I'm sure the answer is yes, but I have to find out for sure.
If I read about an event in someone's life, can I take that event, warp all the details et cetra, but use the basic core, and make a story out of it?
Thanks!
Posted by rickfisher (Member # 1214) on :
Absolutely NOT!
In other words, of course you can, but don't tell anyone that's what you did, and make sure that the original participants in the event(s) can't identify it and/or themselves.
Posted by Phanto (Member # 1619) on :
More specifically, I want to base a story around a cruel action that I read about. This cruel action is something quite bizzare and unique.
Could I still write about it?
Posted by rickfisher (Member # 1214) on :
Are you afraid that no matter how you disguise it, the connection will still be so obvious that you'll get sued, or something? It's hard to believe that anything could be quite that unique.
Posted by teddyrux (Member # 1595) on :
Yes you can. I'm sure you've seen the commercials for tv crime dramas where they say "Ripped from the headlines". If that's what you want to do, go for it. Just try to put your own unique touch to it so that it's different.
If you want to use an event that happened to you or someone you know, try to sanitize it so that the parties involved don't see themselves when they read it. That can become sticky.
So, yes you can do it. What you're asking is how good stories are developed. You take an idea and run with it. If the idea is something you read about in the news, or something somone said. I wrote a short story, not published, whose idea was sparked by seeing an RV. It was a sci-fi story.
Go for it and have fun.
Rux
Posted by Gwalchmai (Member # 1807) on :
And then you put that disclaimer in:
All persons and events in this book are purely fictional and any similarities between them and persons in real life are purely accidental.
Or whatever it really says.
Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :
This book is fiction. Any persons resembling the characters of this book should be ashamed of themselves.
Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :
I recently read a short story called The Whimper of Whipped Dogs by Harlan Ellison. (In the compilation The American Fantasy Tradition, edited by Brian M. Thomsen). You probably remember some years ago the story of the brutal murder of a woman that was witnessed by dozens of residents who watched, listened, and did nothing. Ellison took this incident and wrote an amazing tale that makes these "unmakers" into worshipers of an ancient dark power. Read it, think about what these people might think of Ellison's portrayal of them, then I think you might have your answer. Just be sure, as rickfisher said, that your character inspirations can't identify themselves.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I one time chased my younger brother into the laundry room, where he attempted to hide inside the dryer.
So I held the door shut with my knee and slapped the on button...while the rest of my family was right there in the room, sorting out clothes.
That was pretty unique and cruel. And you are hereby allowed to write a story based on that event.