Fixing Logistical Problems in Fiction

Just as Jilly was about to mount her horse, something spooked him and he started going round in circles. Jilly hopped along, one foot twisted in the stirrup and the other trying to launch off the ground. With a Herculean effort she leapt onto the horse, discovering too late that she was facing the wrong way.

That little paragraph is something I wrote as part of a creative writing exercise many years ago. It’s not the world’s greatest writing, but my tutor spotted something else wrong with it. ‘I’m having trouble visualising this,’ she wrote. ‘If Jilly has her foot in the stirrup, how did she end up facing the wrong way?’

I’d pictured Jilly sitting on the horse backwards, but the tutor’s comment made me realise I hadn’t really thought through how she got there. You usually mount a horse from the left-hand side and put your left foot in the stirrup. So, if Jilly had her left foot in the stirrup that whole time, she couldn’t have ended up facing backwards on the horse, even if she was hopping round in circles. Whoops!

I’ve picked up other errors like this when editing my own manuscripts and those of others. I’ve seen these sorts of problems in published books too. It might seem like a little thing, but those illogical logistics  can take people right out of your story.

What is Logistics?

You may have heard of logistics in terms of military operations or other endeavours where goods and resources are moved around. However, it can more generally be described as ‘the management of the practical details of any enterprise’ (Macquarie Dictionary). Logistical problems do overlap with factual errors that we need to avoid. However, I think they’re different enough to warrant their own category.

For novelists, logistics answers the question, ‘Can my characters do what I say they can do?’

Reasons Behind Potential Logistical Problems

There are at least three reasons why a reader might stop and wonder about the logistics of certain actions in your novel.

First, the reader may have simply missed something. When I come across a potential logistical glitch in a story, I usually go back and read the passage again. Sometimes I find that I missed the explanation on the previous page, so the problem is with me. Or is it? When reading unpublished manuscripts, in particular, I will still often flag the passage and let the author know that I initially missed this, because maybe it could be clearer. Other times, the author did everything right and I was just having a brain fade.

Second, the author might have the scene correct in their own mind, but they haven’t explained it well, so that it seems wrong to the reader. I read a manuscript once in which two women had been sitting at a table talking. When it was time to say goodbye, one woman picked up her shopping bags (plural) and gave her friend a hug. Now I know that technically you can pick up more than one shopping bag in one hand. The delivery guys who bring my groceries do it all the time. But when I read that passage, I imagined the woman picking up a bag in each hand and then slapping her friend on the back with them as she launched into the hug. It was a serious book, so I don’t think slapstick was on the author’s mind. Something like that could have easily been fixed by just having them hug before the bags were picked up.

Third, the author hasn’t done their homework and they’ve made a mistake, like I did with Jilly. It’s hard to get absolutely everything right, no matter how much research you do, but we can at least make sure we haven’t made any obvious logistical errors that toss our readers out of the story.

Remedies

So, what can we do to eliminate (or at least reduce) logistical errors in our work?

Think it Through

Sometimes it’s a simple matter of giving it more thought. If I’d done that with my Jilly story, I would have realised pretty quickly that her foot would have needed to come out of the stirrup at some stage, and then I could have worked out a scenario that would lead to her sitting backwards on the horse. For example, while the horse was turning around, she might have accidentally put her left foot in the stirrup on the right-hand side of the horse.

Act It Out

If possible, and safe to do so, try acting out a scene yourself or with friends. I’m a big fan of the original I Love Lucy series from 1950s, and those episodes involve a lot of visual humour. Lucy was always getting herself into some predicament, with hilarious results. I heard an interview with the writers of the show, and they mentioned that they would often ask the prop department to send something to the writers’ room so they could try it out. Different situations would also be tested with the cast. If you click on the following link, you’ll see a brief film clip of a scene in which Lucy and Ricky get in a pickle due to some trick handcuffs they can’t unlock: Lucy’s handcuff scene

No doubt that’s exactly the type of scene where the screenwriters and actors would have role-played with the handcuffs first. As novelists, there are times when we can do the same. Though if your character has to hang from a tenth-storey window by their fingertips, it’s probably best not to try it at home. That’s where research and experts come in.

Use Research

We’re fortunate to have so many resources available to us these days. As well as books, maps and other hands-on material, there is a myriad of online resources out there.

When I was researching my historical novel Scattered, set in Nova Scotia in 1882, I found a fabulous online resource called Canadiana that has newspapers and magazines going back hundreds of years. I was able to read Canadian magazines from 1882 to see exactly what my heroine would have been reading.

I’m now working on the second book in the series which is set on Prince Edward Island in 1896. Again, I’ve been amazed at what I’ve found. One of my characters is a photographer, and I’ve downloaded photography magazines from 1896. I know exactly what she’s reading, which also gives me clues about the types of cameras she was using and how photos would have been developed.

However, if you’re having trouble finding the right information, you might need to ask someone who can.

Ask Experts

If you can’t find the right resources, and you can’t try out the scenario yourself, you might need to contact a specialist. If you read the acknowledgements pages of novels, you’ll often see mention of a police officer who answered the author’s questions about police procedure, or a member of a particular ethnic group who allowed the author to observe traditional ceremonies, and so on.

When researching Scattered, I asked a doctor friend some questions about medical issues, like how long it would take one of my characters to recover from a particular injury. I also checked with some horsey friends (the people, not the horsies) to see if my Sable Island horse could do the things I wanted it to do. Turns out it couldn’t do some of them, and I had to change some aspects in the rewrites.

If you don’t personally know an expert in the field of interest, contact relevant organisations, libraries or historical societies and they may be able to assist or put you in touch with someone who can. You don’t know until you ask.

Visit the Setting (For Real or Virtually)

I know it’s not always possible, but visiting your setting can really bring it alive and help you to iron out any logistical issues. You might be able to look up a lot of facts about the place, but it’s not the same as walking those streets, tripping over those loose cobblestones, feeling the wind on your face, or sniffing out those tantalising aromas.

If you can’t visit your setting, local experts can give you the inside scoop, but you can also make use of tools like YouTube and Google Maps. Film clips won’t give you the taste, smell or touch; but they will give you the sights and sounds. It’s amazing how many people post their holiday videos on YouTube, so why not walk the locations with them?

Do you want to know how strenuous it is to walk up the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico? I was fortunate enough to do it when I was in my 30s, but I don’t think I’d be able to do it now. It’s steep, the steps are pretty big, there’s not a lot to hold onto, and the climate is very humid. If you can’t go there yourself, maybe watching  this short film clip from The American Tourist will give you an idea. He’s done some of that for humorous effect, but I think you can see from that clip that not all of your characters would be able to run to the top without puffing (or having a heart attack!).

Map It

If I’m reading about a real or imagined location, I love books that include maps. When reading Bible stories, I’ll often look up a map of the location, especially if people are moving around (e.g., the Israelites in the Promised Land, locations Jesus visited, or Paul’s missionary journeys). It can really help you to visualise the distances and the terrain, and stop you from inadvertently having your Biblical character taking a dip in the Sea of Galilee on their way from Jerusalem to Jericho. (Click here to see why not.)

If you’ve made up your location, draw your own map of the town or the general area. Sometimes, these maps are actually included in the book (e.g., Terri Blackstock’s Cape Refuge series, or Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing). But even if you’re the only one who ever sees the map, it will help you to get the logistics right when your characters are moving around (e.g., Do they go northeast to get to the bridge across the River of No Return?).

Also think of smaller settings, like the plan of a building or the layout of a room. I’ve read many manuscripts where characters were going up and down stairs, along corridors, underneath rubble, into a tunnel etc. Then at some point I’ve thought, ‘How can they go through that door. Aren’t they facing the other wall?’ If you draw yourself a mud map, you’ll be less likely to make their journey logistically impossible.

Caveats

There are also a couple of caveats to all of this.

First, if you’re writing fiction, readers can be expected to suspend disbelief to some extent. I’ve read tons of books where someone has been shot in the shoulder one day and is then using that arm to climb a cliff face the next day with no ill effects (or similar). If he or she is the hero, we expect them to do the extraordinary so we’ll sometimes be willing to overlook practicalities.

But even if you’re writing fantasy or sci-fi, you still need to give it that air of authenticity. One of your characters might be able to shapeshift into an eagle, like Zadeki in Jeanette O’Hagan’s Under the Mountain series. However, he still flies according to rules of aerodynamics and makes use of thermals (the air currents, not the undies).

Second, no matter how hard you try, there will always be something you can’t know, and a well-meaning hobbyist from Patagonia will be happy to tell you why your book doesn’t work. Just thank them and file that piece of knowledge away for the future.

However, with a little effort, we can hopefully give our readers a smooth ride through our stories and stop the unintended ‘Huh?’ moments.

What about you? Can you think of logistical problems you’ve come across in novels? How did it affect your reading experience?

If you’re a writer, what techniques have you used to keep the logistics in check? I’d love to hear your examples?

(Featured Image by Petra from Pixabay)