Suspension of Disbelief...

"...I felt that what I wanted that scene to say to the reader was more important than its surface reality or plausibility." - Richard Wright, transcript of How Bigger Thomas Was Born included in the book, Native Son.

When I read the above line in Richard Wright's essay/speech about how he created Bigger Thomas as the main character of Native son, I stopped. I stared. I read it again... Again... Again... Then I  read it  out loud, once, twice, thrice.

There's an element in fiction where what's happening must stand a test of whether or not the reader can suspend their disbelief in order to be included; however, I've come to realize this suspension of disbelief depends on many things including the reader's own life experience, or lack thereof. It's easier to get someone who has no experience in a field to believe something because they don't have the background to question it with authority.

But we often do this... We often suspend our disbelief so we can enjoy a story or even to maintain something we believe to be true in the face of evidence that it's not. It's easier to just trust the writer than to give the work critical thought... And sometimes the author has just created a scene, particularly in fiction, because the scene's message is more important than its plausibility.

I watched Fences recently. I had no problems suspending my disbelief when necessary, but I wanted something different. I wanted a different reality for these characters. I wanted something to tell me that what I was seeing required me to suspend my disbelief rather than accept that the movie depicted a life that for far too many is far too real. Parts of Native Son left me with this same feeling.

This tightrope between creating realistic scenes and sending the message of the work is one writers must walk constantly. It's that line that gives a reader permission to suspend their disbelief and accept the scene that while technically isn't realistic gives the drama, the meaning, the purpose, the heart to the story. It's often in these pivotal scenes that reality and fantasy blur but the story reaches a different level.

This brings me to my own writing.... As I write, I often struggle to allow myself to suspend my disbelief long enough to allow my creativity to flow. I get caught up in wanting the story to be as realistic as possible even when that forces me to sacrifice the message of the scene or story or book or poem. This leads me into an editing spiral that has, at times, lead me to edit out the very heart of the story or at least, to remove any language that might seem too creative or flowery or poetic in prose.

Reading Native Son and then Richard Wright's description of how he wrote the book gave me pause. As I said, when I reached this line I stopped and read it multiple times. I even took a picture of it. I felt like someone understood my internal struggle with the suspension of disbelief. I felt inspired. I felt an odd sense of liberation about my writing process... and not for the first time.

Around the same time I read Wright's words about suspending disbelief, I also read a wonderful interview with Crystal Wilkinson, author of Birds of Opulence, where she talked about her writing process and why her books don't always follow book writing norms. I stayed up late to read the interview because I found it inspiring. I read parts of the interview multiple times because it spoke to the art of writing in the way I understand it, and that is as being as much an art as it is a craft or a skill.

At the time I was struggling with reconciling some feedback on some short stories I was editing for inclusion in my book, Take a Chance & Other Stories of Starting Over. Much of the feedback was quite informative, but a few things felt stifling in that the suggested changes felt like they might result in too much effect on my voice as a writer and on my characters' experiences. As I read Wilkinson's interview, I felt a sense of liberation in the reminder that my work is my work, and I need to adhere to the message of my work regardless of how the rest of the world receives it. That's hard because I want people to buy my work, read my work, and enjoy my work, but I also want to be true to myself, my life experiences, and the characters I create. I want people to read my books, and to say that suspending their disbelief was worth it.