Crossing the line

kelliewallace said:

I recently came across a woman's account of being one of Hitler's food tasters during WW2. Her past would make an amazing book, and Im dying to write it, (as a fiction, not affiliated with her) but I worry about crossing the line between fiction and 'copying' her life.
Of course there are aspects of her story, such as character names, events, that I will change, but how much can I use before it crosses the line?

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I don't know there's a specific rule.

If you ask me, the line is somewhere around - if you thought, 'ooh, a story about being Hitler's food taster, huh, I wonder what I could come up with...' That's ok.

If you're even considering changing character names as a means of doctoring the events of her life, and she's not a historical character (well and truly dead, generations have gone by), and/or so (in)famous her story is just out there (Hitler himself), stop now and forever hold your peace.

Well, if you're going to take parts of her life and put them on paper (slightly changing names, dates and other details), then you cross the line. If you use her story as a source of inspiration and write your own, then it's fine.

Of course, if her story is that interesting, then perhaps non-fiction is a good way to go with it. If you blur the lines, historical fiction may be what you're writing, but it depends on how much is history and how much is fiction. You could also be writing alternate history. It's all in what you do with it.

There is no line. If you want to write a story about Hitler's food taster, then write it.

What line? The line between fiction and non-fiction, or some kind of ethical line?

I see everything as being ripe for fictionalisation. I agree with JAR, I don't think there's a line. Even if your fiction story does end up being factually close to this woman's actual life (I find her story fascinating too - she's the only one of all of his food tasters who lived beyond WWII, right?), so be it. That's the interesting part. Don't take out the story for the sake of distancing it from history.

Alternatively, write it as creative non-fiction.

+1 with JAR and Anna.
There is no line.

I agree that you're not even close to the line.

I had a tongue-in-cheek example of what WOULD be considered crossing the line, but it was so far over the line that I couldn't bring myself to post it and wrote this paragraph instead.

So if you find yourself doing what I did, you'll know for sure.