Can I present a fictional story as a true story?

[jeffjohns]

I have an idea for a character that would work really well if I presented them as real and published under biographies.

Can I do that?

[Matthew Brown]

Are you able to? Yes, I expect you are.

Should you? Hmmm maybe, I don’t know the story.

Will readers accept this when the truth comes out? I cannot say – it is a risk.

Will retailers cooperate? Who knows?

Is it legal? I have no idea. Check with an expert over the finer points of the Trade Description Act.

[Sarah]

Absolutely I’d say.  There are some great books of this sort of ilk – Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke has footnotes and references all the way through of magic books from the 17th/18th Centuries, Lincoln In the Bardo by George Saunders again uses footnotes to include eyewitness accounts and references from other sources and even Dracula by Stoker and Frankenstein by Shelley use diary entries and newspaper clippings to tell their stories.  I’m sure there are fictionalised biographies out there as well although I’m not sure if I’ve read any, but I quite like this revisionist way of looking at things.

[Matthew Brown]

I had forgotten all about the epistolary form of fiction. It used to be really popular.

I totally revise my position. I bet this form is a lot of fun.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 12 months ago by Matthew Brown.

[Sarah]

I enjoy the ‘unreliable narrator’ aspect of writing and having ideas and perspectives challenged, so to have a fictionalised biography it gives the opportunity to play about with a period in history or an alternate world that the character inhabits.

[Matthew Brown]

I do enjoy exploring the spaces between the known. All sorts of good ideas can be played with.

[Adam Bassman]

There is no can or cannot in writing. There is just writing.

[Author]

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