Gordon Gekko

Hi All,

I have a few questions.

1. I am writing my first novel, well i am trying to. The characters in this novel are loosly based around my friends (i.e. If my friends name is Fred Smith, i will call this character Frank Sargent, just using the same first letters) And also using a few of his mannerisms. Is this wrong? Illegal??

2. Are you a born writer or can we all be as good as the best with "lessons"?

3. I really think i am doing a really bad job of this novel writting thing but i know that i have a great idea. What can i do??

Thank you all in advance,

GG

northerain

hello...welcome to the forums


1)its not illegal, but if any of your friends take offense on the way you portray them, they might sue you.but of course, for this to stand, you have to picture them pretty accurately in your novel

2)Of course, there is something to say about talent, but still, improvement never comes without any work.So yes, i believe lessons and practice are very usefull.

3)You can write, then post a part of it here and ask for criticism.Otherwise you can hire a writer to write it for you, but thats plain dumb.You could also consider writing your idea as a manuscript.

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Pendulum

The meaning of life:

1. That's definately not wrong or illegal. Even if you used the same name then you could just write in the front of the book This character is based on a real person or something like that. Or you could just say it was a coincidence.

2. You can become just as good with lessons.

3. Post it here! Even if it is really as bad as you say, which i doubt because its never as bad as you think, then we can help and tell you where to fix it up.

Hope that helps

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Society Blows

gabriella

Cool! Nope, not illegal, just so long as your friends don't mind. Law suits could arouse if they feel that too much of them was revealed and the characters were too obviously close to them. So if you're writing about an enemy who might get pissed, don't make it so blatantly obvious that you're writing about him. Oh, and just to be on the safe side, give him a teeny weeny penis - he'll never fess up

Good news - there's no such thing as people who are born good writers! We all went to school and wrote chicken scratches and our sentences were no better than anyone else's. Good writers are good writers because they have good use of adjectives, verbs, imagery, metaphors, sentence structure, etc. No baby's born knowing words like "philosophy" and "tantamount" and "frantic." Writing is language, and in order to be a good writer you need to be able to master your language - whether that's Italian, Swedish, Greek, African, English, whatever.

Your best bet is to do the outlines and then work on it, chapter by chapter or scene by scene, whatever works for you. All first drafts suck, but when you have the masterpiece, it's impossible to determine all the red and green marks that are scrawled over your manuscripts.

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You write by sitting down and writing - Bernard Malamud.

speculative

1. Well, I would say that if the character is 100% like the person you know, then you'd better be writing a memoir and not a novel. Can you pick two things about the person that you want to have as characteristics in your character, and go with that? Then, pick a few other strong personality traits and no one will know who you based the character on anyway and it's still an original character that you came up with. Obviously, all our characters are based on who we know to some degree.

2. To me, "writing" is the sum of a lot of talents. A nonfiction writer, for example, doesn't need as much imagination as a fiction writer, but might need better organizational skills, for example. Or, a novel writer might need a lot of persistence whereas a poet might need more inspiration than persistence because of the differences between the two mediums. I think that we are all born with innate talents and skills. Some skills we can improve greatly upon. It's how you apply the skills you have to your writing that will make the difference.

3. If you have a great idea and you are sure of it, the only answer is: work, work, work. When you are done, work some more. And then more work. For a vacation, work on your book. Then, when it is all said and done... Time to edit! (And editing is work.) Many people are afraid of writing for some reason, but 90% of it boils down to work.

-speculative

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"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." -Ray Bradbury
Ellipses are my minions, they... do my bidding, mwahahahha!

Gordon Gekko

Pendulum,

Thanks for youhelp, it is fantastic. A question about what you said above.
If i post part of my work here, might someone get the gist of my book and use the idea themselves??? Not that my idea is that great but it is "mine" How do you stop people from coping??

GG

gabriella

Because we're all just too damn lazy.

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You write by sitting down and writing - Bernard Malamud.

Fantasia

Teehee. Indeed! That's what disclaimers are for!

My answer to your second question is that it isn't so much being born with it as it is having a real desire. So yeah, someone could learn to be really good at it! I've heard a lot of people say "Oh, I've no talent for writing!" Of course, this only means that they just don't like doing it as much as those who actually want to keep improving on it on a proactive level. ^_^

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"God says he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're f%#ked." --Stephen, from "Braveheart"

satisverborum2003

Even though if you used another name and put on a disclaimer you can still be sued for Libel if the person is potrayed in an unpleasant way.

Fantasia

Only if you called it that person's biography, I think.

If it's classified as a work of fiction, I don't see how someone could sue for libel. And look at Joe Klien. Everyone knew who he was talking about, but he said his story wasn't intended to tell a story about *anyone* in the White House. He claimed it was "pure fiction".

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"God says he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're f%#ked." --Stephen, from "Braveheart"

speculative

That is correct. Have a disclaimer won't make it any safer.

-speculative

__________________
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." -Ray Bradbury
Ellipses are my minions, they... do my bidding, mwahahahha!

gabriella

That's why you make it so that nobody will be able to tell it's them!

__________________
You write by sitting down and writing - Bernard Malamud.

speculative

Or, you can always publish under a psuedonym. Of course, if it's someone you're close to like a friend or relative, they'll probably find out anyway...

-speculative

__________________
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." -Ray Bradbury
Ellipses are my minions, they... do my bidding, mwahahahha!

blackswan

I'd have to disagree on that a bit, because I think you actually do need talent for writing. No, you don't have to be born a creative genius with ideas just floating in your mind, screaming to be put on paper in such a wonderful way that your books are just popular instantly, and I doubt that that's even possible, although I wish that this could be true of some people (cough cough), but you do need at least some talent to write. I mean, some people, no matter how hard they write or edit or whatever, they just don't got it, and their writing just doesn't do it. I mean, haven't you had the time where a friend or somebody makes you read an essay and it honestly pains you how bad they write? I know I have felt that way, and those people are honestly just plain bad, they could improve a little, sure, but they'll never be good writers.

But anyway, to answer your first question, it's not illegal, but if you're going to make them really like your friends, it could be an autobiography type thing. But you need those disclaimer thingys if you don't want to get in too much trouble, and yeah.

And your third question, post it here and get feedback so you can improve. And did I mention read a lot?


best,
Laura

Fantasia

Oh yes, I've read those essays/stories, but in my experience, they wrote those essays/stories because they had to. And those who want to write and don't do it well weren't doing it long enough, like they were just starting. Improvement of those same folk's writing actually become evident, in time.

I mean, who knows? Maybe Jim Theis has improved since "The Eye of Argon", ne?

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"God says he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're f%#ked." --Stephen, from "Braveheart"