Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Trying to Make Some Decisions

Ok, so I'm almost 100% certain I'm doing a memoir. At least that's what what I said on Facebook the other day when I announced I'd come up with a title. Well, actually, I'd had the idea for a title in mind for some time now, but never shared it until recently.
Novelists: 6 Creative Ways to Name Your Fictional Characters -- You Don't Have To Pull From A Hat


As I've said in previous posts, I am uncertain whether to use real names of others I mention. What could they do to me? Sue me? Deny that they ever did what I said they did? Try to expose me as a liar? But even if I changed the names, would they still be able to determine that it was them I was referring to? I know this is not a source of revenge, but some of the people I mentioned have it coming for what they did to me. Some I don't remember the names of, but many I do.  I mentioned my aunt who died in 2008 and my grandfather who did four years earlier.  I feel it's just too boring without names.
Fact and Fiction
For someone who has read more fiction that nonfiction (though I've gotten more into the latter recently), writing  a memoir seems a bit strange. I'd at times envisioned writing a novel and could easily come up with names (at least in my mind) for characters.  I've had a fascination with the name Bob for years now, and with the name Tina as well, but I know I can't keep using these names :-)  As Amanda Fleet said in her blog:
Names of characters can be tricky! Sometimes I've come up with a name and then had to change it as it stopped feeling 'right' for a character, once I'd done all my character notes. Other times, the name has been just right from the start and the character has followed on easily.
Right now I can't even come up with a fake name for anyone I'd referred to.

Now I need to figure out what was wrong with my printer, which I have not yet attempted to hook up since moving.  I still don't know what is wrong with it.  I want to be able to type and print my story so others can read it, so that I can get some critiques and opinions. I don't foresee getting a new computer anytime soon and don't think a flash drive will work with my old computer. My computer still works OK, but I can't get onto Pinterest anymore since they don't support the browser I'm using. And I'm on the mobile version of Twitter because of my browser.  I want to be able to save my work.  I miss the old days of saving documents onto disks. It was so easy to do.

1 comment:

Stephanie Faris said...

I wouldn't use real names. I know if you get it traditionally published, legal will require releases from everyone you mention by name. That says it all. You do put yourself at risk for a lawsuit if they can say that your book somehow slandered them. Or is it libel? I can't ever keep the two apart!