What do you do when real people inspire your novel characters?

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tooloo

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I have a novel idea swirling around, and the characters are loosely inspired by real people in a similar situation. I plan on changing the characteristics and personalities around, but every time I try to picture the scene, I keep picturing the real people as the fictional characters.

Have you ever written a story that was about a real situation or real people that you know? Were you able to separate the novel characters from the real people? Did the people that were the inspiration of your characters ever know your characters were based (even loosely) off of them? What would you consider a ‘loose interpretation,' versus a character who obviously resembles their real life counterpart?

 

Katharine Tree

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So far I have only written one character who is inspired by a real person I know. I have tried to focus on the one or two aspects of her that inspired me to put her in my book and let the rest of the character ebb and flow organically with the story, rather than crib them from the real person.

I am not an expert, and people who know far more than me will come along to answer, but from what I understand, that "This is a work of fiction . . . " disclaimer is used for a reason. Unflattering caricatures of real people can open the author to charges of slander and libel.

So be careful and keep it to a minimum. And cover your tracks well.
 

shadowwalker

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Most of my characters are based on real people. They're not carbon copies, of course, but I know of few authors who don't do this.
 

neandermagnon

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It doesn't matter what you're picturing in your mind as you write, only you will ever see this. Your readers will make up their own pictures in their minds. Just make sure that you've changed enough details that it's not obvious who's based on who.

You can make quite major changes to characters if necessary, e.g. change their gender and/or age, and if it's based on a workplace situation, then completely change the kind of work place (e.g. if the real events happened in an office envionment, then change it to something completely different like an ambulance station or a building site or something).
 

WriterDude

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I suspect that if your charcaters aren't inspired by real people, they won't come across as realistic.

I wouldn't copy a real persons traits and use them in a story though, not only would I risk complications should that individual recognise themself, but it would be terribly constraining to the story. A real person might be interesting, but its my words they speak, their steps are determined by me in the situations I place them, I even choose what they wear.

Infact, thinking about it, and I lean very heavily on real people for character inspiration, but by the time a character lands on the page, not much of the original is left.
 

atombaby

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As NeanderM said, your readers will see your characters on the page, not the people you base them off of. Unless, say, it's a very public situation that everyone knows about, then people will see the parallel.

I don't novelize situations that have occurred in reality, but I definitely create loose counterparts of real people that I know. If I'm feeling extra-crafty (in a naughty way), I may make them more similar than not. That's just what I do, and not everyone else would or does. The novel characters don't always come off as their real counterparts because they're placed in different situations. So in essence, I'm molding their personality to fit the plot. By the time the story is on paper, I may see the inspiration of said character, but everyone else would just see a character.

Everyone has different interpretations of people, situations, the world, etc. I may perceive a person as wonderful and big-hearted, but another may perceive them as overly gregarious and a snob. As long as you're not replicating the real-life inspiration to the "T," you will be fine. And if it bothers you that they may be too similar, then change a few things!
 

MakanJuu

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I just went with it. One of my characters went through a change while I was rethinking the motivations of the character & the purpose of her within the story. Somehow ended up seeing the pop singer, Pink, whenever I got to one of her scenes.

Honestly, it sort of fits.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Almost every character I write is a one hundred percent real person I make them as true to life as my writing skills allow. More often than not, I even keep the real first name. Sometimes I keep first and last name.

I also use every real situation I can possibly use. What better way to get realism into your story? Writers have been doing this since writing was first invented, and I see no reason to change it.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I wouldn't copy a real persons traits and use them in a story though, not only would I risk complications should that individual recognise themself, but it would be terribly constraining to the story. A real person might be interesting, but its my words they speak, their steps are determined by me in the situations I place them, I even choose what they wear.

.

I use real people as much and as closely as possible. Rather than constraining the story, I find it does the opposite. As much as it's humanly possible, I let tehm speak tehir own words, take tehir own steps, and behave in any given situation exactly as I'm sure that real person would react. They have the same knowledge level, the same skill level, the same physical level, etc. They also wear exactly the kind of clothing their real counterparts wears.

They're human, and they behave as a human.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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I use real people all the time. I don't know how you could avoid it. My writing is based on my experiences in life, the people I've met, how they act, talk, think... The character might not be an exact duplicate of say, John, but they're an amalgamation of John, Jim, Sam, Fred, Arthur, Jane, Duane, Cindy, Paul, Lisa, et al.
 

Mr Flibble

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I have written several characters loosely based on people I know. But I think of them as the initial inspiration, not the actual character -- helps keep them separate, and I then develop them as I would any other character


I only tell them if the character is complimentary.... (The two times I have, they've both thought it totally awesome. Ofc they haven't read them yet!)
 

Roxxsmom

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I haven't really had this issue. There are bits and pieces of real people (including myself, I'm sure) who end up in various characters, but they're combined in unique ways, and the particulars of their situation and world are so different, I doubt anyone who knows said person would be able to read at the book and say, "OMG, that's Fred!"

I actually worry more about my characters being inspired/informed by various literary characters I've encountered over the years--ones I've nearly forgotten on a conscious level, but they're still rattling around inside me.

My main defense is to mingle, mix, and match, and to let the particulars of my world and the story itself play a hand in shaping who they are.
 

Kakko

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I have written stories that were inspired by real people and events. Many authors use this as inspiration for their stories. I would advise to change names in order to avoid any legal trouble.
 

WeaselFire

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Every character ever written is based on a real person or persons in some way. Otherwise there would be nobody interested in reading about them.

Jeff
 

Filigree

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That's always a hoot.

Then there's coming up with a main character umpteen years ago, and having a friend say last week, 'Oh, yeah, you should check out this Famous New Young Person, he looks a lot like your guy in that book.'

So I look, and I swear, and I start laughing. Because this kid was probably born the same year I figured out what his doppelganger looked like. Now if I get this particular fantasy novel published, everyone's going to think the reverse.
 

thepicpic

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I just went with it. One of my characters went through a change while I was rethinking the motivations of the character & the purpose of her within the story. Somehow ended up seeing the pop singer, Pink, whenever I got to one of her scenes.

Honestly, it sort of fits.

One of my characters is/will be* Michael Gambon. No question.

The only thing harder than having characters that do not have traits of real people you know is having characters that do not have some aspect of the author. I'm pretty sure that's impossible. So don't fight it, but put it to use.
Yes, I do base some characters on real people. I run it by them first, but so far responses have been overwhelmingly positive. I also base some characters on people I don't like so much for various reasons. Of course, any similarities to real persons are entirely coincidental...

*In the daydream world where publishing and film deals are a certainty.
 

eyeblink

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I've based characters on bits and pieces of real people I know, including myself, but I don't think I've based one wholly on someone else. It's also a mistake, I think, to assume that because certain external circumstances (job, gender, hobbies etc) match someone then that character is necessarily that person. I do think the protagonist of my two YA novels (see sig) is very close to me in many ways...but I'm not a 17/18-year-old Anglo-Polish lesbian. :) Another character works as a freelance journalist, going to film screenings (which I did quite a bit in the 1990s) and also has a name beginning with the same letter as mine...but I don't think he's anything like me at all.

Occasionally I've named characters after people, and told them, if I didn't think they'd object. That's not the same as basing them on people.

I've found it's usually wise not to tell people if you do base a character more than a little bit closely on someone. More often than not, they don't see themselves the way other people see them, to a lesser or greater extent. If that's the case they don't recognise themselves. Or if they do, they can be offended - "Does he/she see me in that way?"
 
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