Tipsy Tuesday

One way you can make your fiction seem more real--in other words, draw your readers into the world you've created and make them care about your characters--is to give them a sense of time and place. Do it well, and you'll take your readers along for the ride, giving them an escape from reality. Do it not so well, and you take the chance that your exposition will prompt them to pass on your next book.

So, how do you do this? Use sensory details. What does your point of view character see? What does he smell? Hear? What's the temperature--is he hot or cold (or, like the Baby Bear's porridge) is he just right? Giving snippets of your character's daily life can give the reader information about his socioeconomic status and relationships, as well as his mental/emotional state. Is he happy with his lot in life? Or does he want more?

If you fold these kind of things into your story in dribs and drabs (not in one long info dump), you make the world you've created a much richer place, and your readers will love you for it.