Inspired By or Based On ?

If you were to write a novel about events that have occurred in the past - fictional story characters, settings, etc, but the actual event(s) did befall people and basically ruined their lives in the past, how would you pitch it?

• Inspired by true events
• Based on true events

 

I'd save myself some possible legal issues in the future and say, "All resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental."

 

Depends on how far in the past the past is. There is a whole genre called historical fiction with fictional characters in past contexts. If it's a recent past, I would adhere to @Catriona Grace advice. You certainly can base your story on true events; I primarily write fantasy and sci-fi but my people groups, towns, their descriptions, and everything are pulled directly from my obsessional love of history. But that's a different ball game than writing recent history as fiction with a few references, names, and such changed. You would almost certainly be sued by the actual people involved.

 

I couldn’t say if there’s a strict definition, but “inspired by” is incredibly loose. Inspiration could be “inspired by something my mum said two years ago”. If you’re writing something “based upon” it’s building upon a pre-existing body of work or historical event.

 

Thanks for your replies. This occurred in the UK beginning around the late 1960's and ran through to around the early 2000's when it all came to light when an investigative journalist exposed it.
It ended up in court and the government passed legislation prohibiting it from ever occurring again. Numerous local and national papers as well as industry magazines ran articles about this.

Basically the event was about a 'blacklist' containing the names of over 3000 people . It involved people working in the construction industry and even environmentalists. It turned out that some of the people didn't even know they were on this list. This blacklist prevented these people from ever working in their industry. Whenever they applied for a position, certain companies secretly consulted the organisation controlling the blacklist to see if the applicant was named on the list.

It was a shocking expose'.

 

The distinction strikes me as being a lot like "Six of one, half a dozen of the other."

 

As a reader I would be more interested in a story “based on true events.” When I see “inspired by true events” I usually think yea okay none of this is based on true events, or if it is it’s to a non-noteworthy degree. I’m sure I’m not alone.

Legal issues could of course be a concern, but since this was a serious and publicized event that started in the 60s, albeit continuing into the 2000s, I think the risk is decreasing, though it’s still there. It also depends on how you tell the story. If you tell it from the perspective on someone blacklisted and paint them in a bad light, some guy shows up and claims you’re talking about him, that wouldn’t be good. Or worse, one of those companies. You can always argue it’s fictional, or your account of their actions are factually accurate, but that doesn’t prevent a corporation with huge pocketbooks from coming after you.

I tend to think notable historical events like the ones you described are fair game to write about, but I could be wrong.

You could come up with your own tag line, a fictional account of real world events. Or that tagline followed by Catriona’s disclaimer.

 

My all time favorite disclaimer was one that read something like, "All resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental, and if you think otherwise, you should be ashamed of yourself."

 

The band Arab Strap released an album called Philophobia that was packaged to look like a paperback. The inside contained a disclaimer along the lines of “all events depicted on this album are factual and and similarity to individuals living or dead is entirely intentional”.

 

I think that a lot depends upon the actual events. Your story is very specific, so the possibility of some form of retribution is a much greater possibility than if your character is a private landing on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.

 

I would go with based on real events, but also include any resemblance between characters and real people is purely coincidental.

 

Thanks all for your feedback.

I think I will need to review my thoughts on this story and the way I approach it.