Storytelling Tip #381: Respect Your Audience

"How did bedtime go?"
"Fine."
"Did you tell more stories from Star Wars?"
"That's getting kind of old, so I decided to mix it up by using the characters in regular fairy tales."
"So what story did you tell?"
"Jack and the Beanstalk. But I used Luke Skywalker instead of Jack. And he gets the magic beans from Obi Wan Kenobi, when he goes into town to try to sell the family's droid. And then when he climbs up the beanstalk, the Death Star is at the top."
"I... see. How did it go over?"
"He really liked it. But I was really tired, so when I got to the part with the goose that lays the golden egg, I accidentally made it say quack-quack. And then he got really upset and was all, 'Geese don't say quack-quack! Geese say honk-honk!'"
"Well, he has a point."
"Sure, but it kind of seemed like we'd agreed on a fair degree of suspension of disbelief."
"But only if you're being creative. Like, maybe you could have gotten away with it if you'd had the goose go woof-woof or moo-moo, or something like that."
"True. Woof-woof would have been creatively absurd."
"Exactly. Quack-quack is just sloppy."