Living the Fictional Dream

When you’re a fiction writer, the whole idea of using real life for inspiration is a double-edged sword. While real life is one of the best places to pull inspiration from, you don’t want to make it too obvious or people could get upset. Well, at least if the story could be taken with a negative slant.

One of the characters in a novel I wrote (the first novel I ever thought worth pursuing further… still in the revision stages, of course) was actually based on my sister (just as one was based on me). That one worked out OK, because my sister really identified with that character, and the character was fun and heroic.

But, in that same novel, I was questioned to determine if one of the secondary characters — not the big bad, but a secondary bad — was based on someone from real life. And in that case, the character most definitely was not based on reality. So, I guess that goes to show that even if you aren’t writing about real life, people may assume you are.

I have a story out on submission right now that is actually a fictionalized version of something that happened in real life. Very heavily fictionalized. I must admit, though, to a little nervousness about that story. I really like it, and I think the underlying truth made it a stronger, more poignant story. But there is part of me that wonders if anyone will read it and realize what it was based on. And, if they did, would it bother them? To me, the story is now it’s own entity, full and complete it its own fictional world, separate from the real life inspiration. But would someone else realize that?

I was recently tempted to write a flash piece about something that happened in real life. Someone I know did something, and the whole event reminded me of one of those morality plays that I read in my medieval drama class in college — the “everyman” plays. This play would have illustrated the moral of getting your just desserts or, possibly, pride goes before a fall.

So far, I have not attempted the story. First, it’s NaNo, and I have my novel to worry about. Flash has to wait! Second, I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings if they realized my story was based on them. And, third, I’m not actually sure it would make a good story. It’s funny how real life is like that — sometimes it needs a heavy jolt of fiction to make it a good story. And this particular event, while striking an emotional chord with me, when I look at its component parts, was actually a bit boring and mundane.

Strangely enough, I’ve had more people criticize events in my stories that were pulled from real life as unbelievable, while they find my fiction perfectly believable. Goes to show that the cliche, life is stranger than fiction, is very true. My story, “Glass Angels,” was one such instance. People criticized the zealots in the story as too crazy, when I have walked by those exact people doing that exact thing on many occasions in downtown Fort Worth (even down to the child holding the horrible hell fire sign). But they say that the rest of the story is very believable, even though I have never been a minister and I have never been part of a coming out scenario (that was a challenging story for me to write, actually, and I just hope that I did the emotions of that moment justice — here is my post about writing that story, if you’re interested).

When you write memior or creative nonfiction, you still have to be careful, but then you have liscense to write about reality. People even expect it, and will condemn you if you don’t write true to life (which has it’s own problems, like faulty memories and different interpretations of the same event).

So, what about you guys out there? Do you ever put real life events or real life people (disguised or not) in your stories? If so, have you ever had a reaction to it, good or bad?