Three Reasons Why Accuracy Is Important

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie and the content goes against everything you learnt at school? And then you're all like: *pauses and blinks* well, that's not right. So you know the feeling. Here are three reasons why accuracy is so important when you're writing.

1. Inaccuracy jolts the reader out of the story.

When readers read, you want them to read late late late into the night. Authors are sadist that way. You want them to say: I can't put this book down! To do that, you want to give the reader a smooth read. Any kind of break is a good reason to put the book down. This isn't always a bad thing, but it definitely is if the reason is an Inaccuracy Jolt.

When this happens, the reader goes through four mental processes.

• Wait, what?
• Hang on...
• Oh. 
• This is wrong.

And then they have to get back into the flow of continuing to read the story. It disrupts how readers are able to comprehend and lowers their liking for your story.

2. It's a plot hole.

A logic plot hole, to be precise. An example of this almost every time a character pulls out a weapon. You've seen this in movies. They twirl their dagger just as they are about to enter a battle. Firstly, a dagger is a completely illogical weapon and secondly, twirling wastes energy and is an easy (and silly) way for your weapon to be knocked out of your hand. 

Plot holes are inconsistencies that disturb readability. This gives your story a flaw. Characters need flaws, but your storytelling doesn't. It leaves behind a question that probably won't be answered.

The only excuse for this is if the inaccuracy is because your world works by a different set of rules. Take Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is an obvious example of inaccuracy being okay. We all know that we can't bend the elements, but as the people in the Avatar world can because they work by a different set of rules. It's the same for most fantasy and sci-fi stories.

3.  It lowers expectations of your story.

It sounds harsh, but it's true. In a book I read a while ago, a supposedly all-powerful character fell off a horse and broke five ribs. True, that character rolled down a hill and bumped into a few rocks, but five ribs? That's an overshot. In the same series, another character with a broken rib had a metal brace wrapped around his chest, which actually restricts the chest, making it harder to breathe. 

By repeatedly showing that you don't know your facts, you lose credibility. Eventually, readers will begin to not take the story seriously. They'll start rolling their eyes before throwing down the book in a fit. You also lose the reader's trust in you, the storyteller. If you got this fact wrong, how will they know Fact D is correct? 

The Solution

Fixing this problem is super easy. Get out your favourite browser and search up about Topic XYZ. In our modern century, we have thousands of resources out there for us to use. Seriously. There are some amazing people out there who regularly provide blog posts or videos about a topic of their specialty. 

It'll be hard and might take a long time, but it's so worth it. And you can do it! Embrace your awesomeness! Because you're you!

~

Being accurate when you write your story is super important. Being accurate will let your readers enjoy your story and increase the respect they have for you, the author. With all our resources on the internet, it's not that hard to fact-check.

Sherlock adds:

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