Telling fact from fiction

[robvalue]

Just to reiterate: the point of this isn't to determine fact, it's to determine probable fiction. What are giveaways that it probably didn't happen as written? I'm not asking for ways to determine whether it actually did happen or not. We're looking for sore thumbs here. Researching the historical accuracy of events is an entirely different subject.

For the OP Q.  If I had to point to one thing that you could explain to a child, which doesn't require a load of underlaying knowledge..that would help them distinguish between fictional and factual narratives, it would be third person omnipresent narration.  I like less obvious things like this, because they actually help to distinguish between factual and fictional narratives even in the event that the fictional narrative regards some broadly factual point or setting.

Ahah! Excellent, yes. This is something I've thought about before but which I completely forgot when making this thread. For example, the narrator in the bible jumps around and "knows" conversations it couldn't possibly have access to. Invoking yet more magic and divine inspiration as an attempt to make an obviously fictional account sound plausible, to a child, is an overwhelming abandonment of any critical thinking. And an abandonment of any other principles that may have been taught. I'm suspecting that absolutely none have been taught before reaching this point, if they ever are.