Never Date a Writer

[PayDay]

Ever ended up in someone's novel or story? Someone you dated or had a relationship with?

From here:
http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/12/never-date-a-writer-youll-end-up-as-material.html

But there was horror mixed with the honor. I’d never asked myself: Bellow or Roth, Hemingway or Fitzgerald, Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky? It seemed too terrifying to be made three-dimensional — to be faced with someone else’s portrait of your psyche. If the depiction seems to miss the mark, but includes just enough to make you recognizable, then you’d have to wage an endless personal PR campaign with anyone who came in contact with the text: No, reader, you don’t know me. But if the novel contained some shades of truth — perhaps the attributes you don’t share widely (aren’t they always the most compelling?) — then you face an even scarier prospect: Yes, reader, you know parts of me before we’ve ever met.

I vacillated between annoyance that he’d gotten parts of the story wrong and annoyance that he’d gotten parts of it right.

Me personally? I dunno. There's this, but it's nothing like me:
http://www.literotica.com/s/pay-day


Article source:
https://twitter.com/RussiAleja/status/543435716865167361
"What can I say... Sometimes life seems to exist solely to become fiction MT Never Date a Writer"

 

[PayDay]

Question #2:

"Have you ever put someone you know into a story/novel? How much of them? How did that work out?"


Me personally? Yes, but only aspects, or a moment or two. Names were changed to protect the innocent, except for my first story, which never happened and was nothing like what really happened, which was awful, but I used the names of people I knew, cause I'm not very creative and didn't know anyone.

 

[R. Richard]

"Have you ever put someone you know into a story/novel? How much of them? How did that work out?"

Yes, I put myself and an ass hole that I called Rapid Romeo in a story (The Demise of Rapid Romeo.) I was unable to do a full development of the Rapid Romeo character, as what I learned about what happened to him was mainly from beach bum/criminal sources. I feel that my portrayal of my own role was fair and balanced.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My great grandparents were neighbors of William Faulkner at Oxford, MS. My grandfather and William were the same age and associated. None of my grandfathers 1920s letters mention Faulkner, so maybe no one on either side was much impressed with the other.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Question #2:

"Have you ever put someone you know into a story/novel? How much of them? How did that work out?"


Me personally? Yes, but only aspects, or a moment or two. Names were changed to protect the innocent, except for my first story, which never happened and was nothing like what really happened, which was awful, but I used the names of people I knew, cause I'm not very creative and didn't know anyone.

Being that we can only write what we know, many of my characters are people I've met along the way.

None of my friends and relatives know that I've written about them. Actually, none of my friends and relatives read anything that I write. They all think I'm a whore. If they did read what I've written about them, easily identifiable, they'd see that I changed their names and descriptions but kept the essence of them. I'm sure that none of them would be happy about me writing about them in a sexual way. Yet, how delicious is that to write sexy scenes of your father-in-law, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, mother, father, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends?

Even if I were to stretch my boundaries and write about someone I don't know, I'd still be drawing from what I know about people and would end up writing about someone that I know. Weird how that happens.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I use the 1000s of people I encounbered in the military, construction work, mental health, and state programs. This morning I created a scene at a lingerie shop. The principal male character goes there to speak with a girl he knows, The place was just robbed. The staff are tied up inside their modeling rooms. The PC opens the door to his friend's room and find finds her and her father tied up and naked. Dad was recently let outta prison. I knew plenty of girls like this one. Grandpa was often the baby daddy. Its common in Mexican households.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've borrowed minor characters from real life. Major characters often have some sort of RL inspiration, but they'll usually be a blend from several different sources.

One time I met a RL person who was practically the double of one I'd invented for a story - same profession, appearance, personality, and first name. I had to go back to my story and change the name in case anybody mistakenly thought I'd used the RL person for the story.

 

[lovecraft68]

The only story I based any r/l people on was my SWB series. The brother/sister had aspects of several people I grew up with including myself. There is a lot of me in "Mark" but in the story he was much more over the top than I was, but a lot of his opinions/reactions and issues were mine when I was younger.

I think its safe to say I won't sue myself. I know I have nothing.

 

[DirtyAllie]

I married one

 

[SusanJillParker]

I married one

My sympathies. Sorry for your lot in life. Maybe one day he or she will get a real job. Certainly a street sweeper or a garbage collector is much higher on the job scale than being a mere writer.

 

[oggbashan]

I use people I have known in the past as material for creating my characters.

But none of the characters are the 'real' persons. They are constructs using parts of the people I knew as a start to building the character in my story.

For example - Janet and Dorcas in my story Lavender are based on memories of a whole group of women I knew in South Devon in the early 1960s. But none of the 'originals' were former girlfriends. They were older women I had met, whose company I had enjoyed at social events. The closest one came to me was that she was the aunt of a very short-term (two dates) girlfriend.

Back to the OP:

Not just 'Never date a writer' but never interact with a writer. You might end up in a story.

 

[jehoram]

Question #2:

"Have you ever put someone you know into a story/novel? How much of them? How did that work out?"

The first part of my story "The Long Frost" is autobiographical, and the people in it were as they were described, except for obfuscating changes in names, places, and other minor details. (The second part is entirely my own imagination.)

Some of those people are now dead, and the others presumably have no clue that they are characters in a story. At least, AFAIK.

 

[Over_Red]

I've never really used a person I know as the foundation of a character. I make them up from scratch to fill roles in the story. But it's not all original. I'll borrow quirks - habits, likes and dislikes, particular turns of phrase - from the people I know or have observed in real life. I feel it's all these small things that make characters more relatable and human, so I don't try to invent them; I just describe what I've already seen is real.