Shouts From Down Under

Is the story unreal, or way too real? Basic Instinct prevail

You may be aiming your metaphorical machine gun of words and plot matrix towards a certain reading age group, or sector of people that (you hope) will enjoy your story, and you frame the narrative and converse so that scenes reflect this target audience. This is what I attempt to do anyway.

Say for example, your readers will be older adults, you wouldn't expect them to be that keen on computer gaming or heavily high tech activities. Sure there's exceptions but I'm talking general groups, and their likes and dislikes.

What about the younger population. What about the more innocent (yes they do exist) children?
What if you were writing material that was so vivid and immersive that it carried these kids into a frame of mind they weren't ready for? What if your scenes were not just "story" frightening, but affected kids lives, gave them nightmares, had them wetting the bed and being withdrawn?
Would you feel good about yourself then?

The point is, today I was thinking about a couple of incidents that happened in the street, and how if this were converted into a story paragraph or micro event, and it was written well, how would a reader feel about it?

It's a bit like if we came across a car accident, and were suddenly confronted with severed limbs, lacerations with organs protruding and unobstructed clear views of thick human flesh cut open. Not a pretty picture is it, at the best of times, not even in words here. Offputting, and yes, if it were appropriate in a story of the right type well and good.

But there's a time and place, isn't there.

What though, if it WAS a time and place for incidents like this?

A less confronting tiny incident today prompted me to think along these lines. Someone passed me in the street and coughed openly, with what I imagined was a bacterial laden spray, drops of spittle and phlegm cascading across onto my face. Inconsiderate, unthinking and possibly rude of them, yes, and I muttered a wry "Thanks for sharing that with me, mate!" .

You could easily remember scenes like this. Simple, yet at the right timing, with the right people involved, this could be a trigger for an argument.

There could be shouting. Doors slamming. Escalating into a fist fight. People, yes relatives, running to passionately join in the vicious row that only close relatives or neighbors know how to instinctively provoke.
All good writing material to make your novel oh so real.

That's if you want to make it that real. Depressing. Normal crappy sad lives. The TV show The Young and the restless, without the attractiveness, without the wealth, without the class. Just plain old life how it really is. Just your average bogan (red neck) style crudeness and human interaction that does nothing to bring cheer, nothing to uplift, nothing to make your day (or reading pleasure) brighter.

Do we really want our scenes, our dialogue, our interaction, our plot, our backstory, our whole thing like that?

Well, not if it's a book I read. Yes, some life stuff in there, but hey, don't we read to escape all the dreariness? Don't we all long for something better? We want some sort of satisfaction, a reward, even food, from what we read?

So, how real do we want it all to become. This s*** just got maybe too real.

Sparky

This video is to introduce Carly.