Inspiration, or Why Peter Benchley Was Probably Full of It
Read this.
Heck, he even LOOKS like Quint.
I know we often make people a composite, but 'fess up. Have you ever included a real-life person--thinly disguised--in your books?
I have. And they know who they are.
14 comments:
Absolutely, some famous, some not. Shame on me. :)
Hi Mark:
My dad's in a few of mine--bits and pieces. Some family members. Some expressions people in my life use. ONE famous person I can think of off the bat (in Double Down, the inspiration for the fixer was Joe Pesci).
E
I've done this, no doubt about it - as my novel is a fictionalized rendition of my own life.
It confuses some people. One person kept asking me about events in one of the character's lives, and because he was patterned after a real person, she kept saying "I didn't know he did that or that or that."
He didn't -- I MADE IT UP!
I have new beta readers. LOL.
Ranger. And he's real, no discussion. The love of my life.
With just a few tweaks, that is. ;-)
All my real people are based on fictional characters.
Amy:
LOL! I get that a LOT.
I have had people offer sympathy for events that never happened. LOL!
E
spy:
:-)
E
Jude:
LOL! That's a good way to answer the question.
E
I have, several times. It's always been fun to do it. The last one I did, my friend loved it. She's a bigger than life kind of person, and so is my character. :)
Hi Edie:
Always nice when they LIKE what you wrote. :-)
E
I have tried basing characters on real people who I find fascinating but they come out strangely wooden - perhaps too much like a documentary, so I have given up that idea. But certainly I use parts of real people and things they have done.
I like Jude's answer. Every character I've invented has either been based on one or more real people or has been exasperatingly low dimensional.
Suzanne:
That's closest to my way of writing too. No one's an exact replica . . . that would be boring to write.
E
Stephen:
I always think writing is like real life only funnier, with better dialogue, etc.
E
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