If you are trying to write a successful story, then it is natural that you might use a blend of fantasy and realism. The challenge is finding the right blend. When your story is more grounded in realism, how do you avoid veering into the unbelievable? 

By the same token, when your story is more fantasy-based, how do you ensure it is not needlessly grounded in reality? 

This is not an easy balance to strike, but it is a balance that can be found with the correct approach. Here are some tips to help you create that proper balance so your next story is as effective as possible.

Create Moments Of Escapism

The first tip you should look to employ is to use imaginative scenes that offer an escape from the moment. This could come in the form of a flashback or the form of a dream sequence. These moments allow you to offer something that breaks away from the story's grounding. 

It might allow you to explore moments that might otherwise not get a chance to blossom. Or it might mean allowing more imaginative elements of your story to shine through when you do not want to leave behind the realistic, lifelike setting. This can be effective if you want to help create a moment that feels detached from the rest of the story and setting.

If you believe the idea would work well, those moments of escapism from the norm – even an inner monologue - can be great for finding the right balance.

Make Situations Feel Relatable

However, one of the most important elements of your balancing act comes from ensuring that moments feel relatable. One of the easiest ways to pull the audience out of the story is to make something feel utterly unbelievable. The situations that occur need to feel realistic – like they could happen to someone.

So long as the story has a grounded, everyday feel, you can allow for more radical elements to form as the writing progresses. However, you need to ensure that as many situations in your writing as possible feel like they could genuinely occur. The more outlandish the scenario, the less likely it is to land well with your audience.

Create A Happy Blend

With a generally grounded story mixed up with moments that escape this sense of realism, you can keep the audience engaged. For example, your main character could regularly find themselves falling into inner monologues that might paint the scenario in a different light. Or it could allow a character with a wild imagination to be more vivid in their understanding of the situation. 

This allows you to create a happy balance of realism and fantasy. You need the viewer to believe that all of this could happen but with just enough fantasy included to make it unpredictable.

This is a naturally tough balance to find in any writing. Through features like breakaways, flashbacks, and inner monologues, you can often achieve that balance between realism and fantasy without veering one way or the next.