Timeline for How to avoid libel when writing a fictional account of a real event
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 28, 2019 at 1:47 | comment | added | Richard Stanzak | I have a published academic book by an NYC publishing house. It even got great reviews by the number one reviewer of non-fiction books. I switched to fiction hoping for more readers and completed one novel about the real-life inadvertent release of H1N1 flu virus that has killed hundreds of thousands, but most readers want more drama than a global pandemic. It is why I decided on my new novel based again on a real-life event yet spice it up a bit with fictionalized characters. It looks like from the comments here that the public won't be so keen on this novel either, so why bother. Thanks | |
| Dec 28, 2019 at 0:14 | comment | added | Robin | @RichardStanzak It sounds like you want to write fiction, but should instead be writing non-fiction. If you believe that people will not be interested in non-fiction accounts of real life dramatic events, a browse through a popular bookstore's non-fiction section may change your mind? | |
| Dec 27, 2019 at 19:22 | comment | added | Richard Stanzak | Yes. He is a real hero. I only wanted to share his heroic act with others through fiction but being an academic writer most may find it dry unless i alter facts, identities and timelines while remaining true to his sacrificial act and the plot. For some reason the comments so far posted are not very positive, so I will have to reconsider writing this novel. My last two novels also used actual events but totally fictitious characters. Unfortunately, I see no way of writing about this event without having a character resembling the real person but altered to make him fictionalized. | |
| Dec 27, 2019 at 19:10 | comment | added | Ray Butterworth | But the question was about a still-living whistleblower. | |
| Dec 27, 2019 at 18:24 | vote | accept | Richard Stanzak | ||
| Dec 27, 2019 at 18:24 | |||||
| Dec 27, 2019 at 18:24 | vote | accept | Richard Stanzak | ||
| Dec 27, 2019 at 18:24 | |||||
| Dec 27, 2019 at 16:34 | comment | added | Richard Stanzak | The goal of fictionalized history is to educate the reader and humanize the characters involved in historical events. Most historical figures are neither villains nor saints, their actions are guided out of personal reasons as well as their situation. Effective historical fiction hope's to explore possible motives and leave moral judgments to the readers. Davy Crockett is seen by many as a hero, yet others view him as a murderous racist. Few know his actions were driven by his father who was the sole survivor of an Indian massacre that killed most of his family. | |
| Dec 27, 2019 at 15:40 | history | answered | Ray Butterworth | CC BY-SA 4.0 |