How to Make Your Writing Feel REAL

One of the most common issues with stories is that they just don’t feel… real.

What does that mean and how do we fix it?

Let’s discuss, take a look at some examples, then edit an old story to be more REAL together!

During the last stream, we went over how to make your writing feel real.

Here’s the video of the whole stream, exercise starts around 1:10:00.

How to Make Your Writing Feel REAL

One thing that comes up in lots of stories by beginner and intermediate writers is that they neglect to make their stories feel real
Sure, the stories have characters, emotional plots, cool settings and whatever, but something about them still feels lacking
Quite often the thing that’s lacking is a sense that what I’m reading is more than words on the page, that this is a place that really exists and that these characters really exist
Remember, at the end of the day, fiction is nothing more than a fancy way of lying, and our goal as writers is to make readers feel that our lies are true
How do we do that? Let’s discuss 2 ways, take a look at some examples, and find out together!

Make Your Writing Feel Real #1: Specifics

This might seem obvious/stupid, but it goes much deeper than what meets the eye
Specifics are what make your reader able to visualize and feel a scene in the first place. Without them they’re just reading words on the page and imagining a gray void
Imagine this opening paragraph:

One day my wife told me she was going down to the pharmacy to pick up some medicine. I’d offered to get it for her, but she said she had some other things she wanted to do as well, and with that, she left. The next time I saw her, she was dead.

It’s not horrible, there’s nothing outright wrong with it, and the final sentence is intriguing…
…but it’s missing specifics, and because of that, it’s little more than a series of words on the page
Now let’s take a look at an opening that conveys the same information but using specifics
It’s the opening from Bag of Bones by Stephen King, in fact it’s the opening that inspired this stream!
Holy crap, look at all those specifics!
We get the month, the year, the weather, the name of the town and pharmacy, the job of the narrator, the way she says goodbye, the way he finds out she’s dead, the names of other stores, etc.
Just from these two paragraphs, it feels like a real person talking about something that actually happened to them
No matter what story you’re writing (fantasy, sci-fi, romance, etc.) it’s important to establish that realness at the beginning
If you don’t, then readers will get bored and drift away. They might not be able to explain why, likely saying something like they weren’t connecting with it/couldn’t visualize it/didn’t hold their interest, but the result is the same
However, if you do establish that realness at the beginning, and carry it throughout, then your writing will be more than words on the page, it will be a story that the reader feels is just as real as a story their best friend told them over lunch
Of course you don’t want to go overboard on too many specifics, since that can be distracting in a bad way too, but finding that middle ground is part of the writing process
Quite often writers are afraid to put specifics in their story because they think specifics cheapen the story, date it, or bog the pacing down
But none of those are true! Juicy specifics enhance the story, and readers love them when used judiciously
Your favorite book is likely LOADED with specifics!

Make Your Writing Feel Real #2: Personality

Personality is related to voice/introspection, but even more fundamental: it’s your character(s) having their own likes/dislikes and expressing them uniquely on the page
Imagine this opening paragraph to a chapter:

I am in love! A neverending bliss constantly pulses through me. Ever since we got married, I thought my life would take a turn for the boring, but to my surprise… I like it. I can take on the world, nothing can stand in our way, so long as we’re together.

It’s not horrible, there’s nothing outright wrong with it…
…but it’s missing personality, it just reads like something literally any newly-married character could say
Now let’s take a look at an opening that conveys the same information but by using personality,
It’s the opening to a chapter from Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I am fat with love! Husky with ardor! Morbidly obese with devotion! A happy, busy bumblebee of marital enthusiasm. I positively hum around him, fussing and fixing. I have become a strange thing. I have become a wife. I find myself steering the ship of conversations — bulkily, unnaturally — just so I can say his name aloud. I have become a wife, I have become a bore, I have been asked to forfeit my Independent Young Feminist card. I don’t care. I balance his checkbook, I trim his hair. I’ve gotten so retro, at one point I will probably use the word pocketbook, shuffling out the door in my swingy tweed coat, my lips painted red, on the way to the beauty parlor. Nothing bothers me. Everything seems like it will turn out fine, every bother transformed into an amusing story to be told over dinner. So I killed a hobo today, honey… hahahaha! Ah, we have fun.

Holy crap, look at all that personality!
The author doesn’t just write the character’s thoughts, she writes them in unique ways that only *this specific character* would ever say
Just from this paragraph, it feels like a real person talking
If specifics establish realness of a story, personality establishes realness of a character
If you don’t do it, then the characters will feel cardboard-y
But if you do, then your character will come to life on the page
Quite often writers are afraid to put personality in their character because they think it will make them less relatable, or seem biased, or that it’s just fat to trim
But none of those are true! Personality enhances a character, makes them feel real precisely because they are biased in some way or another, just like all of us
Personality isn’t sections to be cut, it’s what makes the story worth reading in the first place, and not just a Wiki summary
Your favorite book is likely LOADED with personality!

In Summary!

Whenever beginner/intermediate writers get lukewarm feedback from readers, 9 out of 10 times it’s related to specifics and personality
Very rarely are plot holes, suspension of disbelief, cliches/tropes etc. the cause of a reader putting down a rough draft, since those are problems of stories
What turned them off from is that it just didn’t feel like a story in the first place, because it was lacking specifics/personality

Lastly, specifics/personality isn’t something to obsess over during a first draft, but they’re definitely things you want to focus on juicing up in 2nd drafts and beyond
In fact, adding specifics/personality should be the FOCUS of drafts 2+ because putting them in is essentially what editing is, not just proofreading/line edits
Whenever beginner writers wonder how they can make their stories longer, THIS is the answer!
Pacing, voice, introspection, showing vs. telling, getting all of those things done well can be derived from having good specifics and personality in your story to begin with

After that, we edited an old story together to give it more specifics and personality. We did it to this story, from when we wrote a Tarantino-inspired story together.

Important to note here: that story is already pretty good. It has a solid beginning, middle and end, decent voice, some laughs, etc. But one thing it’s lacking is that it doesn’t feel real. You don’t get a feel for the restaurant, you can’t hear it or see it, and you don’t get a feel for Jenny, you don’t really feel like you know her until the very end.

We tried to rectify that with this rewrite of the opening, paying careful attention to add in lots of specifics and personality:

Jenny sat down at the table inside Le Pomme de Terre, waiting for her date to show. Already, the spiders of insecurity were weaving their webs inside her, scratching at the insides of her skin to be let loose.

This place was way out of her league. Even a single crystal from the rippling chandelier overhead probably cost more than the net worth of the last living body to warm her bed. Truth be told, she couldn’t even remember his name, but he’d been such a dead lay that Jenny had finally decided to try something different.

But still, it probably wasn’t a good sign when the wait staff had you outdressed on your first date. Jenny had had to reach deep back in her closet for a dress that was neither Starbucks slutty nor Red Lobster raunchy — where seventeen dollar cheese-stuffed crab was considered a delicacy — to find a sundress fancy enough for this French venue.

This dress had it all. Patterns of sunflowers. Sun sandals. Sun skulls. Layered chiffon that ghosted behind her as she walked. But compared to the suits and rhinestone dresses of the other patrons, who seemed to be busy ignoring Janney, her best attempt still felt out of place.

A fountain trickled like a curtain of flowing glass. The live jazz band warbled out smooth tunes. Even the tablecloths had tablecloths! Jenny felt like she’d just arrived on the moon, not at Le Omelette du Fromage or whatever

But this was what her date wanted, so she would endure. Jenny had been on plenty of dates that went nowhere, and hookups with 0% conversation and 100% physicality, leaving her feeling delightfully tipsy, but empty. Drunk on too much cheap beer.

This was the first time she’d committed to getting to know someone before sharing a night together, and she was having second thoughts.

She glanced around anxiously, wondering if this might’ve actually been a mistake, when Saphy practically glided into view.

If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.

And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.

Hope to see you next time, friend!

Featured image: Unsplash