From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishartistic/poetic licenceartistic/poetic licenceAthe way in which a painter or writer changes the facts of the real world to make their story, description, or picture of events more interesting or more beautiful → licence
Examples from the Corpus
artistic/poetic licence• It's rite. i REpeat when i liKe. i have poetic licence! don't question me????• After several days however, with nobody apprehended, the papers indulged in a little poetic licence.• Thomas Deloney may have used a little poetic licence to embroider a good yarn.• There's nothing wrong with a bit of artistic licence, of course.• The film is but one version of some horrifying events, and stretched poetic licence to the extreme.• Wilde took poetic licence to the extreme, for the true story is much more down to earth. 