When writing any type of fiction, there are no boundaries as to where you are allowed to go with your story. There are rules, but some of us don’t follow according to plan. For those who write fiction, we tend to follow an unwritten rule which makes us ask ourselves, “Can this really happen?” Sometimes it can and sometimes it can’t. Today, I want to touch on using what’s possible and what’s not possible (how to make this work) in the world of writing.
In most fiction stories, we use the genre “realistic fiction” which means we follow a template that includes guidelines for writing a coherent story. One key factor in this type of fiction is the element of chance. To break that down, I mean that if there is a realistic chance that something could happen, then you could definitely use it in your story. It just has to tie into your plot and storyline and make actual sense when read. If it can happen realistically, then you can write about it.
The other side of the story comes to light when we talk about fantasy or sci-fi. With sci-fi, maybe you could introduce a character and his weapon as something that has not yet been manufactured in real life. A friend of mine, who is a regular in my writing group, uses the fantasy genre to build new worlds for his characters. Futuristic technology is afoot in his tales of bringing down mechanical demons and other enemies from other worlds outside of the ones he is trying to create. He does a great job of drawing the reader into said worlds and keeping them on the edge of their seats when going in depth with his action sequences.
World building like his has no rules or boundaries. This type of writing lets us create from the deepest, most dormant regions of our psyche that we usually don’t put on display under normal circumstances. Meaning, we don’t spend our days talking about how we created a seven-headed dragon and then proceed to talk about how we killed it. This avenue lets us express our fantasies to the extent that we want to believe that maybe a giant scorpion does really exist on Earth. Maybe you could find it existing in a game of Dungeons & Dragons.
Either path you choose, using your keyboard to create these worlds or trying to stick to the element of chance, your thought process can manufacture anything your heart desires, whether it be real or unreal. Movies such as Commando or First Blood take realistic fiction to another level where you can actually conceive that Arnold really killed 100 men all by himself and Stallone really knows how to survive under the direst of situations. Let your muse take you where you want to go. There really are no boundaries as to what you can create. After all, these factors can tie into your passion to explore parts of your mind which you have yet to discover!