A way with worlds: 47 - The Realism Factor

You've created a world you consider realistic for stories or role-playing games. Or perhaps a tale of your world, original or not, is hailed for its realism.

Realism seems to be something worldbuilders and writers and gamemasters aspire to have in their creations. However, that does lead to the interesting question of just what is realism in the settings you create or use? What is this quality of realism that's so valued?

This is an odd question when you consider that stories, games, and many settings are, when you get down to it, made up – in short, unreal. Even historical fiction has an "unrealistic" quality to it in that, though there are many elements we consider real, the stories told are created whole or in part from the writer's imagination.

Realism is a trickster. When we try to grasp it, it's difficult. It's never where we reach and always seems to sneak up on us in a moment of "that works" or "wow, your story was great."

And that is because, I believe, in writing fiction and creating fictional worlds, there are two kinds of realism that we fuse into one: Internal and External Realism. If you don't have both, you don't have that realistic sense you want.

INTERNAL REALISM:
Internal realism is consistency within your setting that is different significantly from people's actual, real-life experiences. This is the part of your world with the magic, the dragons, the superheroic powers, and the people who didn't exist historically.

The major requirement of Internal Realism be that it is consistent. Yes, you may have a world with dragons - but if you give the dragons consistent behavior and abilities and perhaps even culture, they will have their own kind of believability. Or perhaps you've got some made-up soldiers in a World War II story - make sure they have believable pasts and personalities.

A lack of Internal Realism will lead to confusion among your readers - and confusion in keeping track of cause and effect in your world. As weird as your world may be, consistency will mean it can be understood by your readers.

EXTERNAL REALISM:
External realism is the part of the world that's like the world of the reader - our world (or what passes for it). It could be historical events, believable technology, and, the most important - believable characters. External Relism is what people comprehend and can understand as they've experienced it themselves.

Characterization is usually the most important part of External Realism. No matter how wild your world may be, how bizarre the elements of Internal Realism, if people can relate to your cast because they are believable and understandable, you've got your reader.

A lack of External Realism will make it hard for people to relate to your world as there will be too much they don't understand and not enough that they do.

External Realism is the gateway for your readers, the hook that lets them understand the Internal Realism.

In fact, the two have to go hand in hand . . .