Do You Put People You Know Into A Book?
By Megan Reddaway
Writers are often asked if they put people they know into their books, but unless somebody’s writing an autobiographical novel where they use all their family and friends under different names, I think it’s rare. Our imaginations are constantly working to invent people and scenes that don’t exist—that’s kind of the point of writing stories. So my answer would be “Not often” . . . but it does sometimes happen.
My latest book, Out, Proud, and Prejudiced, is a male/male retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In this case the characters already existed, in a sense. I needed someone to represent Elizabeth, someone to represent Darcy, and so on. They might have different personality traits and background, but their position in the story would be the same.
And in this book I did have one situation where I put in somebody I knew. It was for Lady Catherine, who in the original is a pompous, bullying older lady with an exaggerated sense of her own importance. She’s Darcy’s aunt, and I think she represents what Darcy’s pride might have turned him into if he hadn’t had someone like Elizabeth to bring him down to earth.
So I was thinking about how a modern Lady Catherine might be, and I thought, “She’d be just like Julia”—a woman I once worked with, whose name I’ve changed, of course. In the scenes with Catherine, I’d ask myself, “What would Julia do here? What would Julia say?” So in a sense I put Julia into the story.
But on the other hand, no incident from the real Julia’s life is in the book. I just put someone like her into imaginary situations. So even if she read Out, Proud, and Prejudiced knowing I’d written it, she’d have no reason to think, “That’s me!”
Another thing I sometimes do is to take real incidents from my life or the life of someone I know, and have them happen to different characters. That can be more dangerous because people will recognize the event and think the writer has used them as people, when we really only used that one fact.
For example, I once knew someone whose family background was like Bennet’s in Out, Proud, and Prejudiced. He found out as a teenager that his genetic origins weren’t what he’d always thought. It wasn’t exactly Bennet’s situation, but it was very similar.
But that friend of mine wasn’t like Bennet in anything else. He didn’t look like Bennet, he wasn’t gay, he didn’t have Bennet’s temperament—he was a very easy-going person who never fought with his younger brother growing up. So if he read the book knowing I’d written it, he might think “This is me!” . . . but he’d be wrong.
Writers are always trying to improve on real life, that’s the thing. Even if we start out with an incident that really happened, we always change it to make a better story 🙂
Megan Reddaway’s novel Out, Proud, and Prejudiced was published in ebook and paperback on June 4th.
Oneís proud, oneís prejudiced, and they canít stand each other.
Quick-tempered Bennet Rourke dislikes Darius Lanniker on sight. Darius may be a hotshot city lawyer, but that doesnít give him the right to sneer at Bennet, his friends, and their college. It doesnít help that Bennetís restaurant job has him waiting at Dariusís table. So when his tutor recommends him for an internship at Dariusís Pemberley estate, Bennet isnít sure he wants it. Heís also not sure he can afford to turn it down.
Darius is a fish out of water in the small college town of Meriton, but something keeps pulling him back there. Heís helping out a friend with business advice, nothing more. If heís interested in Bennet, itís not serious. Sure, Bennet challenges him in a way no other man has. But they have nothing in common. Right?
Wrong. Their best friends are falling in love, and Bennet and Darius canít seem to escape each other. Soon theyíre sharing climbing ropes and birthday cake, and thereís a spark between them that wonít be denied.
But betrayal is around the corner. Darius must swallow his pride and Bennet must drop his prejudices to see the rainbow shining through the storm clouds.
A standalone novelóa modern retelling of Jane Austenís Pride and Prejudice.
Note: contains mention of past abuse.
June 4 – The Novel Approach
June 6 – Love Bytes
June 8 – MM Good Book Reviews
June 12 – Joyfully Jay
June 14 – Diverse Reader
MEGAN REDDAWAY lives in England and has been entertained by fictional characters acting out their stories in her head for as long as she can remember. She began writing them down as soon as she could.
Since she grew up, she has worked as a secretary, driver, barperson, and article writer, among other things. Whatever she is doing, she always has a story bubbling away at the same time.
For news of Meganís gay romance releases and two free stories, visit her website: http://meganreddaway.com
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