Putting reality into their texts, all authors do it. But how to go about it, in what form, what are the limits – particularly legal – we’re talking about it!
Hello !
As an author, reality is our business. It’s what we actually experience and feel that generates great stories! However, it is not always easy to dare to write about the truth. For a long time, for example, I avoided writing contemporary literature to limit similarities and get away from it all!
In today’s article, I wanted to talk about taking inspiration from reality and offering you a complete memoir writers on this subject. What does that mean, what are the different alternatives, what are the risks too: in short, I wanted to tell you everything!
Great discovery!
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DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM REALITY IN WRITING: A BASIS
All authors draw inspiration from reality and their lives to write.
It’s a prerequisite, an obvious one.
This is what allows you to have story ideas, character ideas, anecdote ideas, first name ideas and so on. If not all authors write auto fiction or autobiographies, they all draw inspiration from reality, in an obvious or fragmentary way. It is reality that allows us to invent emotions and it is reality that allows our readership to feel these emotions and to identify.
In other words, drawing inspiration from reality in writing (and more broadly in art) is a basis.
However, there are several ways to do this and this can lead to different problems and limitations.
We talk about it in this article.
TAKE INSPIRATION FROM REALITY: 6 WAYS
There are several ways to draw inspiration from reality when writing. Here they are. What are your own inspirations?
Write a biography/autobiography
The first way to draw inspiration from reality is to draw inspiration from it directly, through a biography or an autobiography. If biography consists of taking inspiration from the life of a person or a moment in a person’s life to tell it, autobiography consists of doing it for oneself.
The particularity of the biographical and autobiographical genres is that the truth is sought as much as possible: the goal is to romanticize as little as possible and to touch reality. The difficulty with this genre is to make it a text worth reading, interesting. This objective can lead to cuts, shortcuts, reality adjustments.
Find my article on biography.
Write an auto fiction
The second way to draw inspiration from reality to write is to draw inspiration from it while modifying it more or less. This is a new genre called auto fiction. This genre was particularly highlighted by the Belgian writer Amelie Northam who made auto fiction her reference genre. A majority of her novels are auto fiction – she starts from true facts and elements and puts them into fiction. Reality becomes the canvas from which the story is constructed and is therefore not an objective to be achieved: the readership knows that it is not completely real but does not necessarily know the boundaries.
The particularity of the genre of auto fiction is that you have to manage to build a story around yourself while avoiding being too dytirambic about yourself (this is also one of the limits that I find in the novels that I read Amelie Northam).
Find my article on auto fiction to better understand this genre.
Draw inspiration from situations and anecdotes
The third way of drawing inspiration from reality in one’s texts is a way that I use regularly for my part: it involves slipping real-life situations, real anecdotes or even parts of dialogues or disputes into the text. his texts. The characters are different, the places are different, the context may be different but the anecdotes are real. As an author you certainly know: nothing is crazier than reality! This is why injecting moments of reality is a real pleasure and a good way to make your text true!
Take inspiration from characters
The fourth way to put a little reality into your texts is to reuse real people in your novels. Of course, this is not a question of repeating people you know exactly as they are in real life… that could turn out to be strange and perhaps problematic (see the following parts of this article on limits and your rights). However, because reality goes beyond fiction, taking the qualities, faults and little particularities of a real person to slip them into a character is not only interesting but sometimes enjoyable! And I promise, it will be a positive experience for you but also for your readership who will undoubtedly become attached to this larger-than-life character… and for good reason!
Draw inspiration from real emotions
The fifth way to draw inspiration from reality for your texts is to draw emotions from reality in order to slip them into your novel. This way is certainly more difficult and less obvious than the previous ones, but it is this which will allow you to convey emotions in your texts and allow identification even if your character’s experience things that your readership will never experience.
Imagine that you are writing a medieval fight between two knights. It’s a safe bet that your readership has never experienced such an adventure and will not be able to easily identify with it (unlike a romantic breakup or a family argument!). So, to make this battle real, you will have to tap into the emotions you feel – fear, fatigue, the desire for justice, the fear of dying… – and put them into your text. Emotions from reality will be used to make your text more real and identification will become possible.
Take inspiration from themes
The sixth and final way to bring reality into your texts is to use real themes. COVID, the presidential elections, global warming, violence against women, love… All the novels that appear today, whatever they are, have themes and carry messages that take shape in reality. It’s up to you to see the place that the theme will take in your novel and the message that you wish to convey, but reality will inevitably enter your text, even if you do everything to distance yourself from it and opt for a genre of literary literature. imagination!
DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM REALITY TO WRITE: THE LIMITS
Drawing inspiration from reality to write has several limits. Of course, this will depend on the degree of reality that you are going to put in your text: it’s up to you to see to what extent the following limits are crossed in the context of your own projects currently being written!
Legal risks
The first risk to be inspired by reality is legal. In France, there are laws that govern the way in which you talk about people and legal entities (places, brands, etc.). Taking inspiration from reality means taking the risk of exposing yourself to legal action, particularly for defamation.
Defamation is a legal concept designating the fact of making comments that harm the honor of a natural or legal person (personality, brand, company, establishment, etc.).
To note:
- just because you don’t quote doesn’t mean there can’t be defamation. If a person is recognizable and/or considers themselves recognizable, you can be prosecuted. This being said, you can defend yourself by explaining how this person was not recognizable and how you are not damaging their honor.
- If in certain countries, telling the truth protects you from a defamation suit, this is not the case in France. You can be attacked even if you tell the truth: the truth can however be an axis of defense; we will then speak of an exception of truth.
That being said, the risks are limited:
- On the one hand, the defamed person must read your book;
- On the other hand, the defamed person must recognize himself;
- Finally, she must initiate legal proceedings for there to be a conviction and you will then have the opportunity to defend yourself.
In reality, the biggest risk in this scenario is your image and reputation: do you want to be associated with this person and do you want them to have the power to attack you? Do you resent her enough to directly conflict with her through a Book Marketing Agency rather than, say, through a lawsuit? Up to you!
Emotional risks
Writing on subjects that particularly touch us – through an autobiography or auto fiction, but also through emotions and characters – stirs our emotions. As an author, there is therefore an emotional risk in tackling these subjects.
Personally, I have difficulty with this influx of emotions and prefer to separate fiction projects and emotional projects. I master the first – I slip in the emotions I want and I open the floodgates of emotions according to the needs of the story – while the second serves as a release and cathartic tool. I have two defined spaces and I juggle between the two according to my needs. Discover my article on automatic writing if you feel the need to let off steam.
If a work of fiction hurts you too much, my advice would be to walk away from it or risk becoming disgusted with it and stop writing it – but I also know that this pain is necessary for some authors. So do the best you can and just remember that it is not necessarily necessary to suffer to write…
Fictional risks
I talked about it when I mentioned the limits of auto fiction and autobiography at the start of this article: these two genres are particularly complicated to master. Many authors start with autobiography and auto fiction because they think it will be easier for them to write on a subject they know. This is false and there are many risks of getting lost in the text.
The rule is simple: even in the context of auto fiction or an autobiography, your readership wants you to talk to them about themselves, not that you talk to them about yourself. The themes addressed, the angle of attack of the story or even the issues raised must echo what your readership feels – you yourself are only the support, the vector of the story but in no case the center.
The frictional risk is great of losing yourself in justification and in a story that is poorly understood and not very concise. This is a recurring fault among young authors. To limit this risk, my advice would be not to start writing with autobiography or auto fiction; in my opinion, the risk is too great to let oneself get locked into one’s personal reflections and end up with a diary rather than a novel. If you want to write about yourself, first discover the workings of writing and the mechanisms for creating a good story and then write about yourself.
TAKE INSPIRATION FROM REALITY TO WRITE: YOUR RIGHTS
To conclude this article, I wanted to answer several questions that I came across on the subject during my wanderings in the blog comments and on social networks.
- Can I name a brand? YES, provided that you do not harm his honor. In this case, you could be sued for defamation. That being said, the risks are lower in the context of a simple quote: there is little chance that Coke will sue you because one of your character’s hates diet coke and spits it out every time he comes across it.!
- Can I name a place? YES, provided that you do not harm his honor, again you risk being sued for defamation. Once again the risk is lower: The French State will not file a complaint against you if you complain about the organization at the Eiffel Tower cash register… An entire novel on the functioning of a company like Renault, on the other hand, could be harmful to you.
- Can I speak ill of an existing place? YES, provided it is not recognizable. To return to the previous example of Renault, you could totally write about a French company that develops cars. However, avoid naming it, naming its brands or even using real details that would identify it: address, names of managers, and so on!
- If I don’t name a place or a brand, is there defamation? YES. The mere fact that a person or legal entity is recognizable can give rise to a defamation attack.
