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Can you write stories based on real people?
First, a simple rule. If what you write about a person is positive or even neutral, then you don’t have defamation or privacy issues. For instance, you may thank someone by name in your acknowledgements without their permission. If you are writing a non-fiction book, you may mention real people and real events.
What do you call a character that represents you?
A persona is the way a person presents himself or herself to the world, the character traits others see in this person. You’ll see personas in literature, as well as in life.
Should writers base their characters on real people?
If writers didn’t base their characters on real people, we’d have nothing but cardboard cutouts in novels. Just be sure the characters are based on the real people and you’re not writing a pseudo-biography of them. Oh, I think that’s a GREAT way to write, if you’re stuck for a character. Have fun with it, though.
Do you start off with a real person as your character?
Beside that I have not yet based any character consciously on a real existing person, but if you’re character is human enough, there will be people that recognises things in them from themselves or people they know. So starting off with something real is perfectly fine! I’ve done it alot. One of my characters was based off my own self.
Do characters have foundations in people you have met?
There is a world of difference between compositing characters off of a variety of real life people and basing A character on A real life person. Of COURSE characters will have foundations in people you have met. How could they not?
Can you get in trouble for writing about a fictional character?
There is some legal president for this I believe – depending on your country of course – for writing about real people. If you wrote a factual account about someone real and wrote something that was wrong then you may open yourself up to possible libel charges. In a fictional book though you are generally safer I think.