Can you mention names?

Depending on context, sure. If your protagonist is a modern person who makes references to such things, and they're relevant to the story, there's no reason why you can't mention them. Quoting from them is a different matter altogether, however.

You can, but they'll date your work. If you want your work to be dated (as in, you've set it in the 1960s and you want to evoke the culture of that decade), that's a good thing. If you don't, it's not.

ILUVJLD said:

Can you mention the names of bands and/or television shows in your novel?

Click to expand...

Yes -- they exist in the real world, why shouldn't you mention them? But avoid defaming them.

-Derek

Yes, and I've ever read a novel set in the real world that wasn't dated. If your setting is the real world, dating can't be avoided.

Stephen King does it all the time. Doesn't hurt his sales or longevity or popularity. Are his books dated? Maybe, but no one cares.

ILUVJLD said:

Can you mention the names of bands and/or television shows in your novel?

Click to expand...

Yes, but you run the risk of tying your novel to a particular time period. Also, if the band/show was obscure even in its time, you risk readers from that time period not getting the reference.

Depending on what you're writing, you may be better off using fictional brands, band names, and TV show titles. In my own WIP, I like to mix fictional names with the occasional real name since the story is set in a future version of our own world. So I've got a character who likes movies like "Godzilla vs. Programmer Cat", bands like Iron Maiden and Keep Firing Assholes, and video games like Ultraviolence and Shin Megami Tensei.

Figuring out which are real and which are fictional is left as an exercise for the reader.

"Weezer's new album rocks," said Sam. = A-OKAY

"You know that Weezer got their first contract with their record label by kidnapping the owner's infant son and holding him for ransom, right?" Sam said. = BIG NO-NO

IceCreamEmpress said:

"Weezer's new album rocks," said Sam. = A-OKAY

"You know that Weezer got their first contract with their record label by kidnapping the owner's infant son and holding him for ransom, right?" Sam said. = BIG NO-NO

Click to expand...

Yeah, the latter might be considered libel.

You can, but they'll date your work. If you want your work to be dated (as in, you've set it in the 1960s and you want to evoke the culture of that decade), that's a good thing. If you don't, it's not.

Click to expand...

I used that in Blood Witness, a novel I wrote in the 80s. When preparing it for a podio book I needed to let the listeners know the time setting in a non-obvious way. I referred to what the teenage character liked to listen to on the radio.

BTW, any quote of lyrics – even brief ones – require a substantial payment to the song publisher.

Hittman said:

BTW, any quote of lyrics – even brief ones – require a substantial payment to the song publisher.

Click to expand...

Why the publisher? If you use lyrics, surely it's the lyricist who deserves the money you pay?

Stijn Hommes said:

Why the publisher? If you use lyrics, surely it's the lyricist who deserves the money you pay?

Click to expand...

The lyricists don't usually own the rights.

MGraybosch said:

Yes, but you run the risk of tying your novel to a particular time period. Also, if the band/show was obscure even in its time, you risk readers from that time period not getting the reference.

Depending on what you're writing, you may be better off using fictional brands, band names, and TV show titles. In my own WIP, I like to mix fictional names with the occasional real name since the story is set in a future version of our own world. So I've got a character who likes movies like "Godzilla vs. Programmer Cat", bands like Iron Maiden and Keep Firing Assholes, and video games like Ultraviolence and Shin Megami Tensei.

Figuring out which are real and which are fictional is left as an exercise for the reader.

Click to expand...

Pretty much every novel I've read set in the contemprary world has a quickly and easily identifiable time period. Unless you never mention, bands, movies, TV shows, songs on the radio, the kind of cars in the book, or even the buildings and business where a character lives or eats, the time period will be identfiable.

Even mannerisms and dialogue and genral culture will usually give away the time period.

And who wants to read about a character who lives in a world that has none of the brand names we know, who never, ever eats at a place we'd recognize, etc? Not me.

If an identifiable time period was problematical, most real world setting books written before 2000 would be unreadable, but we still read, and love, many, many such novels.

Thank God John D. MacDonald didn't try to hide the time period in his Travis McGee novels.

I would, in fact, say that an easily identifiable time periond makes most of these books more readable, not less. They're solidly tied to time and place, rather than floating in Neverwhere.

Jamesaritchie said:

And who wants to read about a character who lives in a world that has none of the brand names we know, who never, ever eats at a place we'd recognize, etc? Not me.

Click to expand...

The only place where you should avoid naming companies at all cost is in science fiction. 99.9% of companies in operation at the moment will most probably be out of business in a couple of hundred years. You risk people pointing out that the fast food chain in a SF went out of business a few years after the book is published. The appearance of Pan-Am as a viable company in the film 2001 is a good example of this 'mistake'.

Always assume everyone is going out of business in the future. With the exception of Coca Cola, Microsoft and (possibly) Ford (although I don't like their chances at the moment) the commerce of the future will be an entirely different landscape.

maestrowork said:

The lyricists don't usually own the rights.

Click to expand...

In that case I hope they get a good deal for them. In that case it's work for hire, and the cases I've seen have been severely underpaid.

Stijn Hommes said:

In that case I hope they get a good deal for them.

Click to expand...

They don't.