FACT AND FICTION MIXED???

Star · Feb 13, 2008

Hi Fellow Writers,

Can I place a fictional program into a real institution? For example, I want to make a real high school have summer school, (when it really doesn't).

Will readers familiar with the neighborhood feel cheated?

Sarpedon · Feb 13, 2008

sure you can. Its almost unavoidable. Even on the Starship Enterprise, they drink coffee out of coffee cups.

Sean D. Schaffer · Feb 13, 2008

Star said:
Hi Fellow Writers,

Can I place a fictional program into a real institution? For example, I want to make a real high school have summer school, (when it really doesn't).

Will readers familiar with the neighborhood feel cheated?

I don't know if they'll feel cheated or not. I know that when a major motion picture comes out that's based in my home town, I don't feel cheated at all, even if they insert things into the real neighborhoods I know don't really exist there.

I personally don't see why you couldn't do it.

mcnorth · Feb 13, 2008

You can do whatever you want.

Until the lawyers tell you to stop.

tallus83 · Feb 13, 2008

Yes, and I don't see where they would feel cheated by it.

Just leave any personal opinions about the school out.

OverTheHills&FarAway · Feb 13, 2008

I took a real government-owned deserted island in Lake Michigan and put a juvenile work camp on it. So far as I can tell from Google Satellite, there really isn't a juvenile work camp on Misery Island.

Oh well.

LeeFlower · Feb 13, 2008

I heard a good answer to this at a convention recently. If a reader comes up to you and says "You know, there's no summer school program at Greenbridge High," just shrug and say "There's one at my Greenbridge High. I'm sure the real one doesn't have a student named [name of character], either."

Star · Feb 13, 2008

Ha, ha, you guys are funny. Okay, I'll keep on creatin' my own little world!

wayndom · Feb 16, 2008

Just one caveat: If a teacher in your fictional summer school rapes a student and the school administration covers it up, you're asking for a massive lawsuit.

It would be so much easier to simply invent your own school, why use the name of a real school? I mean, would it somehow weaken your story to not use the name of a real school?

Saundra Julian · Feb 16, 2008

John Wayne made a movie where he portrayed a US Marshal from Ft Smith AR and chased outlaws into (Okla) Indian Territory. We all thought it was a hoot when the snow-capped mountains showed up in the Oklahoma bottom land across the river.

blacbird · Feb 16, 2008

Star said:
Hi Fellow Writers,

Can I place a fictional program into a real institution? For example, I want to make a real high school have summer school, (when it really doesn't).

Sure. But . . .

Why do you need to use a real school?

caw

Will Lavender · Feb 16, 2008

blacbird said:
Sure. But . . .

Why do you need to use a real school?

caw

Great question. Why not just make up a school?

Ervin · Feb 16, 2008

I don't see a problem with it unless you say that the school is filled with drugs and violence when it isn't, or name real people doing something they really don't such as drugs and crime.

blacbird · Feb 16, 2008

Saundra Julian said:
John Wayne made a movie where he portrayed a US Marshal from Ft Smith AR and chased outlaws into (Okla) Indian Territory. We all thought it was a hoot when the snow-capped mountains showed up in the Oklahoma bottom land across the river.

John Wayne also shot his Vietnam movie "The Green Berets" in the piney woods of Georgia, as I recall. It's a terrible movie, so I suppose seeing all them long-leaf pines masquerading as Vietnam jungle is perfectly reasonable.

And back on the old TV show Gunsmoke, which was set in Dodge City, Kansas (a real place, which I've been to), Marshal Dillon routinely chased bad guys up into the mountains. You know, those great Kansas mountains.

caw

Fox The Cave · Feb 17, 2008

Why the hell not?

Fresie · Feb 17, 2008

In a real-place based novel I've just read, the author mentions all the little inconsistencies in the acknowledgements. For instance, he apologises for moving the existent mountain several miles to make it more accessible for the characters.

Perle_Rare · Feb 17, 2008

Fictions and facts have always mixed when you read fiction. At some point, there's a deviation from verifyable fact. This deviation can happen sooner (ie: make up your own world with a school in it), later (keep the real world and the real school) or anywhere in between. It's really your choice. If you're concerned about using the real McCoy but faking something related to it, then invent a school. Personally, as a writer, I never want to be put in a situation where I feel I have to apologize for inconsistencies (in achnowledgements or otherwise) or where I'm getting sued by someone over a misrepresentation of something. Bottom line: the decision is entirely up to you.

FACT AND FICTION MIXED???

Star

So cool I am

Sarpedon

Sean D. Schaffer

mcnorth

Gigantopithecus canadensis

tallus83

OverTheHills&FarAway

McNifico

LeeFlower

Lurker Extraordinaire

Star

So cool I am

wayndom

Saundra Julian

A work in progress

blacbird

Will Lavender

Everything is what it seems.

Ervin

blacbird

Fox The Cave

I get cancer. I kill Jack.

Fresie

She Who Runs The Waves

Perle_Rare

Dragon rider