Make sure your character is actually fictional. It’s a fact that many of us novelists draw inspiration for our characters from people we know/knew. The trick is to not lift so many of their traits and experiences that they become recognizable, lest said author and her publisher end up in court.
And lose.
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Off to Alaska today. I’ll report in as to how many bears I see. I’m guaranteed to see at least one shark.
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If you’re going to base a character on someone real, make them more heroic, not less. That’s what I did in my short story ‘Off the Map’. Normally I wouldn’t base a character on a real person (other than me) anyway, but this was for a woman who won a contest.
Marc Vun Kannon
http://authorguy.wordpress.com/
Its impossible not to be inspired by others. You just have to be careful about it.
Oooops, *gulp*. Thanks for the reminder.
Have a great time visiting the bears and swimming with the shark!
Well, there goes my MC’s dog, a lazy tequila drinking rotweiler…
Linkage to your Costco post up at my blawg today. 😉
One of my old teachers persists in asking me to use his real name in my current sub. I told him I couldn’t do it, because the novel is fiction. It’s inspired by actual events, but a lot of it is made up.