Jerks where I work will appear in my novels.....

DWSTXS · Jan 30, 2008

Arggggghhhhhhh.......I work with some real jerks!

Days like this spur me on to write.....if anything, just to get to the point where someday I can 'retire' from the 9-5 world and write for a living.
And yes, I will be putting some real-life jerks that I work with....into my stories....so that they will get killed, blown up, cheated upon, slapped, put-down, and in general, suffer bankruptcies, abnormally large rectal growths, wild animal maulings, ED, hair loss, projectile vomiting, explosive diahhrea.......etc etc....and in that way, they will get what's coming to them......

SO.......this thread 'Jerks where I work....' is asking the question....

Do YOU put 'real-life' people into your stories, where you have your way with them, and get your 'revenge' upon them?

I know I do...........and it makes the writing all that more fun.

Sage · Jan 30, 2008

I did once for a performer at Borders who sang about first-time writers (dissing them). Yeah, the character died.

My next MC's job is going to bear some resemblance to mine. Should be very therapeutic.

Takvah · Jan 30, 2008

DWSTXS said:
so that they will get killed, blown up, cheated upon, slapped, put-down, and in general, suffer bankruptcies, abnormally large rectal growths, wild animal maulings, ED, hair loss, projectile vomiting, explosive diahhrea.......etc etc....and in that way, they will get what's coming to them......

I AM SO BUYING THIS BOOK!

Toothpaste · Jan 30, 2008

I put my friends into my novels. And I am usually very nice to them. And they also know they are in the novels. It's fun! But at the same time you can't feel obligated to your friends over your book. For example I had a character based on one friend that I wound up cutting out of the book. It made me sad, and she was disappointed, but I wasn't just going to keep it in there at the expense of the story. She understood.

Soccer Mom · Jan 30, 2008

Oh yeah. I write murder mysteries, so people who piss me off always come to a bad end.

DWSTXS · Jan 30, 2008

well......maybe not ALL that happening to one character.......although, I do have someone in mind that I'd like it to happen to...........LOL

on the other hand......if I did have all that happen to one MC.....he'd end up being sympathetic..........(or a superman for being able to live through all that)

Hapax Legomenon · Jan 30, 2008

I never put real life in my stories, especially not to get revenge on these real people.

I need to like my characters to get me to write them.

HeronW · Jan 30, 2008

Which is why we luv writin'--revenge on the bastids!

NeuroFizz · Jan 30, 2008

DWSTXS said:
just to get to the point where someday I can 'retire' from the 9-5 world and write for a living.

Unless you are one of the few who gain meteoric financial success in this business (and I hope you do), these people may be too senile to comprehend the slams.

In response to the question, pieces of real people end up in my characters, but I can't think of one who has been lifted, intact, from flesh to paper. But I agree, there is nothing like a little righteous indignation to get the fingers flying on the keys.

brokenfingers · Jan 30, 2008

I never put real people into my works either, although I will cannibalize parts of them for various characters.

Besides, I find taking revenge upon them in real life much more satisfying anyway.

JoNightshade · Jan 30, 2008

My WIP is set in my real-life high school (note: I graduated like a decade ago), although my main character is entirely fictional. However, all of the faculty are patterned on the teachers I had in high school. I change their names a little bit, but if any of them ever picks up my book, they're gonna know who they are. And I do make a one-line dig at this teacher who really pissed me off.

Buuuuut, my main character's love interest is actually my junior high gym teacher, a woman I loathed. I thought she was ugly and mean and seriously jerky. This novel actually came into being because I always thought, Could anyone ever marry this woman? Could this horrible bitter person have any shred of decency within her? Then as I got older and came to see teachers as real people, I really wondered about what she was like outside of class. Who she was. And then she became the woman my MC fell in love with. I'm using a very close third person POV on him, so in a sense the process of writing this book has been me attempting to see this woman through different eyes. And I think I've come to understand her a lot more. So really, it's been cathartic.

Wolvel · Jan 30, 2008

I write to escape the real world, not drag it in behind me.

Judg · Jan 30, 2008

Jo, that sounds like a very cool idea.

Scrawler · Jan 30, 2008

I like this question! I have a hard time featuring current real life jerks in my writing. I was trying to base an important secondary character on a jerk I know but I was getting too upset reliving the situation to write. This could be because the "jerk episode" is too fresh or recent.

I find myself incorporating painful issues and people into my work and resolving them to my satisfaction. But I need to have a sense of forgiveness or peace in order to open some of those old wounds and relationships and write about them.

My revenge fantasy is sending certain people a copy of my #1 Bestseller --when they think they recognize themselves, I smile and say it's all only fiction.
Bwahahaha.

DWSTXS · Jan 30, 2008

Scrawler said:
I like this question! I have a hard time featuring current real life jerks in my writing. I was trying to base an important secondary character on a jerk I know but I was getting too upset reliving the situation to write. This could be because the "jerk episode" is too fresh or recent.

I find myself incorporating painful issues and people into my work and resolving them to my satisfaction. But I need to have a sense of forgiveness or peace in order to open some of those old wounds and relationships and write about them.

My revenge fantasy is sending certain people a copy of my #1 Bestseller --when they think they recognize themselves, I smile and say it's all only fiction.
Bwahahaha.

That's the whole point with me......to change their name.....but describe them as they actually are........put them through the wringer, fiction-wise, and then, after it's become a Harry Potter-like best seller, and gets made into a movie....I make sure that that character is cast with an exact look-alike and he/she gets to see themself screwed royally on the big screen! ......and the greatest kicker of all....is that I am living the good life.........
LOL....that's my dream of 'scoreboarding' my nemesis.

what have you been up to?
Oh, working at the local McDonald's...and you?
Well.....my novel was on the NY Times Best-Seller list all last year, and now Spielberg wants to make it into a movie! (Scoreboard!)

David I · Jan 30, 2008

I never base my characters on specific, real-life people.

That said, however, John Grisham admits to routinely killing characters in his books because they pissed him off in real life. So there's plenty of precedent.

Shweta · Jan 30, 2008

brokenfingers said:
I never put real people into my works either, although I will cannibalize parts of them for various characters.

You cannibalize parts of real people? I'm scared of you

I'm sure aspects of people make it into my stories, but I normally can't tell how.

Danger Jane · Jan 30, 2008

I don't put anyone I know in deliberately. But it wouldn't be that hard for them to see themselves in my characters, I guess...damn navel gazing readers :tongue

Matera the Mad · Jan 30, 2008

I put a jerk into something that I knew he would never read, and happily insulted him. One villain that I killed has a lot in common with my mother, and another is just a bit of a lot of @55holes I've known. My heroes are not intentionally patterned after anyone in particular. I'm sure a lot of personality recycling is done unconsciously.

Claudia Gray · Jan 30, 2008

I don't put real-life people into my books. This is true for everyone -- not just people I dislike -- but it goes double for them. Writing is my pleasure and my release, and why drag people I dislike into the place where I get my joy?

David I · Jan 30, 2008

I suppose this is a good place to mention that Mario Puzo based Don Corleone, The Godfather in The Godfather, on his own mother...

[nb No, I am not making that up, however much it might sound like it.]

Thomma Lyn · Jan 30, 2008

DWSTXS said:
Do YOU put 'real-life' people into your stories, where you have your way with them, and get your 'revenge' upon them?

You betchyer britches I do.

BUT...

I do it subtly. I mix, match, and morph. Meld them with other people, real or imagined. I never take someone from real life and stick them into a novel "as-is."

kellytijer · Jan 30, 2008

I do it too! My ex-coworkers go through a load of problems in one of my wips.

Cassidy · Jan 30, 2008

Mmm... I don't put people from my life in my books. I do steal individual traits from people though. And I confess that I have named two nasty characters after two real people... one a former teacher of mine from about twenty-five years ago (jeez, I sure hold a grudge) and one a cop. I couldn't resist...

Paichka · Jan 30, 2008

I named one of my more unpleasant characters after one of my bosses.

He's a jerk, the character's a jerk...it seemed to fit. Thus, "Ser Linwood" was born.

I haven't used much else, or been conscious of it if I have.

Jerks where I work will appear in my novels.....

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