In a post on Writer Unboxed, Jim Dempsey writes about giving a colleague feedback on stories that fictionalize real people and events. The colleague lives in a refugee camp, where she has heard and written down many stories from other refugees. “Some elements of these stories enter into her own writing,” Dempsey says. “She takes little bits from this one and details from that and combines them to make another story. Fiction, right?”
Maybe?
The writer’s current work is a fictionalized version of her own life. Dempsey is editing her novel, but does not know how much of her writing is factual and what has been invented. This can cause editorial headaches when Dempsey wants to provide feedback about a particular character or situation, because he doesn’t know how close the writer is to the element.
“We all know that writers use real life experiences—of their own and others—for their stories,” Dempsey says. “But when does inspiration become a complication?”
Of course you must not plagiarize, but the line between mere inspiration and theft without copying can be blurry. You might not break a law, but you could be ethically suspect. “I’m sure many of you have had that niggling concern that a friend or family member might recognize themselves in a character in your novel,” Dempsey writes. “The question of how close to reality you should go is a question almost all authors ask themselves at some point.”
No one can answer that question for you.
