Fashion Girls

Playing Not-Favorites

On another board I frequent, writers are chatting about creating characters based on hated or despised real-life people, then doing nasty, terrible, vindictive things to them.  Ah, writers' therapy...

Many of my characters - especially in the Jane Madison books - are composites of people that I know.  I take one insecurity from here, add a dose of humor from there, create a specific tic out of whole cloth and - voila!  A "real" character.

Only once have I based a character directly on one specific person - a former roommate who (with twenty years of hindsight) gave me great stories to tell about the perils of dorm rooms.  I turned her into an evil, conniving princess, a bride in an arranged marriage with my dashing, oh-so-perfect hero.  I thought that I'd disguised the roommate well, subtly incorporating her quirks while bringing out her essential evilness.  That was, until my best friend read through the chapter and said, "I really like the scene between Hero and [Roommate]."

It's probably best that that novel will never see the publishing light of day...

Mindy, musing on the volumes in her trunk
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Posted on Jan. 3rd, 2008 at 08:19 am | | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Comments


[info]mizkit

Now, see, I've always taken the view that I would as soon not immortalize my enemies in prose, even if they're well-disguised. *I* would know I'd put all that effort into them, and I'd just as soon let 'em hang.

*giggles a lot about the Hero And Roommate scene, though* :)
Posted on Jan. 3rd, 2008 01:39 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]karen_w_newton

In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott recommends that if you base a character on an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband, you mention that he has a very small male organ and then the ex will never think that it's him.

Posted on Jan. 3rd, 2008 01:53 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]jhetley

I guess I've never had any truly great enemies. They've all been too petty and mean (in the small-minded, cheap sense) to translate into worthwhile villains. I've _despised_ plenty of them, and found their continued existence a blight on the world, but none of them would make good stories.

Which also denigrates, in its own way...
Posted on Jan. 3rd, 2008 02:22 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]delkytlar

I've never done anything horrible to a character specifically based on a real-life person. However, in one short story, though the victim in the story was not based on a real-life person, the things that were done to them were coming directly from my then-immediate raging anger at a couple of someones in real-life. Apparently, some of that came through the page because two readers of the first draft reported that the story was the darkest and most difficult-to-read story I'd ever given them. They both reported nightmares about the murder scene in the story. Had the story even been published, the real-life inspirations for the scene would have had no indication in the story that it involved them.
Posted on Jan. 3rd, 2008 02:52 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]karenthology

Haha, you're not alone. I once wrote a story starring the people that persecuted me during sophomore year of college. It will never be published.

But it was fun to write.
Posted on Jan. 3rd, 2008 08:48 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

[info]isabelswift

Warmly recommend not using recognizable people or real names--even people you LIKE, without a signed disclaimer in hand. It is so easy to sue in the US that I have seen examples of authors putting their neighbors in their book as a surprise treat and getting sued and having to pay $5-10,000 to get it settled out of court. Even if you win, the court fees are about $35,000, so many will advise settling--easy money for the "aggrieved." Retain that last laugh.
Posted on Jan. 3rd, 2008 10:34 pm (UTC) | | Thread | Reply