For the past few days it had hit me that I should be writing a story or a novel about my life and the things that are going on in life. I feel that the story I have is one that is worth writing. There are some issues that I have come to realize before I start doing this or even planning on doing this. 1. When writers write about their own life experiences with family, friends etc. What are the restrictions to releasing information that may or may not hurt the reputation of others? 2. Are there restrictions to what I can write about from what I have experienced? What happens if I go overboard or write too much information? 3. Is it possible to keep my identity and other identities sealed? 4. How do I approach this? I prefer to leave out the details of my story. But in general with personal experiences good or bad how would one solve these issues? Thank you
Much of this, you will have to discuss with an attorney. Liability can be complicated, and if reputations are on the line, it's like clog dancing in a minefield.
definitely! see above... there are no legal restrictions other than those that would keep you from being sued... if you go overboard and include 'too much' info, it will simply not be a good read... you need to do your homework and study how the most successful memoirs are written... don't know what you mean by 'sealed' but you can use a pen name to keep your real name off the cover of the book, but that doesn't mean your identity won't 'get found out' one way or another, as that's what usually happens... as for those you write about, you can change names and places, but then it wouldn't be a memoir or autobiography, would be crossing over into fiction... and people you write about and those who know them could probably guess who you and the others in the book are, from the situations you describe, so you could still be in legal hot water if someone didn't like being written about, or felt you didn't portray them fairly... 1. by first consulting an attorney who specializes in literary law and libel... 2. by studying how similar books are written...
One other question to this, If I write a fiction book, is it possible that I can use real life experiences as inspiration to creating conflict and situations?
I don't see why not, but you'd have to disguise characters taken from real life so that they aren't recognizable. Mix situations, exaggerate, change things up, but there's little worse than someone realizing that you just wrote about them, and they probably won't like all that you say, because you aren't them; you will never portray them as they'd like you to.
^ This. That's pretty much it -- even if you write a piece of fiction, you can still talk about your personal experiences. Especially if you don't want to say names and point out people.
