: Re: Is it okay if I wrote a story based on true historical events? I had a story in mind that basically came from a true historical event in the 1930's. I won't be using real people for the

@Sent2472441

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What you describe, if I understand it correctly, is historical fiction. That's a genre with a long and proud tradition. It includes works as diverse as Ivanhoe, War and Peace, The Three Musketeers, and All Quiet on the Western Front. It can be close to historical events, which, as Mark Baker points out, is the modern trend, or it can be as imaginative as Dumas' works. How true you stay to historic events is entirely up to you.

I would draw your attention in particular to Catch 22. It's hilarious (in parts). It's a satire. And it's about the soldiers in WW2. People died during those times. Quite a few of them, in fact. The tragedy doesn't mean you have to treat the time period like it's somehow sacred. You can write about it, people should write about it (otherwise, it would just be forgotten), you needn't be afraid to find the beautiful, and the funny, and the grotesque, in a hard situation.

If you go and imply that nobody in fact died in the ugly period you base your story on, or if you go "it's great that they died", people might get upset. Otherwise, have fun.

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