: Re: How do I avoid legal repercussions for writing a story based on events in my life? How do I avoid legal repercussions for writing a story based on events in my life? Mainly, I have experienced

@Ann1701686

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Besides getting legal advice, which is a sound move, I suggest you make it happen somewhere else.

I saw you reply that it would take some of the luster, but think of the possibilities: you can change the place entirely (say, another city or country), you could enhance factors that would help your message come through. You'd have to set up the atmosphere just right, and having an invented place, or a half imagined one, would help you: a much too familiar site for the story might make you trip over the descriptions, and or skip some details, just because of the deep familiarity.

I'd suggest changing even the industry of the company you work(ed) at, if possible, and the gender of some people involved. Names being changed should only be the beginning, in my opinion.

If there's delicate matters, and your lawyer does recommend changing names and other stuff, then the best you can do is leveraging the changes.

Remember, just the way the setting in which you lived helped your situations happen, so can the setting you create in the book help the character's situations happen... so you'd have to set them parallel enough to carry your message. And your message, which is born of these situations, is what I think is most important, and is what can be best transmitted.

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