As fiction writers our job is a delicate balance between making a tale that is believable but not boring. Inevitably, no matter what you are reading you are going to run into little things that make you think, “Well that wouldn’t happen.” Or, “That’s unlikely.” Get over it and enjoy the Story.<\/p>\n
Story is what it’s all about, not realism. If it was real, Darth Vader would have gone home, become a wife beater, and had more illegitimate children. Luke would have run away, joined the military, and ended up fixing army droids while strung out on deathsticks. Those are boring things that have nothing to do with saving the Galaxy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you want realism, go down to the food-court at the mall and sit awhile, or shop at Wall-mart. \u00a0Sit down, and watch it unfold. Story is something more. Sure, it may have some of those same characters in it, and there may be some of the mundane. But, if it’s just people going about their lives, it’s probably going to be a memoire or a documentary, series of events that are loosely related and meander here and there. That’s not actually Story, and that’s a book to nod off to late at night. Those are the kind of movies, that when they end, you find yourself thinking, “That’s the end? Really? WTF?”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Story grips you and never lets go. When you find Story, you get on the ride and there’s no getting off until it comes to a complete and final stop.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As fiction writers our job is a delicate balance between making a tale that is believable but not boring. Inevitably, no matter what you are reading you are going to run into little things that make you think, “Well that wouldn’t happen.” Or, “That’s unlikely.” Get over it and enjoy the Story. Story is what it’s all about, not realism. If it was real, Darth Vader would have gone home, become a wife beater, and had more illegitimate children. Luke would have run away, joined the military, and ended up fixing army droids while strung out on deathsticks. Those are boring things that have nothing to do with saving the Galaxy.\u00a0 If you want realism, go down to the food-court at the mall and sit awhile, or shop at Wall-mart. \u00a0Sit down, and watch it unfold. Story is something more. Sure, it may have some of those same characters in it, and there may be some of the mundane. But, if it’s just people going about their lives, it’s probably going to be a memoire or a documentary, series of events that are loosely related and meander here and there. That’s not actually Story, and that’s a book to nod […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/POW.jpg?fit=1600%2C1158&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p32u0F-iE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1282,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1282","url_meta":{"origin":1156,"position":0},"title":"Zero Words And Fifty Thousand To Go","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"November 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It's 11:00 AM in the new twilight of Daylight Savings, which means I'm even more behind than I think I am in real-time. I have a premise. I have research, I have inspiration. I have family support. I have everything but a story. Let's get cracking!!","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":715,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=715","url_meta":{"origin":1156,"position":1},"title":"The Reapers are the Angels: Book Review","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"August 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I first learned about this book at the Philip K. Dick awards. It was nominated this year and they read a part of it. I really liked what I heard, and it was actually my second favorite of the six they read that night. It lost the award to The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":622,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=622","url_meta":{"origin":1156,"position":2},"title":"Pirates of the Crimson Sand\u2014Review","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"July 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Pirates of the Crimson Sand is a great little story about pirates, air ships and technical wonders. It sweeps you away to a sandy desert place that is best described by the book\u2019s own words (and I love this bit): \u201cRocks and cacti littered the ground like a demon\u2019s garden.\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1905,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1905","url_meta":{"origin":1156,"position":3},"title":"Four Reasons to Write Your Little Heart Out","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"March 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"You are a writer. You didn\u2019t choose to be one, but it was born into you\u2014a spirit as old as dwelled in the storytellers around the first fires. A kindred to prophets, philosophers, and visionaries. That old fire is inside of you, burning its way out, and if you don\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Thoughts On Stuff"","block_context":{"text":"My Thoughts On Stuff","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3201,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=3201","url_meta":{"origin":1156,"position":4},"title":"Let’s go on a Star Trek with ChatGPT","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"February 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Keith PhillipsCreate a text simulation of the Star Trek Enterprise using all available knowledge. The ship should be fictionally functional as on the TV shows. Populate it with a crew and supplies that it would normally have. However, I would like to play the part of the science officer. As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":947,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=947","url_meta":{"origin":1156,"position":5},"title":"Remembering the Heros","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"November 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd like to give respect to my grandfather, Delmar Phillips, who risked his life in WWII in the Army. I'm sorry to say that he passed away a few years ago. I'm even more sorry to say that I never really knew him very well. We talked about the Normandy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1156"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2712,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions\/2712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}