Nope, Not Buying It: How Do We Maintain Believability in Our Writing?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

You don't want your readers to think, "Yeah, right, that'll never happen."

My brother-in-law is a nurse, and he can't watch medical TV shows. It annoys the snot of out him how wrong so many of the details are. My husband is the same way with anything computer related, and I notice the screw-ups in publishing and graphic design. Odds are you have your own area of expertise, and you notice when a show, movie, or book gets it wrong.

The number of authors who goofed by putting a safety on a Glock is pretty high. And readers catch those goofs. 

All stories in all genres get bonked on the head when they lack credibility. Readers don’t believe a character would act a certain way, or they doubt a situation would ever happen, they find details that are flat-out wrong, or they call BS about how something is handled. 

Once you blow your credibility with a reader, it’s really hard to earn back their trust. 

If they know (or even think, since sometimes readers are wrong, but they don't know that) you've made a mistake, they start doubting everything else in the story. If they're rolling their eyes every chapter, they're not going to make it very far into the book.

Let's look at some ways you can make sure readers "Don't stop believing" in your story.

What’s the most obvious thing to do? The easiest thing to do? 

Human nature shows us that people typically try the path of least resistance to solve a problem. If a button pops off your shirt while you're getting dressed, it’s easier to grab a new shirt than to sew it back on. And sewing it back on is easier than taking it down to the tailor to have it professionally mended. 

If your protagonist loses a button, then hops in the car and goes to the tailor to have it fixed, and while they’re there something happens that affects the plot, readers will cry foul. They probably won’t even believe the going to get it fixed right away part, let alone the contrivance of having the protagonist so conveniently in the wrong place at the wrong time.  

If something is obvious and simple and the protagonist doesn’t do it, that’s a credibility issue in the making. 

But all is not lost. Tweak it so that obvious thing can’t work, or it’s not a viable option. Maybe it will cause a bigger problem, or the protagonist has strong reasons not to do it. Keep asking, if this doesn’t work, what then? and work though the obvious answers. Remove all the obvious options until the thing you need your protagonist to do is the best choice they have.

(Here's more with Why Ask Why? Because Your Readers Will)  

What are the character's motivations for it?

People can do all kinds of unbelievable things, but their reasons need to be solid and something readers can see themselves doing if they were in that character’s shoes.

One movie cliché I can’t stand is the “cover your head in terror as something falls on you” shot. We’ve all seen it. Someone looks up, sees something crashing toward them, and they throw their hands over their head and scream. 

If they have enough time to do all that, they probably have enough time to dive out of the way. I know it’s just a way to show fear and make it more dramatic, but it bugs me every time. I’d rather they stand there looking shocked than throw their hands up. Too shocked to move I can buy. Knowing it’s coming and not moving? Nope, not buying it. 

But here’s the kicker–for all I know, this is a perfectly legitimate response to this situation. I’ve never had anything large drop on me. It just feels wrong to me, so it never seems credible.

No matter what your characters have to do, make sure their reasons for it make sense to them. The reader can still think they’re idiots, but as long as they can see that, yeah, they’d do it that way too if they were in that character’s shoes, they’ll go with it.

(Here's more with What's My Motivation? Tips on Showing Character Motivations)  

Avoid the circle of (bad) plot. 

One common bad plot device is a situation where someone acts against the protagonist to keep them from doing something, and that act is what makes the protagonist do the very thing that person wanted to stop. 

Chosen One stories are frequent offenders here. The bad guys know a chosen one will mean their doom, so they send their minions out to kill that person. But the person had no idea about this bad guy until those minions show up. Had the bad guys just left them alone and had the minions keep an eye out in case they ever did come a calling, they’d have been home free.

Actions to prevent something that ultimately causes the effect to happen feel forced. Bad guys need solid motivations same as the good guys. Situations should feel as though they couldn’t have happened any other way and this was inevitable, and the actions of both sides led to this.

(Here's more with 6 Ways to Identify a Contrived Plot)  

Be wary of contradictions of character.  

Have you ever seen a character suddenly change their mind out of the blue? Or do something they’d never do in a million years? I bet you had credibility issues after that. 

People are who they are and they don’t change without good reasons (and often external forces). Problem is, most novels have a character arc that requires the protagonist to grow by the end of the book. So when we get there, bam! The protagonist sees the light and changes their ways. But unless the groundwork had been laid first, it feels forced.

Make sure your characters have reasons to change. They learned a lesson prior to that change that made them realize they had to do things differently. 

This is commonly done by showing then make the wrong choice (or do the wrong thing) and having it blow up on them multiple times in the story, and them slowly realizing they aren't making the best choices. They've paid a price and want to avoid paying it again. So they try something new that leads them toward who they need to be at the end, and they’re rewarded for it. 

(Here's more with What “The Profit” Can Teach Us About Characters and Change)

Don't break your own rules.

One sure way to cause reader doubt is to break your own rules. If you’ve established that magic can’t work underwater, then have your hero use it underwater to solve a problem, readers will scream, "But they can't do that!" and curse your name. It won’t matter if you explain why this time it worked once it’s all over, you’ve already lost the reader. 

Rules of a world (fantasy or real) ground the reader and let them know what can and cannot happen. They’ll suspend disbelief for the framework of that world. You’ve set the parameters and they agreed. Breaking that contract is cheating.

The only way it could work, is if you’ve hinted at this and laid the groundwork for it all along. And speaking of groundwork...

(Here's more with Playing by the Rules (of Magic))

Watch out for silent reasons.

If you get a credibility issue comment in a critique, don’t automatically assume what you’re doing isn’t plausible. It could just be that you didn’t lay enough groundwork so the reader didn’t pick up on the reasons and the motivations for it. 

Maybe the character did act exactly right, but the problem occurred five pages earlier when you didn’t make it clear why they’d have to do it. 

This is pretty common for “I don’t believe they’d act this way” comments. It’s not always the action that’s the issue, just them doing it without proper motivation that feels off.

(Here's more with Three Things to Remember When Revising from a Critique)

Make sure every character and plot action has a reason behind it that makes sense even if the story wasn’t there. 

While some things are okay if they just happen (like a lot of genre setup), readers will only suspend disbelief for so long until they start doubting you. They’ll believe a magic wardrobe can take them to another world, but that world had better adhere to the rules established.

Remember...try to avoid anything that happens “just because.” That’ll hurt your story every time.

What credibility issues drive you crazy? What are some of your pet peeves?

*Originally published July 2011. Last updated January 2025.

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Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.

She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.

When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing.

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