Writing about real people

[Babeslady]

A lot of people on here write real stories about their real experiences as I originally intended to but haven't yet. I guess that is the best subject matter for most people as it is a topic they are well versed in.

My question is, what are the ethical considerations about writing about other 'real' people. Obviously you don't publish their real names etc but do you need their consent? Particularly if it is someone who you may not have a good relationship with now and some of what you write may paint them in a negative light?

 

[Stella_Omega]

I think Gore Vidal said, apropros someone's outrage at his romans a' clefs, "I'm a writer, what did they expect?"

SR71plt will have the authoritative opinion on this one, but I have never ever considered asking someone's permission to use them as a character.

 

[TxRad]

Characters are where you find them and most relate to real people in any case. Anywhere and everywhere i go i keep an eye out for characters. They are literally everywhere. I might take the person as a whole or as bits and pieces with someone else to make a character.

As for permission, if you're not using actual names and events as whole cloth then they are characters and not people in my opinion anyway.

 

[bronzeage]

"Ethical considerations" is a very vague and subjective standard, which is to say there are none.

It really comes down to the author's motives. If one were to publish a story, knowing it would cause harm to a person's life, it could be considered a cruel or malicious thing to do. In last month's Playboy, there was an interview with Paul Reubens, better known as PeeWee Herman. He talks about his arrest for public indecency in a movie theater. He was charged with masturbating in public. PeeWee claims he was doing nothing of the sort. After the story hit the papers, PeeWee jokes became the standard fare of all stand up comics. The problem for PeeWee, was he knew most of these people and considered them to be his friends. It was a career ending disaster for him and a joke for his buddies.

If information is public knowledge, as in Paul Reubens' case, its really fair game for anyone.

It is different if a writer has access to private information. Betraying a trust for the sake of a story is a despicable thing to do.

 

[oggbashan]

The only character I have used who is close to a real person was Fag-Ash Lil in jeanne_d_artois' story Unatit. Whether she would have recognised herself? I doubt it.

The real person died recently.

Og

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I build my characters from real people all the time. It is very rare, however, that the character is similar enough to the real person to be recognizable. In most cases, the character is an amalgamation of traits gleaned from several real people; kind of a Mr. Potatohead construction of personality traits, physical appearance, and back story.

In the few cases where a character is based largely on a single person, that person is never potrayed in a negative light.

If you are worried, just use the standard disclaimer, change a few minor details, and you are pretty much home free.

 

[cloudy]

Colly "used" several of her friends here as characters in The Furies: me, Lucky, Rebecca, MinSue, Lou, and a couple of others 'loaned' her our personalities for her absolutely awesome space opera. I don't remember if she actually asked for permission, but she portrayed us all in such a flattering light that it didn't matter to me if she hadn't.

She even gave me the best line at the end of the story:

"We were with you all the time," Cloudy said.

 

[sr71plt]

Asking someone if you can use them as a character in a story is pretty much putting them on notice to look for themselves as a character in one of your stories. They better be right in who they think has been patterned on them and like what they see if you value your relationship with them at all.

The ethical considerations are the toughest to face and pretty much come down to consideration of harm you might do to them and to your relationships--not just with that person but with others involved. It's quite typical for an author to tell the "truth" (as she sees it--which can be quite myopic and one-sided right there) about an abusive parent, for instance--and then be hit with all sorts of fallout they didn't expect from siblings and grandparents and aunts and uncles, including ones that they wanted to continue having a close relationship with.

(I, for instance, have a younger sister who insists my mother was abusive to her, when I was there and could see for myself that she was always treated like the family princess and was just a little shit who needed some tough love in her teens--and who would be dead now if she hadn't been given it.)

And you'd better be real sure that how you wrote something up, using someone real in your life, will look to others--or even to you in a different light. I once had to pull a short story book back from production because of what I read in proof from a different angle than I was looking at it when I wrote it.

I had a neighbor who was a chemist and unknowingly brought asbestos home on his clothes for years. The first thing he always did when he got home was sit down with his daughter on his lap and they'd go over the comics in the day's newspaper. She later contracted cancer from the asbestos and died.

I included that basic scenario in what I was writing to be a tragic loving family relationship story. But when it got written, the front end left open that the insidious thing going on in the household was that he was molesting her. It wasn't actually written, but it was left open for the reader to jump to that conclusion at the beginning. It was part of a series of stories giving readers who jump to conclusions a whammy. But when I was proofing the story, I realized where the whammy would be when the neighbors read the book. So I stopped the presses (which isn't cheap, I can tell you) and rewrote the story--I'd learned from watching other folks screw themselves up with what they had the "right" and "ability" but not the foresight and common sense to write about others they knew.

So, I suggest you think hard about it.

On the legal level, the more private the person is (starting down from president of the United States) and the more out of character they are written--especially toward the negative--while still being pretty clearly identified, the more likely they can double whammy the writer in court (And, quite possibly, the more inclined they are to do so).

Glad you asked. It means you are concerned about what you should do and will take care with it. Unfortunately, many aren't (especially those who self-publish. Mainstream publishers will likely do the "do you really want to?" talk with an author if they suspect someone real is being raked over the coals--especially someone not already in the public eye).

That advice on "just slap a disclaimer on it" given up the line, by the way, is well on the road to perdition and grief.

 

[CharleyH]

A lot of people on here write real stories about their real experiences...

Are you sure? I think most of them are fairy-tales and fantasies.

 

[Liar]

If you don't identify them, then you are not writing about real people, just using characteristics and narratives from real life as inspiration for your fiction. I do it all the time, people who are just like my friends and family, and stuff they've said and done, are in my stories all the time. Not as much in my porn though, although it happens.

All you really have to ask yourselves there is: Will they find out and disapprove? And if so, do I care?

Answer might be yes, and then you might want to reconsider.

 

[Weird Harold]

A lot of people on here write real stories about their real experiences as I originally intended to but haven't yet. I guess that is the best subject matter for most people as it is a topic they are well versed in.

My question is, what are the ethical considerations about writing about other 'real' people. Obviously you don't publish their real names etc but do you need their consent? Particularly if it is someone who you may not have a good relationship with now and some of what you write may paint them in a negative light?

The fact that you're from Australia adds a kink or two to the advice you're getting. Australia's Slander and Libel laws are somewhat different than US law. That said, you have to balance the needs of your story with the legal implications of the Slander and Libel laws you might be subjected to.

Of course if you're not assassinating somone's character -- in a legal sense, not as a plot element -- then you don't have to worry much about legal repercussions but if you wind up making a gazillion bucks off of a recogniseable character you might have to worry about a civil suit for a cut of the proceeds.

 

[kromen]

Most of my characters are people I'm familiar with, but the mannerisms are swiped from strangers in passing. I've stolen ideas from snippets of conversations I've heard on the bus, or waiting in line at the grocery store. I've read the celebrity genre on the site, with respect to the authors, it's more flash than substance. I enjoy characters that can grow in my mind as the pages turn.

 

[squarejohn]

A lot of people on here write real stories about their real experiences as I originally intended to but haven't yet. I guess that is the best subject matter for most people as it is a topic they are well versed in.

My question is, what are the ethical considerations about writing about other 'real' people. Obviously you don't publish their real names etc but do you need their consent? Particularly if it is someone who you may not have a good relationship with now and some of what you write may paint them in a negative light?

The chances are, they wouldn't recognize themselves as a character in a story. Remember the first time you heard a recording of your own voice? Same thing.

 

[Babeslady]

Thanks for the feedback

Thanks for all the feedback people. It confirmed some of the ideas that I already had so glad for the confirmation.

Definitely get the comment re people not recognising themselves so could be interesting.

 

[Edward Teach]

Thanks for all the feedback people. It confirmed some of the ideas that I already had so glad for the confirmation.

Definitely get the comment re people not recognising themselves so could be interesting.

I think describing a real life person merits some caution, Babe. Why lose a friend or piss off a relatilve over a too real character description or story situation that could easily have been altered a bit without unduly affecting the story?

 

[jayce1066]

I was used as a character in a story posted here on lit. The writer made no attempt to disguise me and even used an alt as the author to make it less likely that I would see the story.
That was the end of the relationship.

 

[Boxlicker101]

In one story I wrote, I actually modeled one character on my five year old grandson and another on my 18 month old granddaughter. The story was "Donna from Daycare" and the children appeared in subsequent chapters too.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Babeslady
A lot of people on here write real stories about their real experiences...

Are you sure? I think most of them are fairy-tales and fantasies.

Most of my stories are 100% fiction, but I did base some of them on things I did or happened to me. Of course, the stories are much more interesting and exciting than real events in my life.