"Make sure it's realistic." Realism is an aesthetic. People say it makes writing (or theatre, or film) easier for the reader/audience to relate. Yes, but what is realism? That is the million pound question. I'm not going to try in vain to define it, however. Instead, I'm going to describe my practice: "Write truthfully." But, what is the truth? I hear you say...
When I say "write truthfully" I mean write consistently to your world, your characters, your rules. Writing is a personal craft. The world is unique to you. (I will not get bogged down in Roland Barthes' The Death of the Author - that can be an essay for another day.) But writing consistently is the meaning of writing realistically. What is "realistic" to that world.
When you write you are following a set of rules. Rules that you have devised - whether you realise it or not. Writing truthfully means to maintain a consistent tone, character tropes or behaviour, narrative voice. Of course, rules can be broken. But what I am trying to say is that realism is a term that gives false security. It is not concrete.
My writing is larger-than-life, genre-crossing, makes commentary, and can swing from one mood to the next. But I am consistent with the inconsistent. That's my style. It's why I love Dickens so much. He paints vivid, exciting, unrealistic caricatures.
For example, here is my description of Mr. Pearson in The Falling Sun:
Pretty funny, right?
Now, The Falling Sun is an historical novel. It needs to be grounded in historical facts. Nevertheless, Akira's narrative perspective allows for me to exaggerate and romanticise, because he is imagining his parents' lives from the morsels they have told him growing up. Akira is also a very cynical man, allowing me to craft cartoonish characters (again, he does not know these people personally.) Akira suits my writing style. It's not entirely realistic (he sees his wife as a ghost, his mind wanders to different periods of his life), but it is consistent and truthful to my story.
So, in conclusion, writing "realistic" is totally fine - so long as you know that it is an aesthetic unique to your writing. Likewise, writing in hyperbole or other stylised ways is fine - again, so long as it is consistent. This makes it truthful to the world that you have created.
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