creative writing - Do I really need to have a scientific explanation for my premise?

So, in my post-apocalyptic novel, the world was caught up in an international war (basically WWIII), and all the world's nuclear superpowers launched their warheads and killed much of the global population. Ambient radiation from the nuclear fallout has caused humans to develop supernatural abilities.

And that is not science.

I totally get that radiation just hurts/kills people, it doesn't give someone the ability to manipulate life force or become pyrokinetic like I assert in my story. That's not scientifically possible.

But does my story need to be scientifically accurate or plausible? Will I lose readers because all they can think of is "that would never happen"? Can a story like mine with inaccurate/nonexistent science still be appealing?

Answer

Without reading the other answers, my answer is that your premise is fine as long as you set the contract with the reader.

The reader is fine with your premise if you do not promise a science-based story.

Imagine this. Imagine you start your novel with the story of the navel-lotus of Vishnu. Or the bush that burned but was not consumed, of YHWH. Or the tale of Icarus, the young woman who aspired to greatness by flying too closely to the sun, and fell to the depths below when the heat melted her wax.

There is truth in mythology. There is a truth in story. Science is distinct, but you can start your story with a commonly held 'truism' that is not scientifically based.

After you establish that you are speaking in layers, within your story, you say something (contract-driven like): Sometimes truth lies not in the facts, but in the ideas beneath the facts. CHAPTER 1.

This sets you up to have a story that is not science-based.

What you do not want to do is promise science... and then deliver nonsense.

Story is a distinct quality of being human that predates the human experience of the scientific method. It's been told from the dawn of language. Hard science fiction, if that is what you're aiming for, has less allowance for nonsense. If you are writing hard science fiction, then you must approach this problem differently. It sounds as though you are not aiming for hard science fiction, so the answer to your problem is straightforward. Set up the contract to fit your story.