Friend : "Write about me for my wedding!"

In this case, I think I'd give my current heroine a scene where she shows off a book to a friend, and gushes about the fictional MC (named for the bride). Explain to the editor why that scene can't be cut out and show it to the bride in question.

This way, there's no embarrassment for the writer in question, and the bride still gets to be the heroine of the novel-within-the novel.

The sadistic part of me could have so much fun with that request:

"Oh, did you want a romance? Sorry - I had this Lovecraftian slashfic that needed a heroine... I thought you'd be honored!"

(This kind of thinking may explain why I have so few friends IRL...)

Brightdreamer said:

The sadistic part of me could have so much fun with that request:

"Oh, did you want a romance? Sorry - I had this Lovecraftian slashfic that needed a heroine... I thought you'd be honored!"

(This kind of thinking may explain why I have so few friends IRL...)

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I think any friend of mine knows something like that is what they'd get with a similar request

GingerGunlock said:

I think any friend of mine knows something like that is what they'd get with a similar request

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Similar...

My friends know better than to ask.

Asking a writer to put you in a book is a very nice example of the advice to "be careful what you wish for."

"I'm sorry, but I just had to kill her off in a freak wood chipper accident. The story called for it!"

None of my friends have asked me to put them in my fiction. Probably because they don't want to die horribly with sharp things in their heads.

Friends in fiction is a bad idea for a simple reason--good characterization requires a balanced and in-depth treatment of the individual, and friends rarely like to be put under that kind of microscope. If the writer is honest, the chances are high that something in that characterization will upset the friend, or worse, it will reveal something the he/she doesn't want revealed.

NeuroFizz said:

Friends in fiction is a bad idea for a simple reason--good characterization requires a balanced and in-depth treatment of the individual, and friends rarely like to be put under that kind of microscope. If the writer is honest, the chances are high that something in that characterization will upset the friend, or worse, it will reveal something the he/she doesn't want revealed.

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This might explain why I don't have many friends.

NeuroFizz said:

Friends in fiction is a bad idea for a simple reason--good characterization requires a balanced and in-depth treatment of the individual, and friends rarely like to be put under that kind of microscope. If the writer is honest, the chances are high that something in that characterization will upset the friend, or worse, it will reveal something the he/she doesn't want revealed.

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I agree. Naming a character after a friend, as someone else mentioned, is one thing. But I would never create a character based (entirely) on a friend. I think most of my characters have pieces of myself in them as well as pieces of the other people in my life. But to actually put a friend smack dab into my story with all the good and bad accompanying that friend...I would never do that.

I recently gave a short story to a friend with a major character completely and obviously based on her.

It was my way of admitting to her that I used to be in love with her, because that's the kind of coward I am.

Let's see if she'll still talk to me.

kuwisdelu said:

I recently gave a short story to a friend with a major character completely and obviously based on her.

It was my way of admitting to her that I used to be in love with her, because that's the kind of coward I am.

Let's see if she'll still talk to me.

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Aw, really? That's adorable!

I did write a children's book using my daughter as the MC. Gave it to her for Christmas.

Not sure she appreciated it the way I would have liked, but... she loved it in the moment. LOL

I could do a short story, but no way would I try to build a novel around a person as a gift.

I have written essays about people as gifts before.

Neil Gaiman once wrote a short story for a friend for their wedding. It was about couple who received a short story as a wedding present (see how meta that is ). It was a sort of Dorian Grey thing - the story was all about all the horrible things that could happen to the couple but because they were written about they never happened. Until they destroyed the story... It was published in Smoke and Mirrors.

Frankly, I consider it cheeky to ask. Especially a whole novel... for a friend I might do them a short story (maybe flash fic) or name a character after them or put them in the acknowledgements or give them a personalised signed copy but a whole novel with them as a character? Not a chance. Also, I would consider doing those things on my own initiative, not because someone asked. Those who ask get a toaster...

I could make a short 8k-12k story in a day or two (especially if it was just a fun retelling about how she and the guy met) but an entire novel??? NO. Not even if you're my most favorite person in the world NO NO NO.

The asker must literally have no clue how hard it is to give birth to an actual novel!

areteus said:

Also, I would consider doing those things on my own initiative, not because someone asked. Those who ask get a toaster...

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Yeah...I think it's weird for someone to ask someone - friend or otherwise - to write a novel about that someone.

To write a speech? Sure.

A novel?

Um...no.

Writing about someone is my main method of picking up women.

I've been single for a long time.

Brightdreamer said:

The sadistic part of me could have so much fun with that request:

"Oh, did you want a romance? Sorry - I had this Lovecraftian slashfic that needed a heroine... I thought you'd be honored!"

(This kind of thinking may explain why I have so few friends IRL...)

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Oh come on, like you wouldn't submit a collection of "worst purple sex scenes ever."

Yeah, I suspect the friend has no clue how much damned work she just asked her author-buddy to do. For free. As a gift.

I'd just laugh, say no, and gently explain why.

It's analogous to someone asking you to be their bridesmaid and then telling you that you have to pay for your own dress, and the dress costs $800.

No matter how much I love you, that's too freakin' much to ask of me, and I will say so.

Overheard at bar...

"Yeah, I'll admit I've put people I know in my last book..."

"You mean people who inspired your characters?"

"Well, yeah... I guess you could say that..."

"But you changed them up - altered the characters enough right?"

"Uh, not much, not really... Trust me, those bastards deserved it."

Long silence...

Moral: Never cross a writer...

Under the same category as 'never piss off the bard'. As litigious as some folks are these days, there is a reason for that 'This is a work of fiction...' disclaimer at the beginning of most fictional works.

My friends know me well enough to know never to ask that.

Well, my late mother-in-law was in one of my stories. I knocked her over the head with a piece of furniture and she almost dies. She loved it. I put her in the sequel. (Yes, short stories can have sequels.)

But when a friend asks 'put me in a story, make the me the killer' - and I've had a lot ask - I just say no.

One can say NO, you know.

jjdebenedictis said:

It's analogous to someone asking you to be their bridesmaid and then telling you that you have to pay for your own dress, and the dress costs $800.

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Or perhaps design and sew your own dress. From fabric you wove and dyed. Made from silk you extracted from silkworms you raised. In mulberry trees you planted twenty years ago.