writing advice: fictional gym time
A reader sent a slightly snarky email pointing out that Nadia, Jack March, and Caina spend a lot of time exercising, and wondering if it reflected some sort of preference of mine.
Actually, it’s less of a preference and more of a pet peeve. Recently I read a thriller novel where the main character stayed in tip-top shape by running a mile and a half twice a week.
A mile and a half! Twice a week! And people say that I write fantasy novels. 🙂
So I suppose it’s a question of verisimilitude. When writing fiction, it doesn’t have to be real, but it has to feel real. So to me, it doesn’t feel realistic that someone who runs a grand total of three miles a week would have the physical fortitude to defeat a gang of drug runners in hand to hand combat (which did happen later in the book). Considering all the strenuous physical activity Nadia, Jack March, and Caina have to undertake, I think it assists the verisimilitude to show them exercising.
An important thing to remember about verisimilitude is that it’s impossible to satisfy everyone. No matter how well you write, something will feel false or off to at least one reader. I’ll use myself as an example – another thriller novel I read had a heroic reporter. It didn’t ring true for me because all my interactions with journalists have been fairly negative – whenever I’ve been part of a newsworthy event or had direct knowledge of a newsworthy event, all the news coverage of it has been flat-out inaccurate due to either bias or laziness on the part of the reporter. So for me, the “heroic reporter” character doesn’t feel real, but I imagine most people don’t have that problem.
But I do think it’s important to at least try and make the story feel real, though obviously it will not feel real to 100% of all readers.
Though it really is a pity you can’t stay in tip-top shape by running a mile and a half every few days. 🙂
-JM
… A mile and a half twice a week? That’s not going to do much. Unless he’s doing a lot of other forms of exercise as well, but he’s not going to be much of a runner.
When I ran cross county in high school, we normally did 5 miles a day, not counting the warmup and cooldown, plus weight room time.
No, that they do meaningful amounts of exercise on a near daily basis makes sense for the kinds of things they get up to.
High level physical fitness is hard to gain and easy to lose.
Very true!
I hear you.
There are readers who dislike that a heroine in a medieval setting spends a lot of time sewing. (There’s a reason why the Industrial Revolution started with textiles.)
That is a good point – people forget how much industrialization changed things.
Yep, even a couple of days off sick or lazy days and you are having to lower the weight you lift or rebuild up the time you take to finish a run. Second on the journalists. Exactly as you say. If it doesn’t fit the agenda or preconceived ideas than it will be made to. Which is why I use the 2 day rule before believing anything said or written and use multiple sources.
Yeah – it’s distressing how quickly fitness reverts with inactivity.