Is it fiction if you write about yourself?

I’ve had a lot of people ask me if they are allowed to write about themselves when writing fiction.

My answer….. of course you are!

Almost all non-genre authors do it!!

Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises is about a world-weary journalist who travels from Paris to Pamplona with a group of friends, to watch bullfights. Hemingway was a world-weary journalist who travelled from Paris to Pamplona with a group of friends, to watch bullfights.

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is about a young girl doing a summer internship while at college, who gets disillusioned, takes lots of pills and goes into a crawl space to die. Sylvia Plath was a young woman who won an internship with Mademoiselle, then got disillusioned, took lots of pills and went into a crawl space to die.

Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis is about an LA boy, who goes to college on the east coast, then comes back for Christmas to find he had a different view of his friends depravation. Bret Easton Ellis grew up in LA, went to college on the east coast, and came back to LA to find his views of his friends had changed.

Stephanie Danler’s novel Sweet Bitter is about a girl who moves to New York and gets a job in a posh restaurant. Stephanie moved to New York and got a job in a posh restaurant.

In my novel Britpop Summer, a group of twenty something friends muck about in the summer of 1995, when britpop was huge. I spent that summer as a twenty something, mucking about with my friends, listening to britpop.

OF COURSE WE WRITE WHAT WE KNOW!

But it’s still FICTION.

It’s like when something funny happens. A good storyteller will embellish the story – adding some details, changing some things around, making what people said flow better and get a bigger laugh. They make it A GOOD STORY.

In Britpop Summer, none of the characters are my real life friends. Yes some of the details of their lives are similar, but no-one said the things the characters say, and while some of the events are similar, they also didn’t happen like they do in the novel.

All good writers use their life experiences as a base. Because it makes the story more authentic when you have an understanding of the issues, because you’ve lived through something similar.

And even genre fiction like sci-fi, the author might use bits of their life or people they know for bits of characters. And while they come up with a plot of things that have never happened in real life, if a character’s cat dies, it doesn’t matter if it’s set in space, the emotions are the same.

Is there such a thing as truth anyway?

If four friends go out for lunch, that is a fact. But one of the friends might say the food was brilliant, and one says it was horrible. That’s because one likes spicy food, and the other doesn’t. So their experience of the same lunch is different and they remember it differently. One says the service was great, another says it was awful. That’s because one of them was comparing it to US service, and the other to French. (Listen, I love France, I live there, but customer service is not their strong point).

What happens is shaped by how we see the world, and the experiences we are comparing it to. So if you are a writer – use your life experiences. It’s what makes your voice and your stories unique.

Three warnings to consider:

1. Don’t make your characters exactly like friends or family members. Truman Capote and Hemingway both did that, and were then disowned by those friends who recognized themselves. Change names, merge experiences and built a character that might have similarities but is different to anyone you know.
2. Using real events might upset friends and family. Let’s say you write a book about a woman who loses her child, and this happened to your best friend. They may get upset if they read your book and feel you’ve used their experience.
3. Real events don’t make a great story. While you might use life events as a base, you still need to create an interesting plot arc and make sure your story keeps to your theme. I’m currently writing Live Forever, the sequel to Britpop Summer. Live Forever is about Gen X turning 50 and trying to work out what to do next with their lives. I originally set it in France, as that was what I knew, but it made it about expats. So I reset it in the UK. And initially I had a character arc that followed some of the struggles I’ve had. But again, it wasn’t right for the plot arc. Real life isn’t fiction.

So absolutely use your life experiences but focus on making this a great story, with great characters.

Is it ethical to write about real people?

Listen I’ll put it another way. No writer can write a story without using aspects of how they see the world, things that have happened to them and people they know. Because those are the things that have made them who they are – and while there are some writers who can put themselves completely in someone’s else’s world (and shoes), it’s very unusual. We write about life as we know it because it’s the only life we really know.

Also, we’re living in a world at the moment where you are ONLY ALLOWED to write WHO YOU ARE. If you’re writing a gay character and you’re not gay – call Kenny Loggins because you are heading to the Danger Zone (that’s a 90’s cultural reference, also used by Stirling Archer).

If you’re white and writing a character of another ethnicity…. danger zone.

I think it’s gotten a little extreme. You need to be able to write characters who are different from your background, your sexuality, your ethnicity – otherwise there would be no diversity. (That might be another blog in itself).

Anyway this is all my opinion – important to say in a world where you can be cancelled at any moment. I’d be happy to hear from you if you disagree and want to voice your opinion on this, and I’m open to hearing other views!

And last point …. Be careful when you make friends with a writer. They may well use bits of your life, because they can’t not!!

Angela Atkins is a best selling author of non-fiction and fiction, and runs writing groups and training to help others on their writing journey. Click here to find out more. For more about Britpop Summer click here.