by Sunshine Temple » Fri Aug 14, 2009 4:40 pm
The balance between fictional convenience and realism depends greatly on the scenario and the tone.
For example a slice of life story that doesn't have action, supernatural, and is set in essentially the present can be fairly realistic.
Though even then things are edited for space and content. Rarely do stories detail every second of what a character is doing. And a complete "realistic" description of just say the scene is essentially impossible, given space requirements.
Brevity is key to good story flow, instead of spending several pages describing a room, for example.
Alternatively, if you have a fantasy, scifi, or some such story, one where magic, might-as-well be magic technology, or movie-magic style action happens you need some realism, even if the story has very oddball characters and a bizarre absurdest tone.
This is because some anchor, some connection that the reader can relate in is required.
Without that you'll be writing gibberish.
Also using realism in the right places, fits in with internal consistency and proper use of details can add considerable verisimilitude.
This is useful in raising believability. Which is not exactly realism.