I hope you didn't name that Starfleet Captain in one of your fan-fictions after me because you thought I was a booktrek forum troll.
not at all. that was because i thought you were froody.
A question to all authors here :)
- Thread starter Mr. Laser Beam
- Start date
I'm not a Trek author, but I do write. I've never turned an enemy or acquaintance into a revenge character, although that sounds like fun, so maybe I will...
Mostly I just name characters after friends or my wife. My wife's a big Doctor Who fan, with the first name Amy. I told her that her character in an upcoming product was going to be named after her and live in London, and she asked that I change the name to Amelia, in honor of Amelia Pond, the younger version of Amy Pond. This will work out for the best, as I originally named the character Amy Jones, which is my wife's maiden name. The book is going to be a Power Rangers-inspired RPG setting, so I'm sure that most people reading it will assume that the obvious Pink Ranger character will be named after Amy Jo Johnson, but it is in fact my wife!
I also named the Sixth Ranger character after an old workmate of mine who was kind of like a writing partner. He's Native American, and so is Jason David Frank, or at least his character, who played the first Sixth Ranger. I can't wait for the book to go to press so I can show him his name in print.
Mostly I just name characters after friends or my wife. My wife's a big Doctor Who fan, with the first name Amy. I told her that her character in an upcoming product was going to be named after her and live in London, and she asked that I change the name to Amelia, in honor of Amelia Pond, the younger version of Amy Pond. This will work out for the best, as I originally named the character Amy Jones, which is my wife's maiden name. The book is going to be a Power Rangers-inspired RPG setting, so I'm sure that most people reading it will assume that the obvious Pink Ranger character will be named after Amy Jo Johnson, but it is in fact my wife!
I also named the Sixth Ranger character after an old workmate of mine who was kind of like a writing partner. He's Native American, and so is Jason David Frank, or at least his character, who played the first Sixth Ranger. I can't wait for the book to go to press so I can show him his name in print.
Some guy put a character named after me into a coma.
^worse, he's brain dead.
I don't mean to be insulting by asking this question, I am really honestly genuinely seriously curious.
Authors have been known to slip references to their friends, family, etc. into novels. But if there's somebody who really pissed you off, or who wronged you in some way, would you put their name into one of your books and make them the bad guy? Or a particularly vile creature?
Just wondering how cautious we should be here when talking to the authors who post.
A few years back I was going to write a roman à clef about some jackass who had wronged me. I posted here asking if the guy could still sue me if I changed the guys name. KRAD basically told me to take a chill pill, think about it for a day or two and then decide if I really wanted to take the risk of a lawsuit just to slam some jerk in print.
I did what he said and sure enough I did not write the book. Damn voice of reason!
Not that that's much of a handicap at command-level.
I don't namedrop anyone I know personally, but I do have a list of names culled from news articles, history, and folklore that I construct character names from (first and last names from different people, etc). Most of them are people who had tragic things done to them in life and/or deserve to be immortalized (Afghani child brides, bullying victims, war heroes, 9/11 first responders, etc), but there are a few headline-worthy monsters who deserve to be dragged into the harsh light of day.
I think of it as the modern equivalent of a scribe recording someone's Name (or scratching it out) on a monument. I just happen to work in prose rather than stone.
i've used the names of real people for characters like that; an afghan female character in one of my stories was named for the first woman Afghan Olympian. others are war heroes too...
I've only put "good guys" in my Trek writing...friends who've either asked for a cameo, or in one case someone I wanted to surprise. But I have given the occasional villain in some of my non-Trek writing a slightly altered version of a real-life person's name, and while I don't necessarily kill them off, they deserve their ultimate fate. Writers don't get mad...
More often, though, if I'm deriving some traits from a real-life person, I'll rely on the character's physical description or their profession or the way they speak, etc. to suggest who they're styled after.
That's actually more difficult, I find, than creating a character from the ground up. In that case I'll often just give myself a mental image as a hook ("looks like a young Forest Whitaker"/"looks like Jodie Foster with dark hair"), and let the character take it from there.
More often, though, if I'm deriving some traits from a real-life person, I'll rely on the character's physical description or their profession or the way they speak, etc. to suggest who they're styled after.
That's actually more difficult, I find, than creating a character from the ground up. In that case I'll often just give myself a mental image as a hook ("looks like a young Forest Whitaker"/"looks like Jodie Foster with dark hair"), and let the character take it from there.
^ No matter what they had "you" do?
^ But that is, in a sense, the point I was trying to make by starting this thread. What if they DID have you do really disgusting and/or evil things? Would you be offended? Angry? Shrug it off?
Like I said, discussions can get heated in a place like this. Tempers flare. Things get out of control. You piss off an author, there's no telling what they might do. True, most of us don't use our real names here anyway, but still...
Like I said, discussions can get heated in a place like this. Tempers flare. Things get out of control. You piss off an author, there's no telling what they might do. True, most of us don't use our real names here anyway, but still...
You're far more likely to have an author slam bad fish puns in one of their works than something with the initials MLB. From what I've seen here, the authors can take negative criticism, and even if something said here is upsetting, vindictiveness written in the heat of the moment is unlikely to survive multiple drafts and editorial oversight.
Like in most things in life, how we express ourselves is important. It's okay to think that a book is one of the most boring pieces of prose ever written, but there are plenty of ways to get the idea across with tact and politeness. It's also good practice to read over what you write online and take a minute before hitting "Post."
From what I've seen here, the authors can take negative criticism, and even if something said here is upsetting, vindictiveness written in the heat of the moment is unlikely to survive multiple drafts and editorial oversight.Like in most things in life, how we express ourselves is important. It's okay to think that a book is one of the most boring pieces of prose ever written, but there are plenty of ways to get the idea across with tact and politeness. It's also good practice to read over what you write online and take a minute before hitting "Post."
Heartbreaker. Fish puns are the stuff of legends!
^ If it's obvious enough who the artist is really referring to, why are those disclaimers sufficient?
And even so, if enough readers can tell who it is, the damage has already been done.
And even so, if enough readers can tell who it is, the damage has already been done.
