Based on real people ethics

[RonJaxon]

I hope it's okay to ask about this in this section of the forum. Wasn't quite sure where it would fit.

This is basically a question of ethics. Some of the caricatures in my writing are based on people I either know, have meet or sometimes just someone I've seen. For example one guy I know is named Terry (Nick name is TAP) and he has parkinsons. This causes him to move and talk very slowly and every once in a while his body would get stuck and he'd need someone to give him a little shove to get moving again. What's interesting about him is, for one thing he's a good guy with a great personality. It's also amazing how much he can do dispite his condition. He's one of the best pool players in my area. A game takes a while because of how slow he moves but even with his shaking hands it's amazing that he still makes the shots.


Another example is a guy I know named Tony. He's a huge guy. Bald with a goatee. He looks like the kind of guy that would easily win tough man contests. But he's actually one of the nicest and least violent person I've ever meet. This of course makes him perfect for his job as a bouncer.

Anyway, getting back to my questions. What would be considered proper ethics for this kind of thing? Should I tell the people I based a caricature on them? I know it's not always possible because sometimes we don't really know the person. But I'm wondering how you all think it should be handled when yo do know them. I know I'm probably looking to deep into this for I haven't published any of my stories yet. But it's just something I got to thinking about.

Any thoughts?

Ron Jaxon

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I don't really see where ethics come into it. There is certainly nothing unethical about basing your characters on real people so long as they aren't too obviously recognizable and you don't do it with malicious intent.

But it is a matter of good writing. While some writers have done well basing their characters on themselves or the people on their lives, the great writers are wise enough not to make the correspondence too close. A good example is Charles Dickens and David Copperfield. There are bits and pieces of Dickens and his life in David and his story, but David is his own person, not a stand-in or alter-ego for the young Charles Dickens. If you identify too closely with a character, it's very easy to fall into the trap of using that character to justify your life rather than to examine it, and that agenda takes over at the expense of plot and character.

As for basing your characters too closely on people you know very well, again there are pitfalls. You can take aspects of people you know and use them as inspiration for creating your own original characters, and that's a very good way to write, but if you try to duplicate them exactly it is very difficult, if not impossible, to bring them to life. Why? With real people, no matter how well you think you understand them, you can only know them from the outside in, whereas even with the most minor character in your story you should know them from the inside out.

(By the way, I think the word you mean to use is characters, not caricatures, unless you are writing satire or low comedy. Caricatures are cartoonish versions of people. They have exaggerated personalities and no depth of character. It doesn't sound like the people you are describing are persons you wish to make fun of or hold up to ridicule.)

 

[BookStop]

You can tell them if you want, but i don't think it's necessary. I would bet all authorsbase thier characters, at least loosely, on people they know. It's just natural when you write how a person would react to something, or how a conversation will go, ou have to have some sort of realistic example set aside in your head to make it believable.

As far as the ethics of it goes, I think it's perfectly acceptable to tell or not. I wouldn't go so far in my own writing as to specifically point out character flaws in my friends and family or anything though.

 

[RonJaxon]

(By the way, I think the word you mean to use is characters, not caricatures, unless you are writing satire or low comedy. Caricatures are cartoonish versions of people. They have exaggerated personalities and no depth of character. It doesn't sound like the people you are describing are persons you wish to make fun of or hold up to ridicule.)

Thank you. Yet another example of how my deafness effects my grammar.

And thank you for your replies. I agree with your points. I only use a few aspects of the real person to inspire the characture. Such as PETE who has parkinsons. He moves slowly and sometimes his body freezes like the real person does. He also has a sense of humor about his condition like the real person does. But his personality is nothing like the real Terry.

I did write a characture discription of one who is loosley based on myself in the way that he's deaf and is an entertainer like I am but he only has a small part in the story. Just someone who is "in the crowd" every now that then.

Anyway. Thanks again.

Ron Jaxon

 

[Sapheron]

I'd tell them if I were you; not really out of any great sense of morality, but because I think they'd be proud that you think highly enough of them that you're basing a character in your book on them.

Following on from Teresa's point, you're still not getting character right. Try to correct that one.