Biographical novel ?

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but it's my understanding that if you have made things up, it must be considered fiction. Maybe it depends on how much and in what context, but that's my understanding.

My understand is biographies don't tend to include "scenes" per say. Meaning, they don't include characters acting and speaking. Instead, most of the ones I've read tend to describe events from an objective POV with a lot of description about actions and little dialogue (except where it's actually known from transcripts or media broadcasts).

I could be wrong about this, but that's how the ones I've read tend to be styled. So, label it "Based on the True Story of XXX" and you've got a "true story" fiction piece and everyone will be happy.

If you're writing an unofficial biography, you can't invent anything. Otherwise you could land yourself in trouble.

If, however, you're writing a fiction novel based on the life of a celebrity, you should be fine. But if it were me, I'd change the names.

lisamarie84x said:

If you're writing an unofficial biography, you can't invent anything. Otherwise you could land yourself in trouble.

If, however, you're writing a fiction novel based on the life of a celebrity, you should be fine. But if it were me, I'd change the names.

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I totally agree with lisamarie, though I'd say for biographies of any type (authorized or unauthorized), everything should be factual. There are many recent examples of people claiming to have written a biography, only for people to discover that parts of the book were actually fiction. It caused scandal.