: Re: Ramifications of using real public people as characters in fiction? So the story I want to write can really only be written in one of two ways. Basically it's the modern world, a handful of

@Caterina108

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One problem I notice with reading paperbacks from the past (whether from BookThing or my mom's trashy-lit shelves when I was a teen) is that they name-drop a LOT, but those names mean/meant nothing to me.

The writer dropped the names in often as a shortcut, like "The secretary had hair like Cheryl Ladd," but that told me nothing. This was pre-Wikipedia, so for all I know, Miss Ladd was the writer's next door neighbor!

Or worse, if the celebrities were interacting with the clearly fictional characters, they got less description, because "everyone knows" the difference in sex-symbol-ness between Tom Sellick and Burt Reynolds, but I barely even knew they had mustaches!

It's fine to write for NOW, in fact, you sort of have to. (I think there was a writer for Cracked who was complaining that his book "was so full of zombies and so 2007 (or whatever year)", and his partner was like "It's never been 2007 before! Write it!") But also bear in mind that with luck, your writing will be discovered and rediscovered in future decades -- capture as much of reality as you can, and don't assume readers will fill in the gaps the way you want.

You may find it helpful to look at historical fiction writers and how they handle "real world characters" -- you're just looking at a slightly less historical history.

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