…do I care?
Of course, I care, but I’m not going to go checking your facts. However, when I come across something I know is wrong, it will take me out of your story and change how I’m reading you. Possibly even if I read you again.
It’s one thing to suspend facts…stretch them or bend them to fit…and another to completely disregard without anything to support your usage. There is a time and place in any story where diehard facts aren’t necessarily needed. I know, I know, I hear you, but how many times have you thought/believed something as fact only to learn you’re wrong? This can be a character trait for the story, one that doesn’t need explaining or correcting. It can be the author assuming the readers know the fact and will fill in the trait.
That’s what writing and reading is all about…escaping into someone else’s world and living through them. The fact they’re fictional doesn’t matter, it’s why we enjoy movies and television.
If you’re suspending facts for the story, make sure you work it to be believable and plausible. If not, you’re risking looking like you haven’t done your homework.
Remember readers aren’t dumb and just because it’s fictional there still needs to be a reason for having something wrong.
And the really good fact benders, well, we readers don’t know them cause we haven’t caught on to them, yet 😉