Is it wrong for a writer to do this?

[srebak]

Here's the deal, when i first started writing my fantasy novel, i was just trying to come up with a main character, a supporting cast of family and friends, a villain, her henchmen and other random threatening obstacles. Now, i want to have certain characters represent certain aspects of me and my life, mainly because i heard about how other writers do just that. If that wasn't in the original planning stage when i started, should i go with it now? Pretty sure that J.K. Rowling had her ideas mostly thought out before she turned them into a book.

Also, another thing that i'm not sure of is this idea that i've been going with for some time now; taking people i didn't like in real life and putting them in the form of characters in my story just so i could have them be abused, pummeled, tortured and even killed off. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, the words slander and lawsuits come to mind.

Are any of these things stuff i should change in someway?

 

[Devor]

Here's the deal, when i first started writing my fantasy novel, i was just trying to come up with a main character, a supporting cast of family and friends, a villain, her henchmen and other random threatening obstacles. Now, i want to have certain characters represent certain aspects of me and my life, mainly because i heard about how other writers do just that. If that wasn't in the original planning stage when i started, should i go with it now? Pretty sure that J.K. Rowling had her ideas mostly thought out before she turned them into a book.

You can do this if you want to.

Don't worry about whether you have everything all figured out right away or not. You are not J. K. Rowling, and that's okay.

Also, another thing that i'm not sure of is this idea that i've been going with for some time now; taking people i didn't like in real life and putting them in the form of characters in my story just so i could have them be abused, pummeled, tortured and even killed off. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, the words slander and lawsuits come to mind.

Don't do this. Especially don't do it and then talk about it. It depends, of course, on how close the characters are to real people and whether they are recognizable. But still, create your characters in service to your story, and not for vengeance, if you want to build an audience.

 

[MineOwnKing]

There is nothing wrong with creating the types of characters that reflect pieces of yourself.

Also, unless the people you described have kept their real world names in the manuscript, then I wouldn't worry about it, unless both you and them are famous.

I would worry more about revenge becoming the focus of your book. Revenge is not very inspiring.

The type of story you want to start writing is more representative of a literary work versus a genre work.

If you expect to publish genre fantasy then your average reader will be expecting the typical elements of a genre novel.

If you want to publish a literary fantasy, then you can do whatever you want, just don't expect to sell very many copies.

 

[evolution_rex]

Eh, I really don't mind basing characters off of people you don't like. I've met many people in my life who've helped me learn all the annoying characteristics some people can have. So to use little bits of those people in your work isn't wrong at all in my opinion, and allows you to have some tiny quiet revenge. What you don't want to do is use that person's name, make the similarities between person and character extremely obvious, or tell anyone who the character is based on. Those are personal things you should keep to yourself. If done in certain ways, there could even be legal repercussions.

I've made characters based on crushes I had, on my friends, on my famous people, and so people I don't like is much different to me.

 

[srebak]

Near as i can tell, the only people i told about this whole revenge scheme were my high school teachers, since the people in question were bullies that teased me and mocked me. If i remember correctly, they seemed okay with the notion and my English teacher even thought it was a good method of venting. I used the bullies' names at first, but, since then, I've changed them a little bit and to be far, i think their respective characters do serve some purpose in the story when they die (mainly showing the ruthlessnes and viciousness of a much bigger bad)

 

[Russ]

Also, another thing that i'm not sure of is this idea that i've been going with for some time now; taking people i didn't like in real life and putting them in the form of characters in my story just so i could have them be abused, pummeled, tortured and even killed off. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, the words slander and lawsuits come to mind.

If you are writing for therapeutic reasons this might be okay, but I am not even sure about that.

If you are writing for potential publication I would stay away from basing people you abuse on people in the real world both for legal, quality and mental health reasons.

 

[Nimue]

Yeah, that second part could really backfire on you. Therapeutic writing is best when it's kept to yourself, when you're not foisting your issues on other people (not without a lot of thought and examination). Your issues (ie. bullies being awful to a poor, perfect main character, and then getting horrible just desserts) might be too transparent in the writing, and that would reflect badly on you as a writer. You may make people feel sorry for the bullies, inadvertently. Just something I'd stay away from, or tone down. Having a character partially based on a personality flaw from someone real is one thing, but making stand-ins is another.

 

[valiant12]

Also, another thing that i'm not sure of is this idea that i've been going with for some time now; taking people i didn't like in real life and putting them in the form of characters in my story just so i could have them be abused, pummeled, tortured and even killed off. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, the words slander and lawsuits come to mind.

I think that you shouldn't write that. It's morally wrong to share with the world what terrible things will happen with the people you dislike if you are omnipotent.

And if you want the big bad to appear more ruthless, having him torture some bullies is counterproductive. Either the bullies would become more sympathetic to the reader or if they are characters with no redeeming qualities the big bad may become more sympathetic.

 

[skip.knox]

I'm telling you, don't do things just because someone tells you to. If that's what they say, let them write their own novel.

OTOH, if what they suggest sounds interesting to you, and it sparks ideas, then take that baton and run with it. I'm telling you. You've got to think for yourselves! You're all individuals!

<Monty Python references end here>

 

[kennyc]

I just read "Thunderstruck" by Elizabeth McCracken in the Best American Short Stories 2015. Here is her author comments:

ELIZABETH McCRACKEN is the author of five books, the most recent of which, Thunderstruck & Other Stories, won the 2014 Story Prize. She teaches at the University of Texas, Austin.
• Years ago, I was noodling around on a novel about a woman who disappeared from a suburban street, and I wondered where she might have gone to. This was the kind of idle wondering that is really procrastination: maybe I’ll come up with something more interesting than the book I’m working on now. One of the possibilities: a cult in Canada, centered around a girl who’d sustained a traumatic brain injury, whose mother declared her a saint.
That idea stayed in my head, faint but persistent, a song I couldn’t quite remember. More than ten years later, I was on leave from my teaching job, trying to finish a collection of stories. I was writing at a great rate, story after story. Not since I’d been in graduate school had I had the thought Need to work on the next thing, but what, what?Toward the end of the semester, I remembered the brain-injured girl, but now—having become a parent myself in the years that had passed—I was interested in the parents. Generally I know the shape of a story when I begin it, but this one I didn’t, which is possibly why it’s so long. It was the last story I wrote in the collection.
Also, I once had a French personal trainer named Didier who did take an inexplicable dislike to me, and I am delighted to have my revenge in these pages.

 

[Nimue]

Yes, that's terrific for an award-winning short story writer, but I think that a writing beginner who is doubting, themselves, that what they're doing is a good thing is far more likely to be spilling their guts on the page than creating a satisfying, oblique jab at a real-life person.

Also, I might point out the difference in emotional investment on the part of the writer between the passing offense of an unpleasant personal trainer and bullies that caused torment over years of high school.

Again, I'm not saying you can't do this--and indeed, a lot of young adult fiction in particular contains bully characters that for all we know might come from the author's past. I'm saying that it is a very fine line to walk, and that you should try to disconnect your personal feelings from these characters, because the reader doesn't have these feelings--the characterizations, the motivations, and the punishments should be primarily in service to the story. Simply taking their real names away isn't enough, by itself, to turn them from voodoo strawmen to meaningful characters. This may be something that you find much easier after some years and a lot of reflection.

 

[Coldboots]

I agree with all the above advice regarding legal and emotional issues.

As someone with a few hobgoblins in my past, present, and future, I personally wouldn't want to lend them credence by including them in my stories. At least not in a prominent capacity. Use your anger to fuel your writing, sure, allow your experiences to inform your writing, but I personally wouldn't let those hobgoblins play a starring role in anything I make.

If necessary, feel free to keep a journal for your personal thoughts about the real people, but I would advise you keep it to yourself or someone you trust to keep the information confidential. Also, the legal implications of putting real people in your works of fiction that are up for publication have already been covered by others in this thread. I don't have anything to add in that regard.

Good luck.