Using Real People in a Novel.

Its really out of my realm but if I were to write about real people I'd keep it as historically accurate as possible. Do not write about John Kerry if you are going to change what he did on camera, write about John Kerry if you are going to change (speculate) about what he did off the camera.

For me the most fascinating thing about historical fiction is when you find a insignificant character in that time that is attached to the significant characters and events of the times. Maybe instead of Kerry write about a director that reports to him. Doing that really opens up what you can do.

If you mention a particular secretary of state, your work will date very fast. Just refer to him as "the Secretary of State" and have the character address him as "Sir" (or whatever the correct formal address is for the US secretary of state) - by not actually naming him, readers a few years from now will imagine your characters interacting with the whoever is secretary of state when they read it. If you mention him by name, as soon as the USA has a new secretary of state, your book will feel slightly out of date.

Look at how JK Rowling wrote about the Prime Minister of the UK meeting the Minister for Magic at the start of "HP and the Half Blood Prince" - the whole chapter was about this meeting and not once was he referred to as name - simply as the Prime Minister. Another world leader is referred to as "the President of a far distant country". It works. I mentally imagined Tony Blair in that scene (and other times I've read it and mentally imagined the man who played the Prime Minister in that Little Britain sketch). Someone reading it now would probably imagine David Cameron in that scene. So maybe use that approach.

neandermagnon said:

(and other times I've read it and mentally imagined the man who played the Prime Minister in that Little Britain sketch).

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Anthony Head.

99% of the time, you're better off creating a fictional secretary of state (and a fictional president, vice-president, etc.). Like Neander said, if you use a real name, you're going to date your work really fast - which can have a very bad effect on your sales. Plus you'll get into legal stuff - INAL but if you're using a person who is alive (or very recently deceased) you run the risk of that person (or his estate) suing you for libel.

Even just for writing purposes, I think it's usually better to create a fictional character. Otherwise you'll be limited by the "real" character's behavior. What if your story decides it's better for the Secretary to have been born in Texas (not Colorado like Kerry), or to be an up and coming 30 year old (not 71 like Kerry), or to be a female (unlike Kerry)?

I wanted to drag Avigdor Lieberman, our racist minister, to the ICC in the epilogue of my WIP. Decided to have him replaced in mid-term by a fictional but equally horrible person. Involving real people with real stances and reputations, is a risky thing.

You get real, living, contemporary people involved, you better do lots of research. MUST be accurate...and even then you could be liable.

If it's someone you know, just make sure the description is thinly veiled.

They know what they did!

neandermagnon said:

If you mention a particular secretary of state, your work will date very fast. Just refer to him as "the Secretary of State" and have the character address him as "Sir".

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Everything we write is dated before it leaves our office. Dating does not harm a story in any way, and I have no idea where teh notion came from that it does. Having an unnamed secretary of state, or president, or anything else like this, just reads silly. Either use teh real name, or give him a fake one, but most just use teh real name, if teh work is set in teh present or teh past. Doing so harms nothing.

Worrying about dating your work makes no sense. If dating mattered at all, no one would read the classics, or any one of thousands of novels that do name real politicians and other historical figures.

Do you not even want readers to know what year your story takes place in? If they do know, they also know who was secretary of state, or president, or who teh most popular bands were. Any they will know, unless you make everything generic, including the technology teh characters use, or the buildings that exist, or the kind of cars people drive, etc.

If you think dating is bad, try a generic novel set in a world where where no politicians or historical figure has a name, where common technology doesn't exist, and nothing is named that might let a reader know what year it is. That's truly poor reading.

There is no possible way not to date your work, and readers just don't care. If they did, Shakespeare, Dickens, Hemingway, Asimov, Heinlein, and you name the writer, would be completely unread today.

ErezMA said:

Is this a yay or a nay? In the novel I'm writing, my antagonist speaks with Secretary of State, Jon Kerry. More than that, he plans on doing something legal to him.

(I'd also like to say that I don't condone violence in real life.)

So is this, even if completely legal, is this kosher or no? Should I make up a fake name for the US Secretary of State? Is this not a big deal?

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Creating a fake name for any famous person when your novel is set in the present or the past is just silly. All you're doing is insulting the intelligence of the readers.

Most readers are not stupid, and they know who was secretary of state, or president, during a given year. But I suppose writers would never, ever, ever let readers know what year it is, right? That would, gasp, date the story.

Yes, you can have your character speak to John Kerry, or any other public figure.

Worrying about dating your novel is just silly, and I have no idea where that nonsense got started. Your novel is dated before it reaches an editor's desk.

ErezMA said:

Is this a yay or a nay? In the novel I'm writing, my antagonist speaks with Secretary of State, Jon Kerry. More than that, he plans on doing something legal to him.

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Kerry is a public figure, and it's okay to involve him in your novel in a non-libelous way. But from a technique standpoint, it's generally best to keep famous personages offstage. You can have your characters talk about him, or your narrator refer to things he did and when, etc., and it will probably come across as more realistic that way.

Also, in today's polarized America, there are people whose blood pressure will go up 100 points at the mere mention of Kerry (or Boehner or Obama or any other hot-button figure). You don't need half the copies of your novel thrown into the fireplace, even if they are sold. Not to mention a shitstorm of negative reviews.

Also, publishing is unbelievably slow. Your current public figure will probably be long gone by the time your books comes out.

I've done it once. It was a bear. Not only was it important for me to be faithful to the people and events, of course I had to find a dramatic structure. I won't tell you what to do OP, but I'll never do it again.

ETA: Of course you're talking about inserting a known figure into a fictional story, whereas what I did was try to present a true story in a fictional way while staying pretty true to events as they happened. a roman a' clef, I believe it's called. Dizzier today than usual. Sorry.

neandermagnon said:

If you mention a particular secretary of state, your work will date very fast.

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Many works exist at a particular point of history and need to be "dated".

caw

blacbird said:

Many works exist at a particular point of history and need to be "dated".

caw

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This. I find, also, that it's the assumptions made by the author about the future which date the work more than anything. I believe 2001 had references to the USSR; while that was a fair assumption to make, that they'd still be around then, it does more to signal the author's era than his contemporaries mentioning Nixon as president would.

I went to an author speaking of National Book Award recipient Phil Klay, and someone asked him whether his characters in Redeployment were based on anyone real. I only bring him up because his answer made so much sense. He said he'd written a story before Redeployment and included his friend's street name and favorite bar into the book as a joke, and this character was not very likeable. But his friend's girlfriend's mother (father's, brother's . . . ha ha ha . . .) became concerned if the character was based on that person, to which Phil Klay screamed, NO!

So in short, I wouldn't include real names in the story if there are people who can be hurt from the material.