putting real friends in your fiction

Someone once asked me to include his name into my WIP - so not to write about him, but just include the name. I tried, but because I only ever did this with cameo characters, they inevitably got cut when time came to edit lol.

I think if it's just a name for a cameo, it's ok. I'm not sure about writing a real friend into a key character though - it'd be too restrictive. I guess what you're really saying is that your friend wants a character to be inspired by her, as opposed to write about her. "Inspired by" I can manage, but "write about"? As I said, too restrictive.

I can understand why you wanna please your friend - it seems like such a small thing to ask. Another way of going about it might be simply write a short story, or a little thing that you're not really intending on publishing or making it serious, and design a story around your friend. Just as a fun project, not as a piece of work you hope to publish. Like that, I'd do it because why not? But I wouldn't do it for an entire novel that I hope to publish - too much investment in terms of time, labour, love. A story though doesn't always have to be in book form and can be as short as 1000 words It would be a sweet gift, a little short story, put a nice cover on it and bind it somewhere and give it to your friend for her birthday or something.

I feel all the responses you've got so far on this thread have come from a very personal place, because our art is very personal to us. But I also think sometimes we can take our art a little too seriously. It's ok to do a friend a favour with a gift that we have. If you treat it as something that's really "just for fun" or "something nice for a friend", I see no harm in it at all.

But yes I'd be cautious about an entire novel that's actually based around your friend, and I'd keep in mind what someone else before me said about negative traits - don't base those on your friend or it could get you in trouble.

 

Damn straight I take it seriously. Some of us don't write "just for fun." For some, it's their livelihood, or, they're squeezing writing time in wherever they can between working another full-time gig, family commitments, and life. That person's ask is taking time away from that and is not a small thing to ask.

 

She passed me the delicate tulip.

'That's so pretty, Rats. Your words are so tender.'

'Thank you, Melanie.'

And I took her fat ass in my fist, spun her around and dribbled my spittle across her naked buttocks, "mommy, mommy, mommy," I cried.

'Oh, is that the end of the chapter?'

 

Fair enough. But, you wanna do something nice to make the people you care about happy, after all. It can be a small task - for something like this, I wouldn't edit it endlessly, for a start, and it wouldn't be a novel. It's like when someone takes the time out to make a friend a birthday card or a Christmas present. It's just something nice. Yes, of course it's a sacrifice - but then it's up to each person to weigh up as to whether it's a sacrifice worth making, how much it would cost that person. If something's important, then you make time. The point is, is that friend's happiness important enough for you to take out a couple of hours to write for?

Considering the OP has stated that this friend has always been supportive of her writing, I am assuming a good friend. For a good friend, yes, I'd squeeze time out for her. I wouldn't do it for an acquaintance, mind you. You're right it takes time and time is precious. But for someone who's supported me? Yeah. I just see it as being a good friend. Not to say I'd do it right away. My husband asked me to draw him a tiger and it was two years before I actually got round to drawing it (it took me 20 hours) - but I did do it eventually. Did I wanna draw a tiger? Not particularly. Do I enjoy drawing? Yes, but I enjoy many other things more these days. It's a gift, that's all.

 

Lisa Gardner, an established mystery/thriller writer, has people actually asking her to name characters (including villains) in her novels after them, and she accommodates them. Her readers love it.

 

Dude, I do plenty of nice things for my friends. Important things that give of my time and mean more to them than anything I could ever write for them. Taking their injured cat to the vet when they're out of town and sitting up all night with him, for example, as I wrote about in my Progress Journal. Caring for their children. Those things I do willingly and lovingly. But my friends would never ask to intrude on my writing or other professional endeavors (in fact, they usually come to me with paying gigs because they respect my professionalism), and I wouldn't ask to intrude on theirs. Just...no.

 

I think it is a tribal/political issue, a permanent divide, and never the twain shall meet. For me it recalls memories of arriving at the new friend's house and they say 'and this is my bedroom.'
'Oh great, where can I smoke?'

 

I have never had anybody ask to be written into my story. If they did, I think I would come up with some version of @Laurin Kelly 's "gosh, I have so many things in the pipeline, but I might, someday, if I EVER get clear..."

However, I did actually write friends, acquaintances, people I love, people I like, people I dislike into my story. It's just they'll never recognise themselves, because they are heavily disguised! Even to the extent that I flipped genders a couple of times. I did steal a few names, though, and admitted that to the people whose names I stole. They were very flattered, especially as it was obvious I wasn't writing about THEM, but only using part of their name.

Actually I think most people are more worried about getting written into somebody's story than wanting to be written about. I've had people say, "I'm not in it, am I?" Complete with worried furrow between eyebrows. "No no," she lied, soothingly....

 

I am doing it in my current project and if anything it really helps the writing in my opinion. The fact that you may know these people well means you are able to portray a more realistic character. e.g. if you know your friends' strengths, weaknesses, traits, thought patterns and then project them onto a character they will seem more realistic because their mannerisms will reflect that of a real person. My friends (who help with my work via proofreading etc) love reading it because they enjoy seeing how they are portrayed, it gives them insight into how I see them and they love it. They always tell me how much they enjoy every aspect of the characters, they know their own flaws and thinks it's great to see all parts including flaws portrayed in the project.

 

Yes, I know. I was amplifying that point.

I think most of us do this, consciously or not, at least some of the time. R. F. Delderfield once described his novel, To Serve Them All My Days as "blatantly autobiographical". And in Alistair Cooke's commentary on the Masterpiece Theater series based on the novel, he said, "I don't know what American viewers think of the schoolmaster characters, but I can only say that I knew every one of them."

 

I've never had to worry about it because I didn't use to be around other writers. Now that I am, I start to worry...

*worried furrow between eyebrows deepens*

 

i personally do not like to create characters off of real life friends and family, this would be looking for trouble I was doing a character sheet and I found myself using a friend as a character. I had to change it as I was fearful there may be some misinterpretation of how I feel about the friend.

 

I have actually more than one character in my novel that are based off real people and these people do know I was heavily inspired by them when writing these specific characters. The thing is, they are all minor characters, none of them are in the main group... Actually what happenned is that I decided to draw all of them as characters in my novel's world and some of them came out as characters that would easily fit my story. Ex: Nevena, a illegal wizard in a city where magic is prohibited, is based on one of my best friends, but she only appears once as an informant, with a small comedy scene poking fun at how much of a fangirl this friend of mine is... if someone that knows me and her are friends read this, they would probably recognize that Nevena is based off her...but I wrote that character in a way she doesn't show much, like that I won't run on the risk of putting any traits my friend dislikes about herself in the character.

 

I did this with one of my stories Moonlight My Advantage -- I used me and my best friend age twelve and used a real scenario -- we used to spend two to three weeks at her grandmother's cottage in upper Ontario every summer -- for the setting of the plot. But I also tweaked both characters so that it would be hard to see ourselves in them. You'd have to squint. We'd see ourselves more in the things we did which I included in the story. But I haven't seen this friend in ages so there's no danger in me writing about this.

But I wouldn't necessarily recommend using a friend unless it's for a cameo simply because you can never tell how people are going to react. I've met so many teenage boys over the years that I dread one of them accusing me of putting them in my current WIP which features two oddball boys. Neither character is anyone I know it's just a hodgepodge of ideas and attitudes and familiar rhythms of the way kids acted with their mothers. The character's aren't exactly flattering.

I avoid using my family too even though they are comic gold. I even thought of doing a short story of my father and Not Pink (from my robot story) as a gag.

 

Somebody had to do it!!!!

 

Only you know how your friend would react if the portrait wasn't flattering. And only you can decide if her request is a charming idea or an imposition.

I suppose I would entertain something like this only if my novel already needed someone like the friend in question. It'd be like a director casting an actor who was perfect for the role.

But I wouldn't shoehorn her in. That new character you mentioned has a job to do to forward the plot and you can't be guilty of "deformation of character" (pace @Cave Troll) just to do a friend a favor. If your WIP doesn't have a place for someone like her, you should be honest and say so. "I'm sorry, Stella, but my side characters are all man-eating harridans, and that's not you. Maybe next time."

On the other hand, if you need, say, a feisty redhead who collects Knight Rider memorabilia while moonlighting as a trapeze artist in a Bosnian underground circus, go for it.

As for making her the FMC . . . no, not unless she's under ten years of age and her name is Christopher Robin. And that didn't necessarily work out well in the long run, did it?

 

I don't even know how I'd put a person I know in a story. Even with the people I'm closest to, I don't know their reactions well enough to predict how they'd act in a situation I've never seen them in. I could (and often do) draw upon inspiration, but it won't be them, it'll be a character that reminds me of them.

 

If we're talking a Hitchockesque 'walk on', that could be fun, but anything bigger I'd be leery of... and even then, how do you plan to describe her? In my experience, seeing oneself through someone else's eyes can be, and invariably is... err, less than flattering. (I have used people I know yes, but I sincerely hope NOT in any way that they might recognise, like the relative who really, honestly does too look like a good-natured fruit bat). The bigger the role you give her avatar, though, the thinner the tightrope.

You could, very sincerely and straightfacedly, ask if she would like to be the surprisingly good-looking corpse in Chapter 4....

 

This scenario just makes me want to ask about the relationship between the two of you and if its as close as the friend would like?

 

Yep, can see that going over well.

Jen: So I am in your book?
Steph: You have a small cameo.
Jen: Really?
Steph: Yep.
Jen: So what role do I have in my short appearance?
Steph: Um...well...a really pretty dead hooker in chapter 4...?
Jen: Gee...thanks....