How much is real world an influence?

[sarahrebecca58]

For those who write realistic scripts for graphic novels, or perhaps scripts that are very slightly in the future (like my novella is set around twenty years in the future), how much of the real world influences your fictional setting?

I know I had a work place incident that partly influenced it (fainting at work). I also knew of a peer around the same time, that was the inspiration for my loosely defined concept of 'early adulthood'. Fortunately I never experienced that, but it has influenced a great deal of my work. In to what extent will the concept of childhood loose relevance.

I also looked at some literary classics, and it seems like topics about poverty is actually more common than I had at one point believed. That's kind of depressing.

Note I'd still call myself an SF writer.

Ex. An example would be like having to split rent with your parents to pay the bills. Or perhaps being emancipated and poor.

[kazukitakamura126]

I like to make most of the element of my world up. However, the soldiers and their equipment for my comic Seishin Patona are based on the real life equivalent. I fused their armor and weapons with the protagonist futuristic casual clothes style. This way you can distinguish where they are from.

[stephanielopez]

Well what I do is look up a lot of history with machinery and clothing. See what clothing might be worn, because fashion is like a circle, it is bound to go back. My story also has demons in it,so I research the different types of demons and use them as a base for the characters I create. I have even created my own demons because I did not find a demon close enough to what I imagined. I use folklore to help me with that. Weapons too, I mostly use what is known, but i am thinking of putting a twist on them to look more futuristic. Aside from that, I try to make my characters feel realistic, as in have "human" problems and emotions, not just something on a script. I hope the character development I have done works for the people who will be reading it.
haha sorry for my rant...

[Kura]

Depends on the story, sometimes what I experience in the real world will have a little bit of influence on a story (mostly when it comes to characters), while another story will reflect heavily on the life experiences of me and the people around me both character and event wise.

Sometimes I'll make a story that is as far removed from my real world experiences as possible, because I'm just sick of dealing with the fact the situations in my life are in fact a reality and I must deal with them.

There are also some things in real life that I have trouble translating into a story, just because they hit too close to home, and when I try to include these things it end up being very trying / stressful for me. Especially when perceived by readers as 'unrealistic / something that couldn't possibly happen in real life' this even more aggravating when the story in question has magic and supernatural beings in the story and the point that cause the 'unrealistic' comments is interactions between characters based off my own real life situations.

[Zanreo]

Well, considering my comic is based around real events that happened I'd say it's a pretty big influence...

[BraveHeartTatsumaki]

Almost all my stories take tons of elements from the real world, my actual comic since it talks about it and other world, I have to put differences and also things in common, like social problems, discrimination, use of money and wars. It depends what I need but I would say it's a big influence, even though my comic has fantasy and magic.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Your story is completely influenced by your mind. You mind is part of the real world. Thus, your story is completely influenced by the real world Not to mention I wouldn't even know how not-real things can exert an influence upon any real thing

[joannekwan]

Definitely the real world plays a large part in my series, since all three that I have here on Tap are set in contemporary times. Especially for Demon House and Heavy Horns, they take place in a city and the city is based heavily on San Francisco, since that's where my parents currently live. The college experience of the characters in Demon House are also based a lot on what I observed at school. So much of the settings and systems of how things work is inspired by real life. Even my fantasy series that I'm developing, I based creatures and cultural elements on folklore from around the world.

[TAMAnnoying]

Real world influence can be important to discovering the culture of your world, an example would be when making a futuristic earth or alternate demention earth. Knowing how people in the now and in the pass have reacted to things can define for you how people will react in your made up future or fantasy earth. Hot button issues like immigration and how some countries treat it in comparison to others could determine how you might write each country reacting to outer space immigrants :v

in the end fantasy is fantasy and to be fare to the writer the reader should do their best to suspend their disbelief, however the suspension of disbelief is easier if the writer makes it easer for the reader, explaining why things are the way they are makes us have to pause and try to figure it out for ourselves less.

[starlightcityentert]

Real world experience shapes everything imo. Character interactions, feelings, dialogue, etc. At least for me.

[BorealisCoast]

I feel like character interactions, dialogue, body language etc. should borrow more heavily from real-world cues and can help to shape more natural cadences to character's words and actions. It's the reason gratuitous action makes Miyazaki's films feel more alive (there's a great interview on the idea here) and it helps the reader become more at ease with your story as a whole.

I guess the same principle applies to worldbuilding and environments as well? Real life is full of strange quirks and unpredictable cases of cause-and-effect, and allowing little details to seep into your work can make it more enticing, even if your world as a whole is an otherwise entirely surreal experience. Kill Six Billion Demons comes to mind as a good example of tiny pieces of real cultures and conflicts to ground an otherwise terrifyingly alien world.

As everyone else has said, however, the degree to which you tie yourself to real-world conventions is entirely up to you and depends on the tone and content of your story. I like to limit my stories with caps on technology and physics to help drive conflicts, but a lot of my rules are made up on the fly.