Do readers always assume that writers are always writing about themselves? It happens in poetry, but I didn’t think it did with fiction, until I gave a public reading of an excerpt from my novel where a mother must explain to her two young children why their junkie father is in jail. (“Incarceration”). As I read, I noticed trou
bled expressions on several faces in my audience. Afterward, someone told me she enjoyed my story, but hoped it wasn’t based on reality.
“Is it?” she asked. I was taken aback. The closest my husband ever came to breaking the law was tearing a Do Not Remove Under Penalty of Law tag from a mattress. The story couldn’t be further from my life.
Perhaps such assumptions are a good thing? My sister-in-law read the same story, and she’s certainly knows it’s strictly fictional. She told me, “You write so well that you make the reader feel your words are from experience.”
However, writer Karen Strong struggles with the fear that people will assume that she’s writing about her own difficult father-daughter relationship in her fiction, something she doesn’t want to happen. I know someone whose fiction is often a thinly-veiled memoir of her abusive parents. When I asked her what her parents think of her stories, she said they wouldn’t recognize themselves if you gave them a mirror!
Author Roz Morris commented on Strong’s blog: “Personally I’ve found readers decide if you’re writing about people you know, no matter what you say. I had a friend who loved one of my books, then revealed the reason: he thought I’d put in this strange girl we used to know. I hadn’t, but regardless of how much I denied it, he insisted it was her.”
Could such assumptions get an author into trouble for slander? It’s already happened! In November 2009, a jury declared that Haywood Smith, in her novel The Red Hat Club, defamed her friend Vickie Stewart. On the allegation of invasion of privacy, however, the jury ruled in favor of the author and publisher, declining to award attorney fees to Stewart. The defense called two experts on publishing to testify during trial that well-known authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Irving “all modeled characters in their books after people they knew.”
Trial details are here. Both defense and plaintiff may appeal.
While most writers know it’s best to alter any character or event that is based on reality to the point that the lines are blurred, be forewarned not to push it to negative extremes. And be prepared for any fallout. Author Jane Hamilton based a character in Disobedience on a neighbor girl, but was upfront enough to tell the girl’s mother about it. The mother didn’t seem to mind. After the book was published, she was livid and refused to talk to Jane. The character was a thirteen-year-old, cross-dressing, Civil War reenactment fanatic. Jane admitted she might have been better off keeping her mouth shut.
I think Roz definitely has a point. Readers will come to their own conclusion about scenes in a novel. No matter how hard we may say otherwise, they will they it’s autobiographical!
I think this why I admire writers who go to those dark and uncomfortable places — it takes a log courage.
Thanks for the shout-out Linda. 🙂
I agree with you, Karen. People will interpret what they want. I also admire those who put on their black leather jacket and go deep into that scary cave. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!