ironpony wrote:
Okay thanks. Well users said that they believe that a group of rapists, going around comitting the crimes out of getting revenge on society, is not believable, so how do you make it believable?
That is quite a different problem than them being too smart. So, the problem is unrealistic character motivations. You either tweak their motivations a bit and flesh them out to make them believable or you go for a fully comic-bookish approach. Both can work, but for two different audiences.
ironpony wrote:
One writer I asked said I should put a diclaimer in the opening, saying that this story is meant to take place in a comic-book type world, and is not suppose to be set in the real world. But would such a disclaimer actually help?
The only use of a disclaimer would be to attract the right audience and dissuade people who don't like that type of story from reading it. If the reason of this person to not like the story was merely personal taste, then it sort of solves the problem. However, I agree with shlaifu. If readers don't get from reading your story, what kind of story it is supposed to be, you're doing something wrong.
If there's something wrong with your story and the criticism was not due to personal taste, a disclaimer does not solve your problem. You need your story to have a consistent feel to it. Either it reads comic-bookish in every aspect, not just the motivation of the villains, or it doesn't read comic-bookish in any way.
ironpony wrote:
How do I tell the reader that not being realistic is okay though?
By being consistently unrealistic and doing it in a consistent way. You don't tell the reader what is or isn't okay. The reader has to come to that conclusion themselves.
However, that style just isn't everyone's cup of tea. There will always be people who see unrealistic and comic-bookish as just bad writing. They're not your target audience.
14 Dec 2019, 4:39 am
