Wright’s Writing Corner: Watch Out, or You’ll End Up in My Novel
The lovely and talented Mrs Wright says this:
Today’s post is in reponse to a reader’s request. Come by and comment on
your experiences with writing from real life.http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/285281.html
Excerpt:
First, I will start by saying that if there is a legal aspect to this, I don’t know what it is. There is this disclaimer the publishers put in books that says that any resemblance of characters in the story to real people is coincidental. I don’t know what they do when the resemblance is not coincidental. It’s not like my publisher asked me: is anyone here based on a real person?
I have written many characters based on real people…or on real people’s roleplaying characters. Jacob and Nicky in the Lost Boys books are based on my sons. Miranda’s family in the /Prospero Daughter /trilogy were based on NPC (Non-Player Characters) John invented. While that is not the same as basing them on a real person, the process of copying the character and adapting it to your story.
Adapting them to the story is the key. I have found that I cannot actually put the real person into the story. I have to make them my own. Or rather, make them their own character that fits the specific background and let them come alive in their own right. If I spend time worrying about whether the real person would do that, I freeze up.
The characters can be inspired by so-and-so, but they can’t be so-and-so. They have to be themselves.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
