Comments on: Short Story Writing Project: Writing about real life events

By: karen lakey

karen lakey — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:24:26 +0000

can I write a story with my deaseasd dad in it to script form and write about a wealthy family changing thier names and names of locations witout being sued

By: Hally vPBrandle

Hally vPBrandle — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:39:01 +0000

Someone once said to me “Write what you feel” and it is this that I use every time. Because writing, like many other arts, is open to interpretation it really doesn’t matter how much is true (in fiction writing) because the reader will take what they need from it. I find when I write from the heart and base this on things I feel most about the message is conveyed more effectively and tends to be more powerful.

I think there is always some part of us in anything we create and what that is and how much that is, really is up to the writer.

If writing about specific events I would suggest changing names, some bits of scenery or items that would hold it too close to the event. Not everyone appreciates the creative word.

By: sally forsythe

sally forsythe — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:33:43 +0000

I am wanting to write about an incident in my life that involved another person. I am willing to change the name and certain points but the age, gender, ethnicity, some personality traits and the basic conflict are the same or similar to real life. How much would I be exposing myself to a lawsuit?

By: J.C. Hewitt

J.C. Hewitt — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:39:53 +0000

Nita,

I think that, as much as the character’s name would be great, you need to fictionalize this.

By: Nita

Nita — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:34:46 +0000

Hello everyone,
I was also attempting to figure out if a story idea that I want to write might be liable for lawsuit. I want to write story based on a teenagers murder that happened to a real child that I knew. I didn’t know the child well enough to write a non fiction account. Anyway as it happens the childs real name is also the most perfect title and main char name possible. What would I need to do? Could I get permission from the parents, would I have to pay for this permission? I would be able to get this permission I am sure. Then say when I write my story, if they didn’t like it, what could happen? Thanks in Advance.

By: Jess Hageman

Jess Hageman — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:59:04 +0000

While I agree with the idea that writing ‘what you know’ produces a plethera of ideas, skimming from personal experiences can be a tight walk, especially if the goal of publication is on that far off horizon. I believe each of us have inspirational stories from our lives that could, in some way, help others. But one must not lose sight of those learned teachings through translation into a ficton story. For example, my mother passed from suicide when I was four years old, and there were serious lessons learned. And what it has meant to me will be significantly different from what it means to the others who read the fictionalized account.
Although not all personal stories are about learning a moral lesson, I truely believe that it’s more important to find that lesson, preserve it and then write the fictionalized account with enough change to protect the real people involved. When the story is about simply relating an interesting experience, or time during childhood, or environment, then changing basic principles of the characters is also appropriate; otherwise, as John said, it will cloud the mind of all who experienced the same thing or something similiar.

By: John Hewitt

John Hewitt — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:02:17 +0000

If you fear having the people around you know that you wrote about them, then it sounds like you are going to have trouble writing about this topic. My advice is to write about whatever you want to write about. When you are done, you can decide whether or not to publish it.

By: Laurel

Laurel — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:18:15 +0000

I have a story I’d like to write, but the idea for it is based in real life, and it is well known within a certain community (mine, but not only mine) How much resemblance to a certain real life person or incident am I allowed before I could bring legal trouble on myself? I’ve thought about approaching this as a non fiction piece, but that just wouldn’t work for me at this time. I’m not worried about libel, but simply that a certain group of people could say “I know the person and incident that story is based on!” Am I on treacherous ground?

Thanks!

By: marrion

marrion — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:32:05 +0000

Once upon a time there was a young boy named marrion . marrion
was 10 years old and he lived in new york, at america. While walking
home from school one day, a
red dragon shark jumped down from the house and tackled marrion to
the ground. But just when he was about to let out a scream for help,marrion realized that
the red dragon shark was only licking his face, not trying to bite it off. At that moment, marrion
decided to keep the red dragon shark as a pet. And on the way home
he decided to name his pet ”Samuel.” When marrion
and his new pet finally got home, guess who was standing on the front porch?
That’s right, it
was marrion ’s mother, mum. And boy was she surprised to see a red dragon
shark following marrion into the yard gate! ”What in world is that?” shouted mum.
”It’s a red dragon shark,” answered marrion . ”Dah, I can see that, marrion , but what
on earth is it doing here?” said mum. ”It’s my new pet!” answered marrion .
”Oh you think so do you?” remarked mum. ”I wouldn’t get your hopes up. You know
how your father hates red dragon sharks. But, well, I suppose you can keep him
until your father comes home.” And with that marrion grabbed sam by the scruff of the
neck and led his new pet into the house–even though he knew his father
was probably going to disapprove. Once in the house, marrion and sam played and played,
that is until marrion ’s favorite television show, ”American dragon,” started.

At that point marrion forgot all about sam having an unsupervised run
of the house. That is until half way through ” American dragon,” when
marrion was brought
back to reality when he heard his father shouted, ”loud!! marrion !
Get your rib in the my room…NOW!!” With that marrion rushed into
his room to see what all the
fuss was about. When he entered the room,
there stood his father, pointing towards the leather bed. ‘
‘Will someone please explain that?” asked his father.
Then, as marrion followed his father’s finger to where it was pointing,
he instantly knew what his father was so upset about. There, smack dab in the middle of the
leather sofa, was the biggest pile of dragon shark poo he had ever seen!

”I don’t EVEN want to know how that got there,” said dad.
”But you
had better get it
cleaned up now! And you had better get rid of whatever it is that could
have done such a thing!” Well, knowing his father as well as he did, marrion knew there was
no sense even asking his father if he could keep sam for a pet.

So without hesitation, marrion set out to find where sam was hiding.
After a few minutes of looking,
marrion discovered sam crouched beneath the table that marrion
did his sports on. ”Come on, sam, it’s time to find you a new home.
And hey, don’t look at me
that way, I’m not the one who did the dirty deed on the leather sofa!” scolded marrion .
”Thanks to you I’ll never get to have my own pet dragon shark!! And with
that marrion led sam out of the house and down to the local, bad dreams.
They had a pet section and marrion knew the owner would find sam a good home. So
after saying good-bye to sam, and thanking the owner of bad dreams, marrion
walked backed home and attempted to drown his sorrows by slamming down a half
dozen yous. But marrion ’s pity party came to an abrupt end when his father
reminded him about the mess he had neglected to clean up. And low and behold,
midway through the clean-up, marrion suddenly became thankful that someone else
was going to have to do it from now on.The dragon shark made eggs.The eggs
grown and hachte in pees.The dragon shark took Marrion’s family to cartoon
world and they loved the place The End.(by marrion smythe

By: denise

denise — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:56:10 +0000

Iam so excited about real life stories and its like therapy for me i am 30 years old and i can write a book on every chapter of my life in 30 years i want to get started this was placed on my heart to do so and its so genuine and unique. please help