The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Do authors intentionally insert mistakes?

**44 AMP** · July 14, 2018, 06:45 PM

If you are writing a complete work of fiction, you can do anything you want and "get away with it", especially if you cover it as set in an alternate history, dimension, etc.

If you're doing fictional characters and story in a real world setting, I think you ought to do whatever research is needed to get things right. Things like getting famous location descriptions correct (landmarks, street names, etc.).

The better you are at correctly describing the details of things that I do know about, the more I am inclined to accept the descriptions of things I don't know about as factual.

Like the credibility of a witness in court, if we catch you in a lie (or just a mistake) about one thing, your testimony about everything is suspect.

There are "levels" of accuracy, and are easiest to see in movies. You have actual historical events as accurately portrayed as practical/possible (such as Tora! Tora! Tora!)

Then you have movies that are "based on historical events" where some of the important historical things are accurate and there are other fictional characters and events add to that. And then there are movies "inspired by real events" where they can range from slight deviations of history to complete fabrications using only the names of historical figures and events.

July 14, 2018, 06:45 PM	#19
44 AMP Staff Join Date: March 11, 2006 Location: Upper US Posts: 28,817	If you are writing a complete work of fiction, you can do anything you want and "get away with it", especially if you cover it as set in an alternate history, dimension, etc. If you're doing fictional characters and story in a real world setting, I think you ought to do whatever research is needed to get things right. Things like getting famous location descriptions correct (landmarks, street names, etc.). The better you are at correctly describing the details of things that I do know about, the more I am inclined to accept the descriptions of things I don't know about as factual. Like the credibility of a witness in court, if we catch you in a lie (or just a mistake) about one thing, your testimony about everything is suspect. There are "levels" of accuracy, and are easiest to see in movies. You have actual historical events as accurately portrayed as practical/possible (such as Tora! Tora! Tora!) Then you have movies that are "based on historical events" where some of the important historical things are accurate and there are other fictional characters and events add to that. And then there are movies "inspired by real events" where they can range from slight deviations of history to complete fabrications using only the names of historical figures and events. __________________ All else being equal (and it almost never is) bigger bullets tend to work better.