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I recently wrote a play in which the central character was heavily based on myself, mainly because I'm lazy, but also to prevent some other bastard getting cast in the main role. So far so good, the problem arose because of one plot thread in the piece which an ex of mine thought was about her. I admit that the basic situation was taken from life, but her character was clearly not and events differed increasingly from what had happened between us. I had thought that as it was my own experiences I was drawing upon that I was in the clear and, for plot reasons, it was slanted to show 'her' in the best light and 'me' as the arsehole. No dice. She 'remembered' dialogue from the play as her own words. She thought the whole play was an attack on her. She claimed that I was trying to get my revenge in a way that left her no means of reply. I didn't even know there was anything to revenge.
Anyway, the upshot is that from having a close frienship where we spoke regularly, she ignored me for a few months and now I feel I cannot raise the subject. All I am saying is that do not expect your friend to be accurate or dispassionately rational in separating the real from the imagined in your finished work. People's self-image is a tricky thing and however fair you try to be, they may well not react in the way you expect.
As to the ethics, to dive into pretention briefly, writers draw upon the experiences, personal and observed, to ground their imagination in reality. You cannot merely write about yourself, you have to use your imagination at some point, but your perception and creation of other is bound to be coloured by the people you have met and what you have seen of others. What you describe may be a slightly more extreme version of this, but it is still the same process. So I'd say, if the idea interests you then go for it, just tread carefully and tell him before you show it to anyone else. |
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