I have a big ongoing argument with my friend about this so would be interested in hearing what others have to say on the matter. I believe that adding the name of an existing person, historical, literary or otherwise can add weight to a piece of writing even if its fictional. This could be mentioning a band a character enjoys listening to, similarities to another person`s life or even basing the whole tale around them. I believe this is not limiting, because while it does seem to narrow the scope of what you`re doing a whole world can still be explored. My friend doesn`t see this and only notices the limitations. She thinks ficition should be independantly created without the restrictions using real people involves. I`d be really interested in what other people think.
Good morning, I'm new to the forum and new to being on forums in general, this is my first. I'm a writer though for the last twenty odd years I've really only written for myself, a few friends and on occasion strangers who I wanted to impress (it usually worked). Most of my writing was originally done on an old computer where the 'n' key didn't work which made it look like I was writing in Aklo but since I moved on to a laptop things have looked up. The old stuff I wrote wasn't that great anyway. After a drunk rant from a colleauge about 'getting my stuff out there' he told me he'd joined a forum where his music was routinely rated, slated or ignored but being amongst like minded people was a boost to his creativity and let him know what other people felt he was doing wrong or right. I hope that works for me too, and I've been reading a lot of stuff on the site and see I've clearly got my work cut out if I'm to impress anyone. Still, watch this space.