Bend one rule boldly, but make everything else obey reality.
Or as it’s often said in writing circles: “You get one big lie.”
Or, “Change one thing and explore its consequences.”
Or even, “Suspend disbelief once.”
Writers like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke (my childhood heroes in the 1960s, among others…followed this principle instinctively. But then I titled my first sold dystopian fiction story as an homage to Asimov’s first autobiography as, In Memory, Yet Crystal Clear.
While they might break one law of physics — faster-than-light travel, positronic brains, time distortion — but everything else in their worlds remained grounded in logic and internal consistency. That’s what made their stories so enduring: readers believed in them because they made sense.
I try to base all my own writing on the rules of physics (or quantum mechanics, or whatever framework the story demands). But eventually, every tale reaches that edge where the science stops supporting the fiction. What then? Do you throw it away and lose all that time and effort? Or do you keep going — bending the rules just enough to reach the best conclusion you can imagine?
I say it’s up to the author or filmmaker.
If the story’s heart still beats with truth — emotional, moral, or existential — even beyond scientific boundaries, then it’s worth the leap.
Your audience may not thank you outright.
But if they’re still thinking about your story hours, days, or weeks later?
You did your job.
Cheers! Sláinte! Na zdravie!
Compiled with aid of ChatGPT
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