So, I was doing a little bit of research on how to write/portray a hospital scene in fiction, doesn't matter why, and.While I was digging, I came across two camps that boiled down to something like this:
Camp A) Don't be like a soap opera! Real hospitals don't work like that! Don't write your protagonist getting flowers because most hospitals don't allow flowers because of cross contamination! You can't just burst into a room in dramatic splendor! No hospital would allow it! Viva la realism!
Camp B) eh, whatever, most people don't know enough about hospitals to know what's right and what's wrong. who cares if someone runs from the streets straight into an post surgery emergency room without being stopped- It's fiction, and it's more dramatic that way!
and that got me wondering. Some authors meticulously research real world counterparts to their fiction in hopes of creating a believable and consistent world which coincides with our own. I had a friend who wrote a fantasy/historical novel who was so detailed that she would have researched things like "what was the price of a pound of unspun wool in 1730s?" and that sort of thing.
Whereas other authors will just say "Its a book, it was the most engaging the unrealistic way! Character was stabbed in the heart and still had the strength to give a passionate 5 minute monologue on love and family and friendship? Whatever! Regular human character jumps from a 8-story window but survives because he's just that cool? No problem! Whatever is the most impactful!
Where do you stand on this spectrum? How important is realism to you? How important is drama? What do you prefer as a reader?
