Is taking inspiration from the news disrespectful?

maxmordon · Jan 4, 2015

A while ago I had an idea for a story. It was a basic premise that seemed nice enough but didn't do it for me, so I mentally shelved it for who knows how long.

Last week, a tragedy ocurred that made it to the headlines. I was emotionally overwhelmed about it and started to write, taking as a basis the above premise. I'm quite content with the result but then... i felt bad. I felt it was exploitative using a recent, real life case as a mere plaything for my own writing.

I felt bad and still feel bad and I don't know what to do.

Has anyone faced such dilemma? What do you think I should do?

auzerais · Jan 4, 2015

Stories have been based on true events since the dawn of story-telling. It's not disrespectful in the slightest. If it were a particularly unusual event, I would probably change the circumstances in my story, or the details of the event, to avoid drawing comparisons to the original inspiration.

maxmordon · Jan 4, 2015

I think I've changed them enough to make it its own things, but comparisions might be unavoidable.

C.S. Jones · Jan 4, 2015

I think it'll be fine, in part because by the time your story goes to print, this will probably be old news. And also, if you change the details enough so that only the thrust of the story is similar, many readers won't be totally sure it was based on that in the first place.

Would you mind saying what the news story is and how you planned to incorporate it?

maxmordon · Jan 4, 2015

The story is about a female transgender teenager who takes her own life. The current event is Leelah Alcorn's suicide.

Lhowling · Jan 5, 2015

I don't think it's disrespectful at all. However, coming from a kind-of crime background, I'd say when being inspired by very recent, highly popularized news events, wait to write the story for a couple of months. It's just a suggestion, but often times more details about the story come out months later that might make a big difference in the story you want to write. Those details sometimes go under the radar since another major event might have picked up momentum by then.

Also, when a story like this is so hot, it's very easy to get swept away in the popular debates and opinions of the day. But in time the dust settles. If you do further research on the town, the people, etc., then you may discover that the original tale is not as black and white as the media makes it out to be. I wrote a short story of a boy who had been missing for months. I waited until after his body was found to write it, giving it an alternate ending (it wasn't his body but the body of his captor... although the corpse was too destroyed to tell right away). For me, the waiting was essential because then I was able to take a look at the big picture, like why Manhattan was covered with his missing fliers and yet it never really picked up major national news coverage. It gave me enough time to ride the subways leading around the boy's home, which made the descriptions better. And I got to hear other peoples' opinions about what happened, and how those opinions changed over time.

Of course not everyone can devote that much time and effort into research. Like I said you can write the story whenever you want to, but when its based off major crimes and whatnot more information typically comes out over a period of months, particularly information that might be reliable and trustworthy.

Kylabelle · Jan 5, 2015

Genuine inspiration is not the same as taking something as a "mere plaything."

Only you really can know which it is you've done. It could very well be that you're written something powered by the actual event which carries some illumination, and that's a great thing. That you feel a sense of delicacy about the possibility of having exploited the tragedy says to me that you're well able to discern if you have, or not.

It might be a good idea to let it sit for a few weeks and then have another look and see how it feels then.

Jamesaritchie · Jan 5, 2015

There nothing at all wrong with it.

Jamesaritchie · Jan 5, 2015

Lhowling said:
I don't think it's disrespectful at all. However, coming from a kind-of crime background, I'd say when being inspired by very recent, highly popularized news events, wait to write the story for a couple of months. It's just a suggestion, but often times more details about the story come out months later that might make a big difference in the story you want to write. Those details sometimes go under the radar since another major event might have picked up momentum by then.

Also, when a story like this is so hot, it's very easy to get swept away in the popular debates and opinions of the day. But in time the dust settles. If you do further research on the town, the people, etc., then you may discover that the original tale is not as black and white as the media makes it out to be. I wrote a short story of a boy who had been missing for months. I waited until after his body was found to write it, giving it an alternate ending (it wasn't his body but the body of his captor... although the corpse was too destroyed to tell right away). For me, the waiting was essential because then I was able to take a look at the big picture, like why Manhattan was covered with his missing fliers and yet it never really picked up major national news coverage. It gave me enough time to ride the subways leading around the boy's home, which made the descriptions better. And I got to hear other peoples' opinions about what happened, and how those opinions changed over time.

Of course not everyone can devote that much time and effort into research. Like I said you can write the story whenever you want to, but when its based off major crimes and whatnot more information typically comes out over a period of months, particularly information that might be reliable and trustworthy.

If you're writing true crime, that all holds true. If you're writing fiction, there's no reason in the world to wait a second. Good fiction doesn't follow events exactly, it takes the basic idea and generates mostly new event to fit the premise.

Get too close to the real story, and you are being exploitative.

maxmordon · Jan 5, 2015

Kylabelle said:
Genuine inspiration is not the same as taking something as a "mere plaything."

Only you really can know which it is you've done. It could very well be that you're written something powered by the actual event which carries some illumination, and that's a great thing. That you feel a sense of delicacy about the possibility of having exploited the tragedy says to me that you're well able to discern if you have, or not.

It might be a good idea to let it sit for a few weeks and then have another look and see how it feels then.

This does seem the best approach to it. Wait some time so then I can have a more objective view about it.

Lhowling · Jan 5, 2015

Jamesaritchie said:
If you're writing true crime, that all holds true. If you're writing fiction, there's no reason in the world to wait a second. Good fiction doesn't follow events exactly, it takes the basic idea and generates mostly new event to fit the premise.

Get too close to the real story, and you are being exploitative.

Really? I feel like a writer can become exploitative based on how they interpret the facts to troll for specific reactions, rather than follow the facts themselves too closely. I never thought of it that way, nor did I mean to imply that you should follow the events exactly. In this day and age when everyone tweets, posts, etc about something hot off the press, I feel like to get a better idea of an event, it's useful for wait a while when the proverbial smoke has cleared. One's perspective might change as new details come out.

Fuchsia Groan · Feb 24, 2015

Lhowling said:
In this day and age when everyone tweets, posts, etc about something hot off the press, I feel like to get a better idea of an event, it's useful for wait a while when the proverbial smoke has cleared. One's perspective might change as new details come out.

While I don't think you have to wait to turn facts into fiction, I did experience a weird little coincidence that made me glad it takes a while to write a book:

My book draws inspiration (if that's the word) from the case of a serial killer who committed suicide in custody and had only a few confirmed victims (while claiming many more). I named one of my fictional victims Debra Ann.

Several months later, as I'm revising, I come across a news item: The FBI has released the identity of one last likely victim of the killer. Her first name: Debra.

I changed that one pretty quickly.

midwestamp · Feb 25, 2015

Writing is an art. In my opinion, art is pure when it is used as an outlet. You felt something and you wrote about it. Good for you. Don't let what other people may think dictate what you do.

lance.schukies · May 6, 2015

I use clips of news and then exaggerate or try to create scenario to make up my stories, who cares if people can match the ideas to real life. I take that as a complement .
I compare writing to painting it your view you create,

Robert Dawson · May 6, 2015

Remember the bus monitor a few years back who was being bullied by the kids on social media, and 4chan passed the virtual hat for her? I wrote a story in which such a character uses the money to hire a hitman - who points out that it would be too suspicious to break the arms of three kids in the same high school, but he can arrange a brake failure on the bus.

Reader, I trunked it, unsubmitted. Seemed too close to one real person's story and no good way to file off the serial numbers. (It had to be a school bus to get the shock value of the ending. The protag sort of had to be the bus monitor. And there was no real substitute for the social media fundraiser in terms of the unexpectedly huge amount of money.)

tariqshwa · May 7, 2015

nothing wrong with doing that.

Is taking inspiration from the news disrespectful?

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