When Hattie Crisell wrote a short story for her creative writing class, the tutor was very encouraging and suggested she tried to get it published. Hattie demurred, believing that, as her story was based on an anecdote from a friend it was not really hers to share. Her tutor looked baffled, making up stories inspired by the people around you is what writers do, she explained.
Borrowing stories about events you have heard about or witnessed is normal practice for a writer. As is reproducing the characteristics and behaviour of real people. The trick is to ensure that the events (other than historical events) and individuals cannot be recognised in the story. You need to ensure there are enough changes to keep it as definitely fiction – hence the disclaimer at the beginning of a novel.
Not everybody objects to being taken as a muse, of course. A very elderly friend of mine, who once had a suitor who went on to be the author of several novels, frequently told me that all his main female characters were modelled on her, their relationship, and the reasons it came to nothing. Which may be true – though I noticed the extent of their intimacy, has increased with every re-telling.
However, other people do object, especially if the portrayal is not flattering. An example of this is the all too real falling out between two American writers. One, Dawn Dorland, donated a kidney to a stranger and wrote about it extensively on Facebook. The other, Sonya Larson, read the posts and wrote a story about a woman who donated a kidney and went on endlessly about her good deed. Dorland was offended by this purloining of, and unflattering twist on, an important part of her life, especially as the story went on to receive critical acclaim. She pointed out, too, that whole paragraphs had been lifted unaltered from her posts.
Larson was unrepentant, claiming that she had drawn inspiration from the posts, but the story itself was a work from her own imagination. That she was doing just what any writer did when looking for subject matter for their stories.
Neither woman came out well in this very public spat. Dorman does seem rather self-obsessed, but Larson also seems very harsh on her, on one occasion emailing a friend to say ‘Dude, I could write pages and pages more about Dawn – that woman is a gold mine.’ If true, she could at least have acknowledged her contribution to the story.
The lesson to learn from this sorry episode is, if you do not want to give any credit to your source, make sure you re-work what is ‘borrowed’ so that it is, to all intents and purposes, a genuinely different account with different dramatis personae.
NB: full disclosure – I was inspired to write this post by an article written by Hattie Crisell herself for The Times last year.
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