Most of us would change the key details about people if we're going to be writing about them....especially if there's a chance they might read the piece.

Have you ever had someone question if a character was based on them, though? Was it actually? And did you tell them the truth?

QuirkyJessi (04:38pm Fri, Nov 30, 2012)

Have you ever had someone question if a character was based on them, though? Was it actually? And did you tell them the truth?

Yes, yes and hell no.

A good journalist never divulges their source.

Yes I have written about people I know. They all died.

I do. I have not told them nor have they asked...but I'm not hiding it ha ha.

Bunny (02:57am Sat, Dec  1, 2012)

I do. I have not told them nor have they asked...but I'm not hiding it ha ha.

Not since I uploaded that torrent of your work, no, I'd say not ...

SifuPhil (04:44pm Fri, Nov 30, 2012)

A good journalist never divulges their source.

Pfft. A good journalist gets their source to give them permission to use them in the first place.

But good boy for never divulging otherwise anyway.

QuirkyJessi (11:17pm Sat, Dec  1, 2012)

Pfft. A good journalist gets their source to give them permission to use them in the first place.

Unless they're an "unnamed source" or "a highly-placed source" ...

Quote

But good boy for never divulging otherwise anyway.

I can't take credit for it - Josh Liebermann told me about it, when I went to dinner at his house located at 245 Jackson Hole Road, Missoula, Mon -

... oh.

Yes. I think some people close to me would detect the similarities between them and their characters. Of course, I also mix a couple of twists to make the resemblance less obvious.

Vida, what if that pisses them off because they think you're saying it IS them?? I could see that happening, in fact one of my characters....Let's just say a family member is convinced it's her and it's not!

I just remembered. I was reading my story and the tension and silence as I read what this woman was saying... She thinks it's her because of some similarities in height, I guess how she views herself and how this character actually looks, and a comment or two.

In actual truth, this character is not even remotely based on this family member, nor are any similarities intentional or even coincidence. Just because two people are short means nothing, and just because you think you're ancient doesn't mean you are - especially when you're not ha ha .


But it doesn't stop the family member from being pissed off, of course.

The only time I have written someone I knew into a story was when I was in school. I was supposed to be writing a composition about my school holidays. I ended up writing a short story that filled up an entire 80-page exercise book. In the story, I had my English teacher, describing him complete with his big stomach. To his credit, when he read the story he didn't mark me down for that.

Bunny (12:44am Sun, Dec  2, 2012)

But it doesn't stop the family member from being pissed off, of course.

Sigh. If she kept going on, I'd probably just tell her not to flatter herself. Maybe she just wants to think she's important enough to make your story and so she's obsessing over it. Oh well.

If the story is in fact her biography then she'd be right in worrying about it. 

No the story isn't even in this world really ha ha. She thinks I'm being nasty and I've exaggerated her features lol.

Bunny (09:06pm Sun, Dec  2, 2012)

No the story isn't even in this world really ha ha. She thinks I'm being nasty and I've exaggerated her features lol.

In that case, I would dismiss it as just her having an over-active imagination. It would become really interesting if you write a novel based on that character, then the novel sells millions of copies and she sues you for character theft. That would be downright hilarious.

I will sell it and I hope it makes millions, and I would love to see her try ha ha.

Bunny (10:32pm Sun, Dec  2, 2012)

I will sell it and I hope it makes millions, and I would love to see her try ha ha.

Well, if she doesn't, I am sure someone else would. Remember how Rowling was sued for stealing the idea of Harry Potter?

Yes that's true. Omg wouldn't it be funny if someone came up and said that they were based on the characters of 50 shades of grey ha ha.

I am still waiting for that to happen. In the meantime, someone has already done a porn version of Fifty Shades and are being sued for it. Methinks the porn producers have miscalculated something somewhere.

Victor Leigh (11:16am Mon, Dec  3, 2012)

I am still waiting for that to happen. In the meantime, someone has already done a porn version of Fifty Shades and are being sued for it. Methinks the porn producers have miscalculated something somewhere.

Actually, they probably calculated just fine. More than likely, they already knew the risk of getting sued and could've even calculated that cost into their budget. A porno of that could make them some really big bucks, so getting sued is merely an expense to figure in.

QuirkyJessi (01:57pm Mon, Dec  3, 2012)

Victor Leigh (11:16am Mon, Dec  3, 2012)

I am still waiting for that to happen. In the meantime, someone has already done a porn version of Fifty Shades and are being sued for it. Methinks the porn producers have miscalculated something somewhere.

Actually, they probably calculated just fine. More than likely, they already knew the risk of getting sued and could've even calculated that cost into their budget. A porno of that could make them some really big bucks, so getting sued is merely an expense to figure in.

Maybe they calculated that the process of being sued is a big promotion exercise and they have factored that cost into their advertising budget. Still the amount they have been sued for is not chicken feed. Very unlike what happened in the case of those papers which printed the topless pictures of Kate.

You guys talking about 50 Blades So Gay? I saw the rushes of it last week - the action sequences are OK but the plot sucks.

SifuPhil (09:10pm Mon, Dec  3, 2012)

You guys talking about 50 Blades So Gay? I saw the rushes of it last week - the action sequences are OK but the plot sucks.

Now since when did a porn flick need a plot?

 
Gotta be a little bit pedantic here, but the journalism and sources isn't what this is about, I think.
In reporting you have off the record and unnamed sources and you have on the record and you have 'leads.'
I think we are talking of fiction and characters and who the characters are based on.
IE if I base the hero on say for example Sifu and then I base the villain on say  . . Bunny, I tell neither of them.
In terms of fiction and real, there was a fairly well know novel based on Aleister Crowley but the villain of the story was not named Crowley.  There are others too but this came to mind first.

"Maugham's supernatural thriller, The Magician (1907), based its principal character on the well-known and somewhat disreputable Aleister Crowley. Crowley took some offence at the treatment of the protagonist, Oliver Haddo. He wrote a critique of the novel, charging Maugham with plagiarism, in a review published in Vanity Fair. (taken from Wikipedia) 


Secondary thought - do we need a heading for writing on erotica aka porn? We have Phil and Victor talking about writing porn and 50 Shades of  we have Bunny talking about cheerleader sluts . . . oh my.

Ryder13

Victor Leigh (11:47am Tue, Dec  4, 2012)

Now since when did a porn flick need a plot?

Not sure if it's still around, since watching porn is against my religion (just kidding), but for a while there was a movement to produce what I call "boutique porn" - high-end, expensive, full-production pieces with real acting and real plot.

I knew a producer in LA that was getting into it and had a few initial successes, but I'm not sure if they continued. The idea was that women, having become such major pornsumers, wanted them some romance in their porn, just as they liked some porn in their romance (novels).

I know the production costs for his one boutique film were almost double what a regular porn vid would be. Plus, he of course had to deal with more logistical problems - like where do you find a guy who's hung AND can enunciate? 

Maybe it's something you can look into as part of your new career as a pimp porn baron smut peddler erotica writer.


Oh, Lao-Tzu save me - I amuse myself!

There was actually a woman former porn star who became a producer/director of adult films and did just this same thing. Her thing was consent, no degrading stuff, and affection. I know she has more than just one film-dvd to her credit.
But the comment about women being major porn consumers? I wonder. It may be true in regard to something like Shades of  but when it comes to dvds probably not so much. Shades also may just be a one of a kind, or, alternately, maybe an extension of the 'Romance' novels into something a bit edgy.
So does one expect a call from his significant other reminding him to drop by the porn dvd shop on the way home to pick up a movie for the both of them?
Is this that strange a suggestion. In Bettie Page's era who would have thought that every woman under the age of 50 would have at least one tattoo? Now, pretty much.
No I am not putting down young woman for having tats. It is just a major jump from what used to be.
it used to be cons, bikers and military types, all male.
Ryder13
 

The 2007 study by the Nielsen ratings people showed 1/3 of the visitors to porn sites was a female - 13 million women were checking out porn each month.

Hustler video, one of the larger players in the trade, claimed 56% of its customers were female in 2009.

From what i can see from studies such as these and observations such as yours and mine, and knowing a few people involved in the field, I would hazard a guess that the numbers are now somewhere around the 50% point.

I have no hard data on this but I would hazard a guess that at least one in ten men had watched porn so that they could rise to the occassion when duty called. And of these men, maybe even as much as half did it with the open encouragement of their litte women. I know that women are very practical about this kind of thing. It's sort of like what good is the promise of a fun time if you can't get a firm grip on the issue at hand.

If women are consuming more than men, wouldn't it be because they're doing something right, instead of wrong?

SifuPhil (06:44pm Wed, Dec  5, 2012)

The 2007 study by the Nielsen ratings people showed 1/3 of the visitors to porn sites was a female - 13 million women were checking out porn each month.

Hustler video, one of the larger players in the trade, claimed 56% of its customers were female in 2009.

From what i can see from studies such as these and observations such as yours and mine, and knowing a few people involved in the field, I would hazard a guess that the numbers are now somewhere around the 50% point.

Well Hustler is hardly the most elegant of 'erotica' providers IMHO. And that percentage, well it does seem exceptionally high, especially for Hustler, a magazine that achieved part of its claim to fame through a character called Chester the Molester.
I would probably expect more female erotica fans to be into Penthouse than Hustler. But that percentage still seems exceptionally high. More women buy Hustler than men? Reallly? Yeah and more women buy lapdances than men? Sorry I recognize you did say video not the mag.
Ryder13

Bunny (05:00am Thu, Dec  6, 2012)

If women are consuming more than men, wouldn't it be because they're doing something right, instead of wrong?

I think all this while women had been reading more porn than men. After all, who is morely likely to be sitting at home? I think we are seeing what seems to be a surge in the percentage of women reading porn now because more women are willing to admit that they are reading porn. It's kind of like being aroused. Before when women get aroused, they don't talk about it. Men don't have much choice, though, since arousal in men is so obvious.

You could have a point there Victor. Interesting, I wonder if there's any recent research on those topics.

Kenny (08:16am Fri, Dec  7, 2012)

You could have a point there Victor. Interesting, I wonder if there's any recent research on those topics.

Not too sure if there's any research on it. However I am doing my own research on the matter. Could make a good article to publish on my erotica site.

Ryder13 (08:25pm Thu, Dec  6, 2012)

Well Hustler is hardly the most elegant of 'erotica' providers IMHO. And that percentage, well it does seem exceptionally high, especially for Hustler, a magazine that achieved part of its claim to fame through a character called Chester the Molester.

Elegant or not, they're a power to be contended with in the video world - in fact, without even checking stats I would hazard that their "hard-bound" empire is just being kept on for purposes of tradition - videos are SO much more the current rage.

As for dear old Chester - well, Playboy had Little Annie Fannie and Penthouse had a whole stable of characters from Bang Bang to Nazi Kong - I'm not sure that choice of mascot would be an issue in video sales.

Quote

I would probably expect more female erotica fans to be into Penthouse than Hustler. But that percentage still seems exceptionally high. More women buy Hustler than men? Reallly? Yeah and more women buy lapdances than men? Sorry I recognize you did say video not the mag.
Ryder13

yeah, that's the difference. Hustler has sort of specialized in parody videos, or at least that's where they got their start, and it's a different ballgame (pun intended) now that the old man is basically out of the picture - 70 years old and paralyzed from the waist down I don't know that he has the energy to keep up with the trends by himself - he's doubtless relying upon family and staff to do much of the bird-dogging for him. They'll in turn bring a different sensibility to the Hustler brand, or should if they have a brain among them.

Back on topic, I do tend to write about people I know, in articles rather than stories. Up to now, I've never had anyone question if it was them, and that's probably because I tend to mix the characteristics of several people up in one character on the page.

And just for the record, I'm one of those women that 'consumes' porn as well. And I'm 60 - disgusting, isn't it?