Using real people as inspiration.

[UnexpectedLuggage]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters? Like, do you base their appearance off someone you know/knew, or do you just make everything up?

For those that do use people you know for inspiration, do you ever feel weird/wrong/bad about doing so?

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I've used real people as characters in my "Before They Were Stars" series, and have included people I know as characters in several of my other stories. They are always supporting characters and not involved in any erotic scenes.

 

[WittyUserName]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters? Like, do you base their appearance off someone you know/knew, or do you just make everything up?

For those that do use people you know for inspiration, do you ever feel weird/wrong/bad about doing so?

Sure. All the time. And not really. I mean, you can describe a person, but there will be millions of others who fit the same physical description. And you change the name, of course.

 

[ElectricBlue]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters? Like, do you base their appearance off someone you know/knew, or do you just make everything up?

For those that do use people you know for inspiration, do you ever feel weird/wrong/bad about doing so?

Constantly, and no.

I spin and change and fictionalise the situations, the locations, the era, everything.

I have one autobiographical story here that, if the women I depicted ever read it, they would be the only people on the planet who would recognise themselves. Until I wrote the story, I'd never told a soul, and in real life, still haven't told a soul. Only they would know.

There are a few others who might recognise themselves in a story, but what are the chances?

 

[EdgySubMic]

I'm tempted to reply "Of course", in that almost every character one invents somehow comes about out of one's collective past experiences, so unless he or she is explicitly based on a fiction book or movie or something like that.... But of course there are exceptions, and of course basing a description of a character on an unknown but remarkable man or women you saw once in the street in another country 5 years ago is not the same as describing and naming a former colleague, tenant, or landlord. One has to know what to write, what to change, and what to leave out entirely.

Personally, yes, I do it, especially as many of my writings include autobiographical aspects. But that doesn't mean that anyone other than me would know who I am am referring to. 99.999% of the people in question would not recognize themselves, even if they know me in person and would know that I'm the one who wrote it all. The other 0.001% do know and are (I really should write "is" here) fine with it.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Believe it or not.
In my opinion, everything we create is influenced by our surroundings.
whether it's music a tune remembered from long ago grows into something new...
An abstract piece of art, it' represents something to the artist...
Writers, are no different, maybe it was an overheard conversation. A newspaper headline. Somebody noticed in a crowd. My point???? Accept it or not. Yes we are influenced by those around us, even if it's subconsciously...

Cagivagurl

 

[Lifestyle66]

The characters in my stories are all based on people I know or have met in the past.

But there is no one-to-one relationship between my fictional characters and any one person. The fictional character takes on aspects of several different people, those attributes which come in handy for the story.

 

[SamBomb]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters? Like, do you base their appearance off someone you know/knew, or do you just make everything up?

For those that do use people you know for inspiration, do you ever feel weird/wrong/bad about doing so?

No, not at all. I have no idea why.

 

[SavannaT]

I admit when writing wives who are forced or tricked into being sluts i do imagine myself or my married best friend

 

[SimonDoom]

I do, often. I have written stories with female characters that I picture as looking like someone I know. I don't feel any guilt about it because the written details are fuzzy enough that there's no chance of someone making a connection, so it's not invasive in any way.

I have written several stories based loosely on women who have posted erotic content on the Internet. Again, I change the names. In the case of two of my stories, the similarity was clear enough, and the real person was well-known enough, that I asked her permission first, which she gave. She enjoyed the stories very much.

The main character in my Hotel Exhibitionist series was inspired by a real erotic Internet model, and it turned out she was a member and reader of Literotica stories, so I told her about it and she enjoyed the stories, too.

For me, the test is if there is any possibility that a reader would connect my character to the real person. If so, then I would get permission first. But if not, I don't think permission is necessary.

 

[CoyoteTuesday]

I definitely draw inspiration from people I’ve met or even just passed on the street. But when I create a character, it’s rarely just one person, it’s usually a blend of traits from different people I’ve met or seen in the street. Maybe the look or vibe of one, mixed with the quirky way of speaking from someone else. Like making my own Frankenstein's monster.

It’s funny, sometimes I can even hear the character talk in that hybrid voice while I’m writing, and it kind of helps me slip into their mindset. It’s less like I’m creating them, and more like I’m channeling them.

 

[gunhilltrain]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters? Like, do you base their appearance off someone you know/knew, or do you just make everything up?

For those that do use people you know for inspiration, do you ever feel weird/wrong/bad about doing so?

Yes, some, but almost all of those are people I knew fifty years ago when I was in college. I've used my ex-wife a couple of times. She doesn't know that I'm on this site, although she knows I'm somewhere. However, she's shown no interest at all when I casually mention that.

P.S.: R. Crumb used his entire family for characters - and he admits it inside the drawings. Some of those portraits were not flattering. He also drew his second wife, Aline, a number of times. However, you can tell that he was very fond of her. (She was also a cartoonist.)

 

[Nynah]

It's a mix for me. Some of my characters are based on people I know in real life and some are purely made up. For those that are inspired by IRL folks, I tend to use both their appearance and personality as a basis for their characterization, but obviously I add my own flavor as well.

And like most everyone else has said, I don't feel bad for using them as inspiration. None of my inspired characters are one-to-one facsimilies of the real deal because I either make up or inject some of my own feelings/biases/quirks to create a distinct entity.

I do have a weird related hang-up when it comes to creating characters. I can't use names that I have a strong IRL association with because my neurodivergent brain won't let me divorce them from the real life person. For example, the name "Veronica" is off-limits for me because I had an ex-coworker by that name and she had a very forward personality so if I were to use it in a story, I would just substitute the Veronica I know for the character I created and it would simply be too weird for me. Many very cool names are unavailable to me for this reason and it's one of my biggest pet peeves with myself as a writer.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Constantly, and no.

I spin and change and fictionalise the situations, the locations, the era, everything.

I have one autobiographical story here that, if the women I depicted ever read it, they would be the only people on the planet who would recognise themselves. Until I wrote the story, I'd never told a soul, and in real life, still haven't told a soul. Only they would know.

There are a few others who might recognise themselves in a story, but what are the chances?

You could probably follow some of my stories on Google maps if one was so inclined. I have made up a fictional brokerage company, Cromwell, Bartleby, Stevens, and Yates (there is a little joke in the name). Bars and restaurants are sometimes generic and unnamed, although I have used a few that don't exist anymore. Movie theaters are always real places but most of them are also closed. The buildings may still exist, and I've used Loew's Paradise a number of times because the architecture is so spectacular.

https://jschumacher.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c339953ef01053633624e970c-600wi

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

Absolutely. I've used real people to base characters off of, I've used historical figures (fictionally, of course) and I've used people I know as archetypes for characters in the stories. I think most of us tend to do this, whether it's intentional or subconscious.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I think I've only done it once. But I'm not sure it counts... I have a character who is based on a guy I once had a crush on. But, this guy was really shy and I never got up the courage to talk with him. So it's more based on his looks and what he might've been like in my head.

 

[yowser]

This is an interesting and complicated question at the same time.

For extraneous reasons (going over my corpus trying to answer to myself how many completely manufactured characters I have created over the years, perhaps a topic for another thread) I have a more complete answer than might be usual.

Four of my 'stories' (since not all are stories, and include satires, reviews etc.) are autobiographical (or real close) but with one exception, no one involved would be able to recognise their place in the story or identify me as an element. Names changed, obviously.

Half of my stories (and since I have around a hundred, half equals fifty) have completely manufactured characters. I've brought a good number of people to 'life' in some fashion.

Another good percentage (over a quarter) are not real 'stories' in a strict interpretation but Act One in an incomplete story or are elaborated fantasies with some version of 'me' being the MC. The 'me' is congruent, but not an actual replica.

All together, probably four real individuals reoccur in disguised fashion in maybe a dozen stories, but they are altered considerably and chances of them, as readers not alerted to the fact, recognising themselves are vanishingly small.

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

Glad to see so many positive replies here! For a moment I was worried I was being a real creep.

Characters in my stories tend to be based on people I know, with names and some minor details changed for the sake of things. It's sort of my way to vent some fantasies and get them out of my head.

 

[Rob_Royale]

All the time. My first twenty or so stories were all based on the women of my past. No, I don't feel bad. My very first story, Mama's Beach House was written with the encouragement of the woman featured, though the story is fiction. It's an interesting tale on how that came about and I've been meaning to write a WIWAW on it.

 

[ChuckWolf]

Two of my stories, Nudity Retreat Humiliation and Halloween Humiliation, have two ladies very strongly based on sexy female coworkers.

A story I'm working on has, "Jill", a bossy, short chick with blonde & big Jersey hair and a nice ass and she was also based on a former coworker.

 

[PennyThompson]

I try not to directly use a person that I know, especially for characters that get sexy...

But most of my characters take inspiration from aspects of people I know. Mannerisms, personality quirks, parts of appearances, sometimes specific things that they say...

I find that most everyone has something about them that is charming or attractive

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Q: Do you use real people as your inspiration for characters?

At first I didn't when I started writing erotica. Then I said "fuck ethics" and opened the floodgates as I've used real people not only as inspiration to write, but also draw my characters. It wasn't an erotica, but when I wrote my first novel ten years ago, which was a graphic novel, I based the appearance of both main characters off of a celebrity and an Internet personality; and I did the same with the rest of the cast.

I'm not the first one to do so, and I won't be the last. John Constantine was inspired and based off of Sting. That's the same way I use real people as inspiration for my characters.

Q: Do you base their appearance off someone you know or knew, or do you make everything up?

Yes, I do. First of all, I very often I tend to "cast" porn actresses, OnlyFans models and cam girls into my stories because it helps me to get the visuals right for my mind's eye. I don't explicitly describe them beyond something vague because I prefer that my readers cast whoever they want into the role. Sometimes I even add a feature they don't have to put a Red Herring on it in case I need to. There are also times in which I "cast" them so well that I even name the characters after them as placeholders while I come up with a name later on, or during edit. I blatantly did it on the book I'm writing on my phone, but the placeholder took over so now I have [EXPUNGED]'s name on it, and I want to keep it that way because her name suits the character. Is not the first time I used her as a muse though; some of my stories here feature her likeness, and the thing I wanted to write for the On The Job challenge was also going to feature her "casted" as the main character.

Because of this, I also do this with people I know. There was a story that I had (now deleted because I didn't know how to continue it) in which the characters are based around me and my ex at the time. In my book I've also put characters that are based around the people that not only I know, but also I interact or used to interact with on a daily basis. Granted, I'm using my own life as inspiration, so take it however you must will.

Q: Do you feel weird, wrong, or bad about doing so?

Nah. First, it gets the job done, secondly I get a cool fantasy into my brain that may spark new ideas, thirdly, more often than not I get to know myself better, and lastly, some things are better to remain in a non-existent pornotopia rather than brought to reality. Besides, I'm not naming real people or claiming that what they in the fiction piece actually happened. Everything that I write, whether it is based in my life or not, including the characters, is always, and will always be fictional, and I'd be more offended than the person who gets offended by a stupid coincidence if they say it's real.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I take inspiration from real people I know, but usually more at the level of themes and situations than copy-pasting people. So for instance my characters will run into challenges similar to some I've had in RL relationships - how do you deal when the person you want, doesn't want you the same way, what's it like to be in a covert relationship and feeling unacknowledged, etc.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Before you describe a character in words, You first have to conger up a visual image... That image comes from our subconscious...
Perhaps not a direct replication, but we pick things from people. Eyes, quirks, hair styles, their grins, scowls...
Even if they are figments of furtive imaginations. Those physical attributes come from somewhere Mostly subconsciously people we've met or seen, or admired...
I never build a character completely from acquaintances, I merely steal little parts... The sound of their voice... Their smouldering glare...

we're perhaps not as original as thought... No shame in being influenced... It's how you use it that's important.

IMO

Cagivagurl

 

[TheRedChamber]

The answer for me is no (with a couple of exceptions I'll cover below). It's not for ethical reasons, more that its just not how my process works.

My stories tend to be concept driven rather than character driven. That is to say, I start with an erotic or romantic idea I want to explore and then work backwards to create characters who would get themselves into that kind of situation. Most plots are driven by basic wants and needs of the characters so you start with those ('aging stripper wants to open own strip club'). These have to make sense that someone somewhere would reasonably want to do them and they form the skeleton of the character. Then you end up mixing in 'character flavour' as you write - the plot says she's in an Indian restaurant, so what does she order?

So, since most of my stories are flights of fancy, I raraly get to slot anyone I know in there (and if I did Id have to immediately anonymize them so what would be the point)

The exceptions are one story which is based of a five second encounter with a prostitute in Thailand who I turned down flat, but I came back and did a 'what if' story.

The second is an inciting incident in one story which happened to me and a woman I know but with absolutely no erotic tension and in no way led to sex. I did take that incident more or less as it happened and slotted in new characters because I thought it was a fun way for them to get together. I didnt particularly fancy the real world lady in question and wasnt thinking about her when writing the sex.