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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12720
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Quick glance into European novels and movies: One of my favourite Czech writer is [Jiří Kulhánek](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji%C5%99%C3%AD_Kulh%C3%A1nek) (link goes to English wiki page), who always writes in first person, his stories are (almost) always set in Prague, present time, there is (almost) always reference to actual things happening at the time when book is written ... but also, once he claims he is vampire, once he claims he is possessed by daemon...

And sometimes part of Prague gets demolished in really supernatural way.

But, **the story is somewhat consistent**. Reading it, I don’t believe that something like that _actually happened._ But the story sets some rules which are (almost) always followed.

Myself, I am more in parody style of writing. So, once I gave my super enemy character button _Rule the world_ which actually could rule the world. Luckily, he was stopped by cunning, sexy, musculature main hero at the last time. And name of my arch Enemy is always [Colonel Karpof](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Magnifique)

**The inner rules make the reader to hold into.**

I don’t care, that _Klingons_ in the Star Trek are actually human actors with rubber forehead glued to their face. What makes Klingons really believable is, that there is culture in behind, there are some desires. And that makes them look real and believable.

Also, **you don’t have to explain everything**. Every Star Wars fan I know got totally angry when Episode 1 had to explain, that The Force is actually caused by [Midichlorians](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midichlorian#Midichlorians) in the blood. its the type of "Watsination" which actually caused more confusion than anything else.

The rule of thumb is, **every character in your story should desire something**. Even if it is glass of water.

Give your characters a life. Even if its about to end really soon. The lady you killed on the street was actually going to shop. The bus what exploded was driven by someone who will be missed. The story can be brutal, full of blood, full of superpowers,full of magic ... but make it consistent. Please

Original score: 2