In one of the writer's groups I belong to, a friend posted the discussion starter which went, in gist: How do you retain "suspension of disbelief" when a character repeatedly survives the dangerous situations that occur throughout a story? I had a lot of thoughts to share, and I found that I wanted to hold onto those thoughts after they made their way out.

So I'm sharing here what I dropped on that Facebook post, lightly revised for clarity and context.

***

Reader expectations always weigh in. I was thinking about this recently while watching The Clone Wars series for the first time last summer (really enjoyed!!! helped ease me back into the art of storytelling, especially payoff/setup for sequential events, pacing, and nonverbal communication for characters. But I digress). When I clicked on one of those myriad little episodes, a single piece out of a massive seven-season series, I expected the main characters to walk away from whatever conflict was tossed their way with their lives intact, via wit, established skills, and/or timely air support. I expected the reasoning for their survival to make a degree of sense, but I also wasn't looking for reasons for them to not survive. "Wooowwwwwww, Anakin and Ahsoka got through another arc. I can't believe this show hasn't killed them by now." [Shush, I know Anakin has prequel plot armor anyway]

It's nice to shock a reader sometimes, but we all know that shock value is only valuable as long as it's sparingly used. Readers come to a story for a mix of familiarity and surprises, and protagonists making it alive through most or all of the book is a big constant.

When it comes to ways of establishing credibility, I find that helpful techniques include:

•  Severe physical OR emotional toll.

•  Above ^ can be accomplished on lesser grounds by a moment of disbelief/pause after the event, acknowledging that "I barely/almost didn't/shouldn't have survived that". When characters are confronted with the sharpness of their own frailty and mortality, it makes their miraculous save more sympathetic and credible to the reader. (I did a really big stupid the other day. In traffic. My poor car and I should not have got off scot-free but we did. It happens)

•  Someone sacrifices wellbeing or life so the other person can make it. A classic. We suffer.

•  Ratchet up the tension. If your characters' lives are on a ticking clock, your readers are going to get nervous. At least, I am. I DREAD THIS TYPE OF SCENARIO. Make the readers desperate for something good to happen before the really, really bad possibility happens.

•  Teamwork. If in a group, characters pool their respective strengths to achieve a daring, brilliant feat. The problem is that yes, oneself as the author has to actually be the brilliant strategist, but literarily speaking it's convenient because they might have to work REALLY hard for it -- but the sense that the characters have a plan + the commitment to making it happen will effectively sell the audience that it has to work.

•  Play into strengths that the reader knows the character has. Emphasize his competence. Downplay the opposition if necessary.

•  Play into strengths the reader (and sometimes the character!!) doesn't know the character has, and use it to advance the story. This can manifest as an "untapped reserve" kind of scenario or a reveal of hitherto concealed or unknown powers.

I could probably go on, but y'all... I should be writing! *scuttles*

***

Thoughts? Contributions? Bring them in. Whatever additional thoughts I had, they're long gone since this comment was written like six months ago.

Still passionate about reader expectation and fiction being allowed to be fictional though. (oops, I feel another blog post level rant coming on...)