Career authors are typically observant. They like to people-watch. Their real-life experiences, including people they know or meet, often inspire new stories and characters for their books. It’s logical to assume that you’ve read fictional stories containing people, places or events based on an author’s reality.
Slander and libel are both forms of defamation. The main difference between the two is that the former is usually a verbal statement, while the latter occurs in writing or images. If you’re planning on incorporating a real person into a fictional story, you’ll want to avoid a lawsuit.
Change a fictional character when based on a real person
Perhaps you’re basing a fictional character off a work colleague, a relative or a neighbor. To avoid a lawsuit, consider making some of the changes shown in the following list:
- Change the character’s name, both first and last.
- Give the character a home state that’s far away from where the real-life person lives.
- Create a physical appearance that is the opposite of the real person’s—if the real person is overweight, make the character thin or change his or her race, ethnicity, hairstyle, etc.
- Change the character’s personality.
The basic idea is to “disguise” the real person by changing various attributes or details in the fictional character. In this way, the character becomes non-recognizable to readers who might know the actual person. If you’re writing about a real person without permission, these recommendations may help you avoid a lawsuit.
Mask a character’s identity to avoid defamation
Making changes to conceal a real person’s identity in a fictional story is especially important if the character winds up in a precarious situation or in trouble with the law. For example, if your character has an extramarital affair, it could cause legal problems (with the real person) if you haven’t masked his or her identity. Whether the real person has had similar experiences in life doesn’t matter. What matters is whether people can identify the real person from your writing, which might paint him or her in a negative light.
In such a case, the real person might consider your writing about him or her without permission an invasion of privacy. He or she might be able to convince a court that your fictional story caused harm to his or her reputation, family or career. This is why it’s always best, if possible, to obtain permission before writing about a real person in a novel. It’s also a good idea to ask an attorney to review your story to check for potential legal problems.
