This is a question I get asked from time to time and the answer is always - no, definitely not. It’s a legal minefield if someone was to identify themselves and didn’t like how they were portrayed.
It doesn’t mean that I don’t take inspiration from real people because I absolutely do but there is never a whole character dropped onto the page from real life… until now!
For the first time I have gone against my own advice and put a complete real individual into my story Tuesdays Are For Oversharing.
Before you start to worry about the lawsuits let me explain. The character is my cat Lily.
I always knew this book had cats and I mulled over their personalities. To start with I took aspects of our old cat Harry for Claude who was grumpy, liked to scratch and bite people and was generally intolerant of anyone and anything. And then the second cat was the total opposite. She was sweet and cuddly. Always there trying to cheer up her human when they were feeling down. She loved a tummy rub, the cat not the human, and never put her claws out. Around about the second draft I realised the second cat was entirely Lily, so I leaned into that and hopefully the lovely little soul that she is comes through on the page.
From here on in I definitely won't be using any real people in my work. Well, not a whole one anyway!
It doesn’t mean that I don’t take inspiration from real people because I absolutely do but there is never a whole character dropped onto the page from real life… until now!
For the first time I have gone against my own advice and put a complete real individual into my story Tuesdays Are For Oversharing.
Before you start to worry about the lawsuits let me explain. The character is my cat Lily.
I always knew this book had cats and I mulled over their personalities. To start with I took aspects of our old cat Harry for Claude who was grumpy, liked to scratch and bite people and was generally intolerant of anyone and anything. And then the second cat was the total opposite. She was sweet and cuddly. Always there trying to cheer up her human when they were feeling down. She loved a tummy rub, the cat not the human, and never put her claws out. Around about the second draft I realised the second cat was entirely Lily, so I leaned into that and hopefully the lovely little soul that she is comes through on the page.
From here on in I definitely won't be using any real people in my work. Well, not a whole one anyway!
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