Do your inspirations for characters ever recognize themselves?

[iwatchus]

Many of the characters in my stories are at least vaguely based on someone I have met IRL (or myself). Early on, I was very worried about someone recognizing themselves -- 5 of the 6 characters in my first story were based on real people. My SO found reading the story somewhat uncomfortable because of the obvious similarities. Even though there were similarities, there were also significant differences.

I think I first wondered about this before I was writing. A major motion picture came out some years ago that mentioned a local establishment in the credits. The villain had an eerie resemblance to a caricature of someone I know, who was associated with that establishment. I looked up the writer and they had lived in my town shortly before moving to LA and writing the story for the movie. I have no doubt that the villain is based on a friend of mine. I actually would not be surprised if that person either never saw the movie or did not recognize themselves. There is a reason they inspired a villain.

None of my stories will ever be talking about a hundred million dollar opening weekend, it is always possible one of the handful of people who read my stories will recognize themselves. Excluding the upcoming Cupcake Caper story, where I got permission to parody the real people involved (other than Princess Stephanie, who never returns my calls).

As I mentioned in another thread, Ellie from my nude day entry is based very loosely on a waitress at a local restaurant. I am tempted sometimes to tell her that I won a prize using a character inspired by her, the I think better of it.

How do others deal with this kind of question? I think of Brooke in @ElectricBlue 's Brooke at the HW store series, which I think he has said had some truth in it.

 

[WCSGarland]

Unlikely. I never use a real person as inspiration for any of my characters.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Well, the only one I've consciously done this with were two different characters in my werejaguar story. They both have different aspects of my SO in them. My SO has read them, and he identifies heavily with one of them, and wants to knock some sense into the other. But he hasn't seemed to make the connection.

 

[FrancesScott]

I use the people I meet liberally, but change elements and names (sometimes I don’t even know the names). But no one has ever called me out on it. It’s mostly women who I borrow this way. I think women are more interesting to look at.

Ice Cream - Jordan is based on a woman who I vaguely know from my home town who I ran into when she was serving, well it’s obvious, right?

More than Words - Hailey - who is deaf - is physically based on a college girl at my pool, who isn’t deaf

Open Wide - the dentist, Erin, and hygienist, Abby, are based on people at my dentist, they aren’t a lesbian couple in real life as far as I know

In The Eye of the Beholder - Ellie / Tammy is based on a woman I briefly saw on vacation

Gravid Games - Gloria is an amalgam of various pregnant women at my pool, none of whom are escorts as far as I am aware

 

[HordHolm]

I'd be surprised. I've modelled characters on real people three or four times (and taken a lot from their RL situations, too), but when I do this I go out of my way to make them unrecognisable. The most that someone might do, in the many millions to one chance that they even a) saw one of my particular stories on Lit and, b) the even thinner chance they saw the one that was based on them, would be to think, "wow, that character is a bit like me, and their situation reminds me of mine."

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Timely thread.

Let me start by saying that I have included several of my friends and acquaintances in most of my stories. These are frequently some of my beta readers who view their being mentioned as a perk for their contribution to the final product.

One of my current WIP has a subplot where the main female character bears a striking resemblance to a rather well known, real European adult actress. People will frequently mention the resemblance to her, and wonder why she doesn't speak with a Ukrainian accent. This particular actress learns of her doppelganger and wants to meet her. She is accompanied by another real and famous European actress who is both her friend, and also has a twin sister.

This second actress is someone who I see pop up frequently on one of my social media accounts, so I messaged her about including her in the story, and she was thrilled.

How the real life characters are portrayed in a story matters if you are going to use them is supporting roles. Celebrity/Fan-Fic stories give you more liberties.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've used real people as inspirations for my stories a few times, but only after getting their permission, so they were aware ahead of time that the character was loosely based on them. I've had a few other stories where my characters were based very loosely on real people I know, but the connection is so tenuous that I don't think anybody would make it without it being pointed out to them.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

The closest I've come to using a real person was in a story where I used his professional career to chart the course of my MMCs.
They had no connection other than having the same job and same career progression/goals.
If he were to ever read it he *might* think it was an odd coincidence.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

My ex did, but granted the stories were for her eyes first.

As for the possible Ersatzes... None of them have read me. Some because they don't even know I write erotica, let alone know English.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Anyone I styled a character after has been dead for at least 10 years, so ....

 

[iwatchus]

I guess I am just less original in my writing. My original characters were from friends (who do not know what I write and so are not being told).

Now, many of my characters are based on people I really don't know, like the waitress. I watch people and try to understand them. Watch their body language, their facial expressions. I find it a fascinating insight into them to watch someone just the instant the person they're talking to goes away or turns away. Or they walk away, like a waitress. I try to capture those emotions and try to piece together what person is feeling that. In one sense, it is all complete fiction, but in another it's not. There is no way that the waitress would expect that Ellie was based on her if she read the story. On the other hand, knowing that it was, I'm betting she would see parts of her in that character.

 

[Gamblnluck]

I frequently model my character's personalities after people I know. I even modeled a character in Slave Camp closely after my ex-wife. The personalities matched as well as a little of the backstory. I'm sure she wouldn't recognize herself if she did read the story which is doubtful and probably wouldn't care.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

None of my characters are based on specific real people. At least one has things in common with a single real-world person, but I'm not going to be upset at me because I used myself in that fictional character. (I'm not her and she's not me, we just have things in common.)

Now, I do have two Literotica writers as cameos or namedrops in a story I'll release pretty soon, but that's with permission.

--Annie

 

[EmilyMiller]

Do your inspirations for characters ever recognize themselves?​

With my stories with some autobiographical content, and with one exception (my BFF who I wasn’t talking to at the time - because drama - and who then gave her retrospective approval), any main character who is at all identifiable in my stories is there only after they gave me permission. They are generally disguised in more than one way, so that they know who they are but others wouldn’t.

Some of my background characters are actually amalgams, and then I don’t really bother to check, and I’m not still in contact with all of them anyway.

 

[Britva415]

Many of the characters in my stories are at least vaguely based on someone I have met IRL (or myself). Early on, I was very worried about someone recognizing themselves -- 5 of the 6 characters in my first story were based on real people. My SO found reading the story somewhat uncomfortable because of the obvious similarities. Even though there were similarities, there were also significant differences.

I think I first wondered about this before I was writing. A major motion picture came out some years ago that mentioned a local establishment in the credits. The villain had an eerie resemblance to a caricature of someone I know, who was associated with that establishment. I looked up the writer and they had lived in my town shortly before moving to LA and writing the story for the movie. I have no doubt that the villain is based on a friend of mine. I actually would not be surprised if that person either never saw the movie or did not recognize themselves. There is a reason they inspired a villain.

None of my stories will ever be talking about a hundred million dollar opening weekend, it is always possible one of the handful of people who read my stories will recognize themselves. Excluding the upcoming Cupcake Caper story, where I got permission to parody the real people involved (other than Princess Stephanie, who never returns my calls).

As I mentioned in another thread, Ellie from my nude day entry is based very loosely on a waitress at a local restaurant. I am tempted sometimes to tell her that I won a prize using a character inspired by her, the I think better of it.

How do others deal with this kind of question? I think of Brooke in @ElectricBlue 's Brooke at the HW store series, which I think he has said had some truth in it.

I have a couple of stories with characters who have things in common with my wife. These characters aren't significant part of the stories, and as such are described extremely shallowly with very little detail. So my wife would recognize herself in the situation and would very probably imagine herself in the place of such a character and would very probably imagine that I myself intended for the character to represent her personally.

I have a couple of stories with characters who are, let's say, "part of the action" who also are not based on people I know but who are involved in situations which happened in real life with a person I know. Not real-life sexual situations but, kind of like, if the real-life situation had proceeded to a sexual situation. Again, if one of those people were to read such a story and know I wrote it, they would very likely recognize the situation and imagine theirself in it, and very likely imagine that I had them in mind when writing the sexy bits. Even though the character isn't like the real person, in terms of appearance or other characteristics.

None of this has ever happened because these people don't read Lit as far as I know, nor know that I write on Lit as far as I know. Though, there's one who could guess I write on Lit if she were familiar with it at all, which she might be. If she were to read Lit herself (I doubt that she does) and happen to read one of these stories, it probably wouldn't make her go "oh shit that's Brit and this is me," but it could very easily remind her of that time she and I did that thing at that place in real life but without any sexual subtext or acts.

There wouldn't be anywhere near enough evidence in the story that I was the author. Though, if she were to for some reason have occasion to read certain posts I have made in the forums, there is enough circumstantial evidence which could add up to her suspecting Brit is me in real life. But that seems remote because she would have had to have been following me for quite a while, which seems remote all by itself, and/or she would have had to luck into spotting, out of the thousands of posts I have made, the half-dozen or so which would allow her to at least speculatively connect the dots.

In truth, I feel somewhat confident in believing that if that were to happen, she would be mildly flattered and somewhat tickled if she were to believe that the story represented something I imagined about myself and her. She's in a monogamous relationship and, while I'm not, I have a couple of other types of boundaries of my own which make me not available to her. Yet we have the kind of relationship such that we talk about sex and kink and relationship stuff and it isn't weird, also with what I believe to be a mutual sort of "what-if" undertone to things, like, what-if we were available to each other.

 

[ElectricBlue]

How do others deal with this kind of question? I think of Brooke in @ElectricBlue 's Brooke at the HW store series, which I think he has said had some truth in it.

Brooke doesn't work there any more, but might vaguely recognise herself if she read the first chapter. Melissa, who works at the same store now would definitely recognise herself from two chapters because she's more actively responded. She blushed, when I said something, and would remember that. She's a bit flirty and open with it, which is why she's a real presence in those stories. Although not the current chapter, which has turned into something else completely. I don't think she's a vampire.

Amanda in The Floating World would recognise herself from the third vignette in that story, she was the young woman who walked with me to the road crossing one day, as she went to the bank with the day's takings. Similarly, Maddy would, from the opening scene of The Madelyn Chapters. We stopped walking, and she introduced herself.

I don't worry about it at all. If ever they recognised themselves in a story, that would mean they're reading erotica on Literotica, which means they're most likely open minded women. And if they're reading this thread, they'd know exactly who they are, and if they liked themselves in those stories they know how to contact me. But what are the chances of that?

 

[StillStunned]

Nobody here has complained about me using them in my stories.

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

That would require anyone I know to read my stories, or even know this site exists.

I also make sure to keep details somewhat vague enough that there's plausible deniability.

 

[Rob_Royale]

That would require anyone I know to read my stories, or even know this site exists.
I also make sure to keep details somewhat vague enough that there's plausible deniability.

Exactly. To answer the question, yes, the people several of my MCs were patterned after would recognize themselves and one has, by intent, but you'll have to read WIWAW: Mama's Beach House for that story.
The rest would have to know Rob ****** as Rob Royale, know of Literotica and then find my work. Also, I change settings and circumstances enough that if any of them were to find the story accidently, would just assume a coincidence that a character resembles them physically. I have purposely never used anyone who could know of my hobby, in a story.

My Beautiful Debbie is the exception here, being auto-biographical, but the woman Debbie is written from has passed.