Disclaimers? (quote, stories) - Books, authors, composition, publishers, editors, novels, print, poetry... - City-Data Forum

GypsySoul22 · 05-20-2010, 04:10 AM

What if you want to write a story about some life experience and have to add 'real people' to the mix (but not name names)?

Can people sue you if you write a piece and mention "my neighbor in Florida with the three dogs?" I'm thinking of this story/book I have had rolling around in my head for a long time but I have to put people in it.

How does an author do this (in a nonfiction/autobiography/biography) without getting sued?

Fred314X · 05-20-2010, 06:16 AM

You can't be sued for telling the truth. If you're not libeling or defaming someone, you should be OK.

Mightyqueen801 · 05-20-2010, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fred314X

You can't be sued for telling the truth. If you're not libeling or defaming someone, you should be OK.

Yes, the person you were writing about has to have a case to prove that they were damaged somehow by what you wrote about them.

Here's an article that touches on that, among other things.

Writer’s Digest - Can Writers Get Creative With Facts?

GypsySoul22 · 05-20-2010, 08:01 AM

Thanks very much!!!

jtur88 · 05-20-2010, 10:56 AM

As long as a reader of your book cannot identify the neighbor with 3 dogs, I would think you are OK. There is a risk that another neighbor could say "Hey, I knew this author, who used to live across the street, so I know who he is talking about". But all you'd have to do is add some false details, like bald, or owned a Buick, or something, and now the full details no longer match.

Fred314X · 05-20-2010, 11:14 AM

Another easy way out might be to change the setting. If you were thinking about setting the story in Florida, move it to Louisiana, for example.

Mightyqueen801 · 05-27-2010, 07:21 AM

One of my favorite stories about this sort of thing was told by Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22. He based a mean commanding officer in his novel on a commanding officer under whom he'd served when he was in the military himself.

After he and his novel became famous, he got a call one day from the man on whom he'd based the officer. The man congratulated him on his success, and then went on to say, "You know that guy <insert name> in your book? Well, I had an SOB for a commanding officer just like him when I was first in the army!"

The guy didn't even recognize himself as the model for the nasty guy in Heller's novel. That's the beauty of it--most people won't see themselves in a negative character.