Anyone got any strong views on the ethics of writing in a `factional` style about real people, especially those who are still alive? Is it ok to invent conversations, guess at emotions and even (when too lazy to do the research) make up the weather....Does a disclaimer, with maybe a few name changes, make it acceptable to be so presumptuous?

I've always written about real people and haven't always had to change too much- my experience is that generally, people don't recognise themselves, particularly when it's unflattering.... but in reality you have to be careful, people have become far more ready and likely to take litigation out against you if they think they've been slandered/libelled and a good lawyer can easily prove this. I think you can either approach the person direct, if it's not too negative a piece of writing you're intending, and ask them to agree- thus avoiding unpleasant situations when it's too late!- or just be really thorough about changing enough. The best writing should probably be a blend of real and imagination anyway... what do other people think?

I think that if the person is still alive and the writing is so obviously about them (rather than just a character based on their attributes), then it's only polite to ask them first if they mind. If on the other hand the living person is merely at the core of a character on which you've added more flesh so that they only recognise bits of themselves in it, then I think that's perfectly acceptable. We all do that and it would be tedious to ask permission.

As for the question of factionalising. As long as the reader is made clear of this, I think it's a great way of writing. We can't be knowledgable about everything to an expert level. And too much research could end up curbing creative flow.

We all write about real people to some extent, using bits of that person and bits of another to invent our own monsters, that's what creativity is all about, but I think you have to be very very careful if you're concentrating on one live individual. If the person in question doesn't like what they see or if you put words in their mouths that are blatently untrue or uncharacteristic then they could sue you for slander or libel or both, particularly if they are in the public eye. Even if the person you want to write about is dead you might have to look into what the surviving relatives think of your work. Most publishing houses will pass the work over to the lawyers on completion, so by all maens let your creative juices flow, but bear in mind the changes you might have to make further down the line.

Good Luck!

Beverley Hills

Sorry. May be my last paragraph was a little unclear. I was moving away from the question of talking about individual people and really thinking more about historical situations... addressing Richard's comment about making up the weather, etc.

I suppose I was also really half talking to myself as well. I think that sound research is CRUCIAL if your work is to have credibility. But, I also know what I'm like. And I know that I can take research a bit too far. Possibly partly because I enjoy the process, but also partly because I feel a moral responsibility towards the 'truth' ...whatever that is.

If we are basing a story on a person from recent past, then the family's feelings do have to be taken into account. In fact I'm NOT sure I would feel comfortable writing about someone unless loved ones had asked me to do so.

However, I'd be perfectly happy to write something where the central characters are totally fictional but set them within a context where living or historical individual's would have to be introduced. And, in the case of the living or recently living, I would feel the need to be very careful and ask permission. For both moral and legal reasons.

I'm also the first to always pick holes if a book/film/TV program doesn't stand up to scrutiny. I get disillusioned by the foneyness.

I think it's really important that we try to paint as accurate picture of the world that we place our characters in. So, when I talked of us not being able to be knowledgable to an expert level in everything...

...well, I have an idea for an animation (early days, but I think it could work well as a feature?). It's set during the Roman period. But, grew out of a very obscure piece of knowledge that I know about the Roman world. I think there's great comic potential in it.

However, it's not very likely that I'm going to be able to research everything related to background detail. It's so obscure, that I'm not even sure how much work archaeologists have done in this area.

I might be pleasantly surprised. But, I have a strange feeling that there'll be a great deal that I'll have to make up.

Why let absolutism get in the way of a good story?

Have you ever read Phillipa Gregory's 'The Other Boleyn Girl' It's an excellent piece of historical fiction that centers around Ann Boleyns sister who was a mistress of Henry before Ann and a bit of a well kept secret. It's a good read, and manages to mingle factual events with fictional. And of course there is the brilliant Jean Rhys's 'Wide Sargasso Sea,' which explores the fictional character of Mrs Rochester from the fictional book 'Jane Eyre.' both books are well worth a read!

I've heard of both. But, haven't got round to reading either.

They sound interesting.

Thanks for bringing them to my attention again.

Two very different recent novels The Pearl Earring (by ?? sorry) and Michael Frayn's Headlong intrigued me by elaborating on the personal life of a long dead artist. As a reader I was continually asking myself where research ended and fiction began. Once you name a real person I think a new set of antenna are put out by the reader.
In my only published novel I needed to create fictional people for real posts (e.g. the British consul in Arequipa in 1998). I tried to make sure that these were not, by some ghastly coincidence, the same names as the real people, but it was a struggle to get the information and I only found out afterwards that my Mr Phillips had been a Mr Roberts. A bit close really, worth doing this stuff well in advance.

Consider living relatives of the dead as well. Without mentioning the author, I read a crime novel a few years back that had the Moors Murders as a backdrop, possibly for dramatic effect. Naming some of the murdered/missing children in a newspaper article is one thing for they are now - like it or not - in the public domain, but in a here-and-gone story it came across as breathtakingly tactless and heartlessly shallow.