Falling through the cracks

I've been looking for diversions recently - books, but also DVDs - films I hadn't managed to see in the cinema, but also a few favourites. One of those was the heist movie involving  magicians - Now You See Me. Pleased to know that sequels 2 and 3 are on the way. Will they have the magic of the first? Ouch! Sorry.

Watching it again, I enjoyed it just as much, but was aware of a few gaps in the explanations. Of course, as one of the characters says - that's magic. Looking back, I posted something in a similar vein when I saw it the first time. Carried along by the film, you don't actually care if something is out of place. Known as suspension of disbelief - a compact between watcher and film not to enquire too closely.

My favourite editor?

Not so easy with a book, when the reader can flip back and check up on you - or when you have an eagle-eye wise owl of an editor asking awkward questions. Or when you're asking your own awkward questions. Sometimes when I'm going through something I've written I'm aware not of a change of eye colour, or a character being in two places at once, but of some sort of flaw in the logic - and they are a b....r to track down. You know that something doesn't add up - but what? Or is it all in your mind? Are you just too close? That's the point where I worry the script like a terrier until the stuffing falls out of it. 'I know you're in there, I'll get you in the end ...'

It's fine to create an alternative world, where vampires are real, people can read minds, or become invisible, buildings appear or disappear from familiar landscapes. But it still has to add up. Suspension of disbelief only gets you so far. This is not real life, but you have to make it look as if it might be.