Family Fiction

I wrote recently discussing hobbies and whether to include them in your novel. What about families? Obviously, most characters have families, and some stories require stronger family types than others. But have you ever written a novel where the characters or character’s families are based on your own? I know this is a dangerous concept, because what if someone from your own family decides to read your novel and recognises where you got that character type from? Will they be flattered that you’ve included them (to a degree) in your work, or would they be insulted that you see them in a way that is unfavourable to them?

E.G. imagine you have a sister who loves a particular movie star, or singer, and it’s all they talk about. And in your novel you talk about a girl who is obsessed with someone in particular, if you’re drawing your inspiration from that sister, isn’t it likewise that you may end basing some of the dialogue on what they say? Isn’t it obvious that they may think you are mocking them? It may upset her, obviously that’s not what you’re trying to do, but it may be the end result.

On the flipside though, what happens when you make up a fictional character, completely made-up, you haven’t based it on anyone because the character in your mind is unique, but someone you know, thinks you are basing it on them. You create a clown type character that is stupid and silly and clumsy and an idiot simply for the point of the story, when a friend of yours who you’ve asked to reads the story for feedback, gets upset because they think you are mocking them. What do you do? Do you rewrite the character because your friend is upset, or do you just keep it the way it is, because you know it isn’t based on anyone and your friend needs to accept that?

Thing is you can never satisfy everyone. Someone somewhere is going to connect with your creations, for good or worse, and if you start changing your novel because of that, then you are never going to be happy with it. Do what’s right for your novel, and if you do base a character on a real person, then good luck, or don’t tell anyone.

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x