Join us again at Week 17 in our Blog Challenge Blog Hop with Marketing for Romance Writers. This is like a topic I replied to in 2018 about using our friends, family, or fur babies in our books. Last year’s post gives an explanation of how I might use the idea of a friend or family member in a book.
The topic for 2019, is:
Week 17: Putting “real” people into stories. The pros and cons.
You’ve heard about authors teasing and saying something like: “You better watch it or I’ll put you in my book and _____. Fill in the blank.
Is it teasing? 😉
Pro:
Face it. Real people are quirky, fun, weird, hilarious, sexy, silly, so on and so forth, and they can make great characters for the right story. They say no two people are alike. (They who?) Why wouldn’t an author want to use a real person as a character in a novel? I’m not saying if I have or haven’t, but I like to use my characters as they come to me.
On that note, I have written my “real” dog into a series with her characteristics and personality.
If using a real person, the character would be easy and difficult to write because we’d know how said person reacted in certain circumstances, both negatively and positively, but because we know, does that give us the right to write it?
If we don’t tell them we’ve used them, then we can play around with their persona anyway we want by adding or taking away from their personality. If the person we use reads the story and suspects it’s them, we don’t have to admit it to them. Do we? I told my doggie. She approved. ❤
Even if we don’t use a “real” person in a story, a friend or family member might suspect a book character is them even if it isn’t.
If we keep this little secret to ourselves, we can disguise them by combining personalities and characteristics from more than one person, and our imagination.
Con:
If we tell them we used them in a book:
Telling them wouldn’t allow us any leeway in writing their character, and we wouldn’t want to write them negatively. It wouldn’t be fair to our book character if we had to create them using specific rules to avoid hurting the “real” person. (Unless we hated them and didn’t care, I guess.)
Who sees themselves as other people do? We could offend them if they think the character isn’t who they are. Heaven forbid, they could sue us if their character had been used negatively.
I’m reminded of an episode of Blue Bloods on TV where the Police Commissioner’s partner from way back, wrote a tell-all book from their early career when they were young and new on the force. However, Frank Reagan read the book before publication. The antics the partner wrote would reflect badly on the department and Frank as the Police Commissioner. He threatened to sue if the book came out. It’s “TV” but this happens in real life.
What if a best friend decided to write a tell-all book including us? This brings up another question: Is writing nonfiction using real people different from writing them as a fictional character? I say, hell yes.
If you used a real person in your story, would you tell them?
Join the others participating in this week’s topic. Find the link to their blogs on the main Blog Page.
Authors, I’m so sorry I haven’t been around to most of your blogs to comment on your challenge posts. You all know what’s it’s like while finishing books. I’ve tried to tweet, but Twitter and I are almost like strangers now. One book is close to going to the editor, so I will catch up.
Have a nice weekend.
Would you believe snow is forecasted here? The local weatherman swears it won’t stick other than on grass. We’ll see.
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel 
13 thoughts on “#AmWriting Week 17: Using Real People in Stories #MFRWauthor #WritersLife”
Teagan R. Geneviene
Hi, Mary. I enjoyed this mindful post. The comments are intriguing too.
I agree with you about not telling a person if you make a character of them.
I had a “frien-enemy” (that I finally was able to push out of my life). Whenever she did something offensive or insulting she said “Oh no. I’m sooo in the book.” An extreme attention seeker, I think she actually wanted to be in the book.
I’ve encountered (not knew) a few people who were so quirky that I made a minor character of them. Otherwise, characters tend to come from my general experience with and knowledge of people and personalities. Although… my stories don’t have much to do with reality!
Happy new week! Hugs on the wing.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Thanks, Teagan. It does sound like someone aimed to get into one of your books. Nothing wrong with using quirky things about someone you knew. One of my characters does get negative traits from a person I used to know, but there is nothing similar to the other person, nor is it the other person, only an idea of things she’d done. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your week in the Land of Enchantment. Take time to feel the beauty of a sunset in your western sky.
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Cathy Brockman
I have a real friend in the story I am writing now. she knows and will e the final proffer and let me know what can stay and what she wants to be changed. It is all in fun. and not much of her but a few quirks the rest I made up. You just about have to use real people in a way jut bend and shape them into fictional characters LOL
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Bend and shape>> That’s good, Cathy. It’s cool your friend is letting you write her into a book. I won a contest once from another author friend who wrote a story for me, making the story about me and a cowboy. YEEHAW! LOL. Let’s ride. ❤ The story was only for me, but she used a little bit of what she knew about me, which wasn't much, so she made up what she didn't know. It was all good and in fun and my name wasn't used. When I found out she picked me, I made sure I wouldn’t be used in any book, and it was only done in fun for her to write me a story. 🙂
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henhousepublishing
In a litigious society, it behooves one to exercise caution when writing a character who’s alive or has near descendants.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Absolutely, Holly. All it takes is one time to destroy a career and a life.
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Kate Hill (@katehillromance)
I generally do what Rhonda does–take inspiration from various people for one character.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
A great idea, Kate. This works for me, too, to help add depth to a character.
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D. Wallace Peach
Like Rhonda, I draw from a range of people to create my characters, Mary, plus some imagination. I think using a real person in a book and telling them so would be super risky. Better to disguise them with tweaks to the personality, a different name, and look. Then they can’t get upset if they don’t like what they read. 😀
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
I agree. Don’t tell them. It’s hard not to add certain things from people we know, or even don’t know like people-watching. I sat at dinner in a restaurant once writing notes while observing a guy who could make a great hero. My friends learned not to ask what I’m doing.
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D. Wallace Peach
😀
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Rhonda Gilmour writing romance as Sadira Stone
My characters are often amalgamations of real people I’ve met, taking this one’s humor, that one’s irreverence, etc.
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Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
I’ve done that too, Rhonda. It rounds out a character.
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