Although a rabbit might suddenly spring in front of your car in real life and cause all kinds of havoc in your life, in fiction it sounds 'convenient'. For some reason, there has to be more justification and reason in fiction than real life.
And although characters might have competing personality traits in real life, they don't always work in fiction.
Bizarre events happen in real life -- fights without reasons, exploration just for the sake of exploration, you might obsess about a lost shoe instead of the dead body in your trunk. In fiction, we need reasons. The reader wants reasons and justification. We have to make the fictional world plausible. Something real life doesn't always have to be.
Can you think of other examples of reality that just don't work out on the page?
Hosted by Arlee Bird of Tossing it Out http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/
