Details

Writer's block is horrible. trying to think of something to write for the blog today, I couldn't decide if I wanted to approach it from the perspective of the writing process, or maybe I wanted to talk about crafting language? Or, maybe I wanted to talk about crafting of story? All, of course, are very important to the creating of any fiction, or even non-fiction, piece of writing. So, I decided on one, and started trying to think of what topic under that to actually tackle. I failed. So I watched Mythbusters.

I saw something that is typical of Mythbusters--and entirely awesome, but that is beside the point--and rather unbelievable. I find it a bit hard to believe even though I just saw it happen. Cheese, shoved into a cannon, and used in place of a cannon ball. And working. Really, cheese!

Then I got to thinking. I mostly read sci-fi and fantasy, and come across things like this all the time. Unbelievable things. Sometimes I notice them, and having noticed it, I get pulled out of the story and feel disgusted with the book for breaking my suspension of disbelief. Other times I run right over them and never notice them until long after I've accepted it as reality of the book.

How, then, do you keep the reader to swallow your unbelievable events like a pill wrapped in peanut butter? Details. If you get your details right--which is to say, if you have details and they're consistent--they wont question what would otherwise be unbelievable.