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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29594
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29594
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There is no substitute for experience, but when a story feels forced or inaccurate the root of the problem is almost always motivation.

Authors can and do divert wildly from how actual places look and how actual institutions work all the time. Real forensic labs are not staffed by the gorgeous people working in wide bright rooms in soaring architecture and they don't solve crimes in a day. Nothing about any of the plethora of forensics shows on TV is remotely true to how forensics actually works.

Impossible technology, ridiculous coincidences, implausible timing, ignoring normal procedures and policies -- an author can get away with all of this, as long as they get motivation right. Motivation is the one false note that no reader will forgive in a story. Characters must act in a way that is consistent with their character and the things they want.

This is often inconvenient for the author. Having established several characters, each with their particular motivation and desire, you put them together in scene in which you want a particular outcome in order to further the plot. But that outcome is not the one that you would really get given those people, what they want, and how the operate. You are forced to choose between letting your plot go off the rails or letting one or more of your characters behave contrary to their motivation or character -- the one thing the reader will not forgive.

Authors are often so wedded to their plot, and sometimes to the believability of the plot, that they keep the plot and sacrifice motivation. It is the fatal step -- the thing the reader will not forgive.

What they should be doing instead is either reinventing the character from scratch or manipulating events of the plot (perhaps by some absurd technology or outrageous coincidence) so that the characters acting in character still walk through the door with the tiger instead of the door with the lady.

You can be absurd about everything else (though you should try to be consistent in your absurdity) but you must get motivation right.

Original score: 7