When I first wrote The Refusal, two of the main characters, Janus and his best friend from college, Fabian, meet on the Brooklyn Bridge. Fabian is something of a mess and Janus thinks about how he is expecting to see him thrown out of a car onto the sidewalk.
Every year I visit New York to see one of my best friends, John, and when I went to the Brooklyn Bridge on a location scouting trip, I realised (as all you New Yorkers will know) that the walkway doesn't sit at the same level as the road. It wouldn't really be possible to throw someone out of a car onto the sidewalk.
Initially I thought I'd need to lose the scene, but it is still there, I just had to lose the reference to the sidewalk and make what Janus was thinking and seeing more specific. Here is Janus's internal dialogue:
Fabian’s experimentation through college and after taught me more about the tech world we inhabit than any lectures we attended. The problem is his desire to try new things doesn’t end with technology: He does drugs, conducts scientific experiments (usually on his own body), has bizarre relationships with other people, and collects weird people around him. I’ve had to rescue him more times than I’d care to count. That debt goes both ways, though. As I stand on the walkway looking down at the traffic and the metal framework, I’m half-expecting to see Fabian thrown out of a speeding car.
I had a lovely time that holiday cycling around all the main locations for the book.
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