What Is Realistic Fiction And How To Incorporate It
Do you love to write and have a million ideas bouncing around in your head, but as soon as your fingertips touch the keyboard you resemble a deer in the headlights? Don’t worry. It happens to just about everyone. I’m an author and it happens to me. If you get stuck, try writing realistic fiction. What is realistic fiction you ask? Well, let's find out.
What is Realistic Fiction?
Realist fiction is a genre of writing consisting of stories that can truly happen. The characters (people or animals) are believable. The setting is believable. Heck, it could be your life story. Why not? Add a bit of spice here and some drama there, all still believable of course, and you’ve got realistic fiction.
So you’re really stuck and have no idea how to begin. Begin at the beginning. How about the day you were born? Chicago? Paris? The Netherlands? Yes! At the bottom of the sea? Um, no! Unless of course, you’re an underwater animal. You get the idea. Make it believable, add personality, embellish, relate. If it’s believable and can actually happen then you succeeded at realistic fiction.
Let’s give it a go. Hmmm! The day I was born.
Realistic Fiction Example Writing
January 26, 1967. Record snow. Chicago blizzard. Yep, that’s right. The day I was born. The snow came down fast and heavy. Workers were forced to sleep overnight on their office floor. Businesses were forced to close. Stores shelves were emptied by only those customers who were able to pull a sled from their home to stock pile groceries.
So here I was on my way into this world, unaware of the blustery Chicago wind and closed bridges and roads that no longer provided safe passageways to hospitals. Without a doubt it was an unborn child’s greatest nightmare. Piled snow. Closed roads. Growing pains.
Swaddled in a pink blanket and cradled in my mother’s arms, I had proven to be tough. I was finally winding down from exhaustion after endless hours spent getting me here. Mom turned down the TV’s volume so not to disturb me, but I could still hear the faint voice of the news reporter in the background. “Mother and daughter are doing well,” the reporter said. My eyes closed as I tuned out the newscast and listened in to my mother’s soft heartbeat. I fell asleep grateful to be born in Cleveland, 350 miles east of Chicago’s greatest blizzard.
REAListic Fiction is Believable Fiction
There you have it. Realistic fiction. Was it believable and could it actually happen? Yes and yes. On January 26, 1967 twenty-three inches of snow fell on Chicago and it’s surrounding suburbs. This is fact. Is the above writing truth? It doesn’t matter. This isn’t a memoir. This is realistic fiction.
Again, if you want to write, but frozen after the first sentence, start simple. Write what you know. Get those ideas that are bouncing around in your head down on paper. [yellowbox]BONUS: Download 3 Free Chapters of The Fifth Floor Now! Follow the coming of age journey for a young girl named Anna and her struggles with a deep, dark secret.[/yellowbox]
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Looking for something new to put on your reading list? Check out the first book from local Batavia Illinois author Julie Oleszek, The Fifth Floor today!