I have a random idea for a Celebrities category story.

[MayorReynolds]

My character (who talks and reacts like I do, so pretty much me) has a minor fender-bender with Michelle Trachtenberg and she's nice enough to let him buy her a drink.

It leads to a lot of flirting, mutual attraction, and eventually a hot one-night stand.

I got about three pages into a freewriting frenzy and stopped. I realized I know almost nothing about MT outside her movies, TV shows, and short interviews I've seen with her. I know artistic license must be employed for these sorts of things, but I started having a hard time working out a personality for someone who actually exists.

Then I started wondering if I should just dump "character meets Michelle Trachtenberg" and just write a story with a female character with the same physical description as MT but a different name.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Very few people know anything about any celebrity outside of their chosen media, some interviews and if they happen to be Ms. Spears or Lohan you know something of their run ins with the law and wild personas. So there's nothing to worry about. If you like MT stick with her, assuming you want to write it as a Celebrity story. If you don't then change her name.

Either way is ultimately going to be fine. The beauty of a celebrity story is once you say MT we all know what she looks like and have the same impression of her personality that you do because we've likely seen the same things.

 

[MayorReynolds]

I freewrote until the main character takes Michelle out for a drink, and then I hit a bump. The backstory is that Michelle is down South to shoot a movie that starts filming in a few days. When Michelle drives to the bar (deciding to take her own vehicle because it's got a GPS tracker her hidden bodyguard can zone in on), she asks the male main character to call her by another name because she's trying to keep a low profile.

I got hung up on wondering whether Michelle would want to stay more-or-less under wraps or if she'd revel in getting lavished with attention and requests for autographs.

Then I read your reply and started leaning toward "fuck it; light research and run with the rest."

 

[Sean Renaud]

Good call.

I would assume she likes to keep it low key just because that seems to be the rule of stars. When they want attention they go out and get it. (Though Michelle is at an interesting level. I bet she could walk around most places without getting too much harrassment) No need to call her by a different name though. She's well known enough that if she wasn't getting mobbed before hearing her name probably wouldn't put her over the edge.

And did you mean she took her car because her bodyguard CAN'T track it? If he can why not just bring him in the first place?

 

[MayorReynolds]

And did you mean she took her car because her bodyguard CAN'T track it? If he can why not just bring him in the first place?

The idea is that she's accepted a drink from this stranger who just bumped into her car, but not without taking precautions. He's a nice guy but anybody can put on a nice face. She's got a bodyguard who we never see who is hanging around in the shadows, who can be on the scene in a moment's notice, and has a tracker on her car.

I don't know how these things work. I'm running with artistic license.

 

[Sean Renaud]

That doesn't work. She had to make the decision to take the car with the GPS tracker in it before she bumped into this dude. That's why she bumped into him, because she's in a car.