WorldbuildingIntermediate
Verisimilitude
The felt sense that the world is consistent and inhabited.
Principle
A world is believed when its rules outlast any single scene.
Takeaways
- Specificity beats accuracy.
- Inhabited worlds have weather, work, money, and time.
- A single contradiction punctures more than a hundred small details support.
Overview
Verisimilitude is the texture of plausibility. It is built from accumulated specifics that imply a world living off the page — economy, weather, idiom, custom — and from internal consistency the reader can rely upon.
Examples
- A fictional currency the reader never has to be taught.
- A trade route mentioned twice in passing.
- A holiday whose absence is felt by characters.