: Re: How to avoid libel when writing a fictional account of a real event I was a researcher for many years and it is a habit that has its usefulness in writing but also some serious drawbacks.

@Ann1701686

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You can’t publish that story without lawyers involved
You’re not writing a book loosely “inspired by” this person and this event in their life, as in your examples about Severus Snape or The Silence of the Lambs. You are literally writing about a real person, and basing a book directly on their life story and real actions, and directly confirming these matching identities between fiction and real life in your story.
Neither is your story a parody. Nor can just playing up the fictional parts transform a work of fictional history into a parody.
These aren’t legal evaluations—I’m not a lawyer. These are “plain as nose on face” observations from having layman understanding of what you’re proposing to publish.
This is not a character and a plot you can just lift and use directly. You’re either going to have to buy the rights to their life story or get a lawyer—probably both.

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