Taking liberties with location

Diana W. · Oct 22, 2011

Okay, I have a quick question. I want to rewrite the opening of my book. Due to things that happen in later parts of the story, I have to change the location where my MC, Toby, has a car accident. I originally had him rolling his car down an embankment. However, I know that the stretch of road I want to relocate the accident to, has no embankment. The road is completely flat. Basically, he's driving in a snow storm, so he would be driving slower and more carefully, so a simple collision wouldn't normally produce the incident that happens as a result of a head on collision.

So, basically what I'm asking you is how much would it annoy you as a reader if you're reading a novel that changes the geography of the area you know. Would it bother you if you read a novel that had a steep embankment where you know full well there is none? This is stalling me from writing the scene now. Help!

Al Stevens · Oct 22, 2011

It would annoy me. I remember a bad movie called something like, "The Cape Canaveral Monster" in which the scientist tells others that the monster has escaped into the nearby mountains. The mountain nearest to Cape Canaveral is in Georgia.

It's fiction. Make your location fictitious and the problem goes away.

leahzero · Oct 22, 2011

It annoys me, too.

Do you have to specify exactly what road the MC is driving on? Being too specific with location details is one major way that writers screw themselves on real-life accuracy.

I generally don't need or even want to know the street names someone's driving on. Novels that get into GPS-type street directions annoy the crap out of me. And if you do specify streets, and then get something wrong, well, that's pretty much sacrilege.

Maryn · Oct 22, 2011

It would bother me.

I do wonder whether you need to be that specific about the location of the accident. Unless the location comes up later, I would think it unnecessary.

Although the other way to go is to have the nature of the accident no longer involve an embankment. If you've got driving snow severely limiting visibility, he could easily drive into something and sustain whatever injuries you need him to have.

Consider that when snow's real bad, some cautious drivers will pull over and put on their flashers rather than drive when they cannot see. It only sounds sensible. What happens far too often is that someone glimpsing those flashers through the snow thinks they're tail lights, so they correct their course and drive right into the back of the parked car.

Maryn, hoping this helps

Determination · Oct 22, 2011

If I wasn't familiar with the area it wouldn't bother me. I suppose if I lived there and knew the geography was wrong it may. You could change the name of the place to a fictitious one and then it wouldn't matter

Zelenka · Oct 22, 2011

I would accept a fictitious location within an actual city rather than an actual location that had been altered to suit the story. So if it were me, I would either not give the street name, or if I really had to, make up one that suited the needs of the story, if an existing one wouldn't do.

Diana W. · Oct 22, 2011

Thanks for your feedback everyone. As has been said, I don't have to give specific locations. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in specifics.

Maryn, I like your suggestion about the car pulled over with the hazards blinking and my MC not realising in time that the car ahead is stationery. That's something to think about.

tko · Oct 22, 2011

how many readers are familiar with your location?

It's all about the percentage, isn't it? Move the Eiffel Tower, you're in trouble. Change a road in the middle of the country, maybe 5 readers will know, and they probably won't care.

I mean, if I'm reading a detective story set in Los Angles I expect someone to get Pacific Coast Highway correct. But if a killing takes place on a little street that doesn't really exist, well, I expect that as well.

DocBrown · Oct 22, 2011

I've never really cared unless the discrepancies are as bad Al Stevens said above. You put a mountain in the middle of a flat coastal region and that's a bit too much for me.

I had a friend complain years ago about something as slight as an imaginary embankment and my response was, "It's fiction dude."

That said, an imaginary road is even better.

heyjude · Oct 22, 2011

Add me into the "It bothers me" camp. There are several books set in my town and I hate it when they get things wrong, even if it's just changed since it was written. Be vague, that's my motto. In writing, too.

frimble3 · Oct 22, 2011

How much of an enbankment were you needing? Even on dead-flat roads, sometimes especially on dead-flat roads, the roadbed is raised a little for drainage.
With the flashers on the car ahead as a distraction, and snow for lack of traction, that might be enough.
As to the original question, if I knew the road, and it was totally impossible, it might bother me. If it was some minor road, I wouldn't know/care. And if the writer is telling an otherwise good story, I'd give it the benefit of doubt.

Diana W. · Oct 22, 2011

Thanks for your input everyone. I think I've resolved the problem. And no, I haven't put something there that shouldn't be.

thorjansen · Oct 22, 2011

I too would notice the discrepancy unless it's a very minor one, but is it an important plot point? Something that your story pivots around? Then that would be a problem.

Diana W. · Oct 22, 2011

It doesn't have to be an embankment. Basically, my MC is driving in a snowstorm. So he's going to be driving slower than he would normally. The idea was for him to have a car crash violent enough to give him a near death experience.

Alan_Often · Oct 22, 2011

As long as it makes sense. Invent an island in the Pacific if you need to in order to tell your story. So many films cut scenes together where characters turn a corner onto a completely different street than would actually be there since it works better for the story. Get everything as accurate as you can, be wary of stretching disbelief, and you should be fine. Stressing about this stuff is natural, but it really doesn't matter all that much to the average reader (especially with readership on a worldwide scale).

I don't even know what, for example, the Pacific Coast Highway even is. And clearly that is a landmark of some note, if it is worth mentioning in this topic! I'm not saying don't do your research, but if the story suffers for the sake of geographic accuracy, you made the wrong choice.

A little different, perhaps, but Michael Crichton invented a Costa Rican Air Force for Jurassic Park. Still a good story, is it not?

jswwrites · Jan 15, 2012

Hilarious - I'm from the Cape Canaveral area too, and it took me years to realize I Dream of Jeanie was supposed to be there because there were always mountains in the background!

Jamesaritchie · Jan 16, 2012

tko said:
It's all about the percentage, isn't it? Move the Eiffel Tower, you're in trouble. Change a road in the middle of the country, maybe 5 readers will know, and they probably won't care.

I mean, if I'm reading a detective story set in Los Angles I expect someone to get Pacific Coast Highway correct. But if a killing takes place on a little street that doesn't really exist, well, I expect that as well.

Word spreads, and it's an incredibly lazy writer who takes this approach.

ironmikezero · Jan 16, 2012

I'd be annoyed as well as a reader. As an editor, I'd point out that your credibility as an author may be in jeopardy with some readers who would know the location - that might not be many, but it could matter.

MarkEsq · Jan 16, 2012

Really? So it's not okay to invent a street in the middle of Paris? Because I think it is. If not, you run the risk of someone checking the real street you've mentioned and pointing out that the roof of the house you describe is tile, not slate...

Maybe I'm wrong, but I does seem like one can take a little license and the reader will almost expect that. Equating fiction with laziness in this aspect seems, well, a little harsh. But then, what the heck do I know?!

heyjude · Jan 17, 2012

MarkEsq said:
Really? So it's not okay to invent a street in the middle of Paris?

For me, I far prefer this method. I hate it when an author describes a street I know well and it's all different yes I know it's been ten years but it's all different! and it takes me out of the story. Doesn't happen often, and for places I'm not familiar with obviously it doesn't matter at all, but there are times... Invent me a new street/venue/city and my brain copes better.

Zelenka · Jan 17, 2012

Personally I go with the invention method, but I always like to wrap it up in reality, so if I invent a street in London and I say it's in the north near Highgate, I make sure I get the feel of it right for that area. Wrap up the lie in some truth, basically.

Anyway, making up a fictional street in Paris? Think it's got a pretty good precedent - Rue Morgue anyone?

Nymtoc · Feb 6, 2012

This question has been pretty well answered, but I'll toss in a couple of thoughts. I am annoyed (sometimes maddened) when a major change is made in a city or other area that I know. I live in New York City, and if you had Broadway running from east to west I'd think either a) you're nuts, or b) you're writing about an alternate universe.

However, I've seen writers handle location changes in a real place quite well by stating in their introduction, or on their credits page, something like "The Blue Diamond Club and the Wilton Hotel are fictitious." Once they're pointed that out, I have no problem with it.

MarkEsq · Feb 6, 2012

Nymtoc said:
However, I've seen writers handle location changes in a real place quite well by stating in their introduction, or on their credits page, something like "The Blue Diamond Club and the Wilton Hotel are fictitious." Once they're pointed that out, I have no problem with it.

That's what I'm doing with my books, set in Paris. The Author's note says:

As much as I love Paris, I have been forced to take occasional liberties with its history and geography. Events have been created and streets invented to suit my own selfish needs. All errors and misrepresentations, intentional and otherwise, are mine and mine alone.

Zelenka · Feb 6, 2012

Same on my historical / supernatural thing set in Prague. I debated for ages whether to use a real venue, like the Rudolfinum for instance, as the home of the orchestra that's at the heart of the story, but since the Rudolfinum was home to the Czech Philharmonic and at the time my story's set, would have had Antonin Dvorak and other quite famous historical figures popping in and out, it would have been way too complicated.

So in the end I have invented a concert hall, set in a baroque palace that was sold to the state years before and then converted to become an arts venue. I've based it, basically, on the Kinsky Palace and set it where that building stands, but will put a note at the beginning, should the book every be published, to explain.

DoctorK · Feb 6, 2012

Having driven in the snow and ice I'll tell you that even going 10 mph, once you start sliding on ice, you can go a LONG way, and spinning around 180 degrees would put you in a position to get hit head on by an a-hole driving 45 in his/her SUV.

I've seen the aftermath of those collisions, and sadly, many are not *near* death.

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