There is an ironic first rule to writing fiction...

Have your feet planted firmly in reality.

I know it sounds funny, but in all my experience as a reader, I think a story sucks the most when nothing happens that makes any bloody sense! You can write well, but if you have no understanding of who characters are, no social competency and make stuff up all for convenience (and not in a self-parodying sort of way), it's shit. :)

Mr./Mrs. Incompetent Writer? I know that you are the author, but that doesn't mean you can abuse your power whenever you wish something were easier. Although you write the story, you belong to the elements of it. They are the current. Swim with it, not against it.

My advice for my fellow writers is stop thinking about the fact that it's a story and start thinking about what kinds of things happen to you every day, what people really say, what people really think, and how they react based on all of that. We want it! You can still include magic, Wonderland, phantoms, f-f-fucking pink and blue spotted ducks!

But the backbone of fiction is reality. Funny, idn't it?