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You ever just lean forward after playing a game, watching a movie, or maybe even read a book, gave it one hard look, and went "This is the flimsiest pile of shit I've ever seen."?
The simple answer is: The story managed to break your Suspension of Disbelief. In many cases, I think it's a tool that is very often overlooked, or underappreciated. Of course, when I think about something to cite in regards to this, I don't get jack shit, but that's just the Lurk's big brain going "Hey, fuck you, Lurk. You should be writing a book not spouting some shit about topics you already know about."
Well fuck you too, Brain, I'm getting this done real quick while I still have the mood for it, and I gotta do my due diligence to teach all the snot-nosed students out there that like reading shit like this.
The simple answer is: The story managed to break your Suspension of Disbelief. In many cases, I think it's a tool that is very often overlooked, or underappreciated. Of course, when I think about something to cite in regards to this, I don't get jack shit, but that's just the Lurk's big brain going "Hey, fuck you, Lurk. You should be writing a book not spouting some shit about topics you already know about."
Well fuck you too, Brain, I'm getting this done real quick while I still have the mood for it, and I gotta do my due diligence to teach all the snot-nosed students out there that like reading shit like this.
The short of it is that Suspension of Disbelief is the willing abstinence of critical thinking. What this means is a reader or viewer or what have you isn't going to think too hard about someone riding around on a dragon's back, instead opting to enjoy it for what it is. However, it isn't just a thing that's automatically there, irrespective of what you do. You need to maintain it. You need to cherish it, since it's a key factor of how fiction is enjoyed.
Now, the art of Suspension of Disbelief, hereafter referred to as SoD, relies on a great many things. SoD isn't a single thing, but a product of a million small and not-so-small things, all coming together as one solid whole. A good explanation for it would be a comparison to a lake covered in an ice sheet. As long as the SoD is strong, meaning the Ice, you're good, and you can keep on going with the story at large. The moment it gets too flimsy, however, shit falls apart real quick, breaking through and "ruining" the story, so to speak. Once you stop buying into the story, you stop completely, and there's no going back.
Now, some people are easier to convince than others, thus their minimum threshold of SoD is lower than that snarky asshole reviewer from Youtube. this can be seen as the "weight" of the thing you're putting on top of the "Ice". Mice weigh nothing, and they enjoy all but the thinnest ice coverings. Elephants.... well, let's just say that some people just ruin it for themselves before they even start.
When one starts using the phrase "Suspension of Disbelief," you're already starting to do some crazy shit. Maybe you incorporated hoodoo magic shit into your modern world. Maybe you started to do some Proper Bullshitting Scifi into your semi-scifi world. The fact of the matter is, you're doing something surreal, and shit's getting weird. That's when the SoD meter makes itself known
Now, the art of Suspension of Disbelief, hereafter referred to as SoD, relies on a great many things. SoD isn't a single thing, but a product of a million small and not-so-small things, all coming together as one solid whole. A good explanation for it would be a comparison to a lake covered in an ice sheet. As long as the SoD is strong, meaning the Ice, you're good, and you can keep on going with the story at large. The moment it gets too flimsy, however, shit falls apart real quick, breaking through and "ruining" the story, so to speak. Once you stop buying into the story, you stop completely, and there's no going back.
Now, some people are easier to convince than others, thus their minimum threshold of SoD is lower than that snarky asshole reviewer from Youtube. this can be seen as the "weight" of the thing you're putting on top of the "Ice". Mice weigh nothing, and they enjoy all but the thinnest ice coverings. Elephants.... well, let's just say that some people just ruin it for themselves before they even start.
When one starts using the phrase "Suspension of Disbelief," you're already starting to do some crazy shit. Maybe you incorporated hoodoo magic shit into your modern world. Maybe you started to do some Proper Bullshitting Scifi into your semi-scifi world. The fact of the matter is, you're doing something surreal, and shit's getting weird. That's when the SoD meter makes itself known
Now, SoD isn't this one thing. It's easy to say it's "Don't do scifi shit in a medieval world' or something as arbitrary and obvious like that, but that's not what I'm talking about. SoD doesn't just happen most of the time. Sure, there are a lot of times it does, but usually it's this gradual, creeping thing. It's the ice slowly losing its thickness before suddenly SHLOOP and your balls and/or tits are freezing off and nothing will ever be better for the entire movie. How do you stop this, imaginary voice in my head asking? The first step, of course, is knowing what caused it.
Tone
The Tone of the story is something that is a heavy-handed, but generally overlooked factor of SoD. A story is like a train, pushing forward. The longer it runs, the faster it gets, and its momentum only increases. Once you start fucking around with the Tone, you start turning the train. Steadily, that's fine. That's okay. A lot of stories are famous in regards to how the tone changes throughout the story. However, if you expect to pull a 90-degree turn in two minutes flat after you spent the entire story establishing a completely different tone, and your shit's going to fall apart quicker than someone can make a Thomas the Train joke. The longer a tone goes on, the more likely it is to alienate readers if you start fucking around with it in a dramatic fashion.
Now, this isn't saying "All Stories Should Feel The Same" or some dumb shit like that, nor is this saying tones should stay consistent. What I mean to say is, you need to be careful screwing around with the tone. Like I said, a lot of stories shift in tone as the stories go on, and it's a very powerful tool to show the progression of many things. The problem with writing is that there's a fuckton of shit that gets into it, and all this guide is doing is zeroing in on one thing.
A prime example of how this can fuck shit up if you do it poorly, have a look at this Know Your Meme page. It tells a story of a webcomic that fucked its tone so hard that they completely alienated their readers and managed to make a meme of a very serious topic
Establishing Shit Beforehand
You ever watch a show or read a game that does this one thing in this very specific, meaningless scene at the start just because it wants you to "buy" into it later on? That's establishing it beforehand. No one really likes it, sure, but imagine how you'd feel if they didn't do it, and just had the crazy shit work for no other reason. Then it's a whole other thing of "THERE'S NO ESTABLISHING THIS YOU PULLED IT OUT OF YOUR ASS REEEEEEE"
I think you need to note how fickle writing can be. No matter how you go about it, sometimes you're just fucked and have to handle it, but I'm holding that note for the end of this, don't you worry.
Anyways, establishing stuff is a very mandatory thing if you're gonna pull something unexpectedly crazy. The crazier it is, the more critical it becomes to establish it beforehand. Those times you blatantly saw it, probably as a Lil ankle-biter while watching cartoons like me, was when it was done poorly. Writing a story is very much making things believable, even if you're doing fantasy or scifi. The moment you completely derail the story to establish that one thing, is the moment you're doing it badly. It needs to be seamless, organic, all that shit.
Now, what's even worse, though, is not establishing it at all. A lot of writers shoehorn this little established thing because it has to be there. They know that they're going to get a mountain of horseshit if they don't establish it. Those are the ones we see. However, others did it so seamlessly, so perfectly, that you didn't even call it "establishing", you just went with it. That's how it works.
This may seem off-topic, but it really is relevant to this: Watch PewDiePie's old Deadpool game let's play. He cuts out most of the content and leaves the story overall intact while also seeing all the shenanigans which honestly is worth the watch. PewDiePie isn't really that relevant in the comedy value, and there's this thing they establish with the dog and a giant flying boot that works phenomenally. Mostly because it's Deadpool, but also because it fit so fucking seamlessly in as well. Once you get to the ending, you'll know exactly what I mean, and I'm keeping it ambiguous cuz I want you to feel the joy I felt
The Rules Of Cool And Comedy
You ever just see something so funny that you didn't even question as to why it happened, it just made you laugh? Or did you see this massively cool gizmo, gadget, or thingamabobber that was so shiny and fancy that you didn't really stop and ask yourself "How the fuck does that even work?"
That's the Rule of Comedy and the Rule of Cool, respectively. It's the basic human instinct that if you're overwhelmed by something, other things don't matter as much. Now, the Rule of Comedy can be easier to pull off if you have a proper sense of humour, which in and of itself is objective. Writers tend to do a lot more of it than they think, and even get swept up by it themselves, only to later realize that it honestly doesn't make sense when you look at it.
A prime example of this is in kid cartoons. It doesn't need to be explained, due to it being a kid's cartoon. Instead, the writers hope to have the kids going "Haha!" or "ooooooooooo~" and they don't bother their tiny little babbu brains about it. However, it's a lot more relevant here than you'd think. What about that fancy steampunk automaton in that RP you just started? How the fuck does it work? Or why does one guy manage to trip and stumble into the busty nun's boobs? Cuz you got too overwhelmed by the cool and comedy of it to actually think shit through.
You know what, though? Sometimes it works. Sometimes you are allowed to do something because it's cool or funny. The amount of times you can do it, as well as how intensely you can do it, relies on your tone. A comedy show will have a lot of Rule of Comedy, as you would imagine, and a small scifi short just relies on Rule of Cool since nobody can establish anything concrete in a short time. It also heavily relies on the audience. If you're planning some deep, thought-provoking drama, don't have a guy walk around with a pink flamingo just to make people feel awkward. That's dumb and stupid. And also don't have cool scifi gadgets that work on pure Scifi Energy.
Tone
The Tone of the story is something that is a heavy-handed, but generally overlooked factor of SoD. A story is like a train, pushing forward. The longer it runs, the faster it gets, and its momentum only increases. Once you start fucking around with the Tone, you start turning the train. Steadily, that's fine. That's okay. A lot of stories are famous in regards to how the tone changes throughout the story. However, if you expect to pull a 90-degree turn in two minutes flat after you spent the entire story establishing a completely different tone, and your shit's going to fall apart quicker than someone can make a Thomas the Train joke. The longer a tone goes on, the more likely it is to alienate readers if you start fucking around with it in a dramatic fashion.
Now, this isn't saying "All Stories Should Feel The Same" or some dumb shit like that, nor is this saying tones should stay consistent. What I mean to say is, you need to be careful screwing around with the tone. Like I said, a lot of stories shift in tone as the stories go on, and it's a very powerful tool to show the progression of many things. The problem with writing is that there's a fuckton of shit that gets into it, and all this guide is doing is zeroing in on one thing.
A prime example of how this can fuck shit up if you do it poorly, have a look at this Know Your Meme page. It tells a story of a webcomic that fucked its tone so hard that they completely alienated their readers and managed to make a meme of a very serious topic
Establishing Shit Beforehand
You ever watch a show or read a game that does this one thing in this very specific, meaningless scene at the start just because it wants you to "buy" into it later on? That's establishing it beforehand. No one really likes it, sure, but imagine how you'd feel if they didn't do it, and just had the crazy shit work for no other reason. Then it's a whole other thing of "THERE'S NO ESTABLISHING THIS YOU PULLED IT OUT OF YOUR ASS REEEEEEE"
I think you need to note how fickle writing can be. No matter how you go about it, sometimes you're just fucked and have to handle it, but I'm holding that note for the end of this, don't you worry.
Anyways, establishing stuff is a very mandatory thing if you're gonna pull something unexpectedly crazy. The crazier it is, the more critical it becomes to establish it beforehand. Those times you blatantly saw it, probably as a Lil ankle-biter while watching cartoons like me, was when it was done poorly. Writing a story is very much making things believable, even if you're doing fantasy or scifi. The moment you completely derail the story to establish that one thing, is the moment you're doing it badly. It needs to be seamless, organic, all that shit.
Now, what's even worse, though, is not establishing it at all. A lot of writers shoehorn this little established thing because it has to be there. They know that they're going to get a mountain of horseshit if they don't establish it. Those are the ones we see. However, others did it so seamlessly, so perfectly, that you didn't even call it "establishing", you just went with it. That's how it works.
This may seem off-topic, but it really is relevant to this: Watch PewDiePie's old Deadpool game let's play. He cuts out most of the content and leaves the story overall intact while also seeing all the shenanigans which honestly is worth the watch. PewDiePie isn't really that relevant in the comedy value, and there's this thing they establish with the dog and a giant flying boot that works phenomenally. Mostly because it's Deadpool, but also because it fit so fucking seamlessly in as well. Once you get to the ending, you'll know exactly what I mean, and I'm keeping it ambiguous cuz I want you to feel the joy I felt
The Rules Of Cool And Comedy
You ever just see something so funny that you didn't even question as to why it happened, it just made you laugh? Or did you see this massively cool gizmo, gadget, or thingamabobber that was so shiny and fancy that you didn't really stop and ask yourself "How the fuck does that even work?"
That's the Rule of Comedy and the Rule of Cool, respectively. It's the basic human instinct that if you're overwhelmed by something, other things don't matter as much. Now, the Rule of Comedy can be easier to pull off if you have a proper sense of humour, which in and of itself is objective. Writers tend to do a lot more of it than they think, and even get swept up by it themselves, only to later realize that it honestly doesn't make sense when you look at it.
A prime example of this is in kid cartoons. It doesn't need to be explained, due to it being a kid's cartoon. Instead, the writers hope to have the kids going "Haha!" or "ooooooooooo~" and they don't bother their tiny little babbu brains about it. However, it's a lot more relevant here than you'd think. What about that fancy steampunk automaton in that RP you just started? How the fuck does it work? Or why does one guy manage to trip and stumble into the busty nun's boobs? Cuz you got too overwhelmed by the cool and comedy of it to actually think shit through.
You know what, though? Sometimes it works. Sometimes you are allowed to do something because it's cool or funny. The amount of times you can do it, as well as how intensely you can do it, relies on your tone. A comedy show will have a lot of Rule of Comedy, as you would imagine, and a small scifi short just relies on Rule of Cool since nobody can establish anything concrete in a short time. It also heavily relies on the audience. If you're planning some deep, thought-provoking drama, don't have a guy walk around with a pink flamingo just to make people feel awkward. That's dumb and stupid. And also don't have cool scifi gadgets that work on pure Scifi Energy.
Sometimes, you just have to acknowledge "Okay, I can't avoid this." In theory, you can develop a story that doesn't have a single point where the suspension of disbelief goes flimsy, but we're all humans in our own fucked-up journey we call life. Sometimes you just can't avoid the ol "Let's just roll with it and hope for the best"
On the other side of the spectrum, there will always be fedora-wearing, wheeze-breathing assholes that will say "THIS THING IS NOT REALISTIC IT SHOULD BE X OR Y INSTEAD"
Fuck them.
Seriously.
Now, in a perfect world, you should be working hard to not have this become a problem. I get that, and you really should be doing that. Breaking the SoD is far more than people not just buying your story. Once you start questioning things, you start to question everything. When you realise where you are after it's broken, you're shouting about how the bread on the counter of that one scene is completely fucking unrealistic. SoD is a sacred thing, like virginity. You only have one of it, and once you lose it, there's very little you can do to get it back. It's a lot more than this black-and-white protector that you have if you're a good writer or a bad writer. Once the SoD is lost, the entire tone of the story changes for the Viewer, and they will never be able to buy into the story properly for that sitting. It really is all-or-nothing sorta stuff.
Another thing to note is, this isn't a measure of how realistic a show is. Deadpool, for instance, talks to the Viewers directly. You ever see someone bitch about how unrealistic that is? It's an established fact that Deadpool stands self-aware, so it'd be more unbelievable if he didn't address the Viewers directly. It's all about the precedent, the tone, and the overall quality of the work you're writing.
Now that that's all sorted, go out there, and fucking write. That's the only way you'll learn to do this shit properly
On the other side of the spectrum, there will always be fedora-wearing, wheeze-breathing assholes that will say "THIS THING IS NOT REALISTIC IT SHOULD BE X OR Y INSTEAD"
Fuck them.
Seriously.
Now, in a perfect world, you should be working hard to not have this become a problem. I get that, and you really should be doing that. Breaking the SoD is far more than people not just buying your story. Once you start questioning things, you start to question everything. When you realise where you are after it's broken, you're shouting about how the bread on the counter of that one scene is completely fucking unrealistic. SoD is a sacred thing, like virginity. You only have one of it, and once you lose it, there's very little you can do to get it back. It's a lot more than this black-and-white protector that you have if you're a good writer or a bad writer. Once the SoD is lost, the entire tone of the story changes for the Viewer, and they will never be able to buy into the story properly for that sitting. It really is all-or-nothing sorta stuff.
Another thing to note is, this isn't a measure of how realistic a show is. Deadpool, for instance, talks to the Viewers directly. You ever see someone bitch about how unrealistic that is? It's an established fact that Deadpool stands self-aware, so it'd be more unbelievable if he didn't address the Viewers directly. It's all about the precedent, the tone, and the overall quality of the work you're writing.
Now that that's all sorted, go out there, and fucking write. That's the only way you'll learn to do this shit properly
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