I always picture that nerdy guy from Robot Chicken).

edited 31st Jan '18 7:09:28 AM by Starbug