Fiction Writing and Reality

Joe from Ohio sent in this question about incorporating reality into your fiction writing: Can I use the actual names of pro football teams in a fiction novel? I want to try to answer Joe's question and talk more generally about using real teams, people, places, events, whatever in novel writing.

The simple answer is that you are free to use anything you like in fiction. So, yes, by all means mention a real team, Joe, and name the individual players, too, and describe actual games and results if you want. More generally, you can use a real-life movie star in you novel, or have your fictional events unfold against the backdrop of a real event (Obama's inaugaration, say), or use reality in any way you like in your writing.

But here's the thing: be careful you don't upset anyone if you don't want to get sued...

• Saying things about the real person, sports team, etc, which are factually accurate is fine (even if the facts don't show the person in a good light).



• Stating opinions (or having your novel's character's state them) is okay, too - so you could have a character say that he thinks the NY Giants suck.



• But you can't say anything which is factually inaccurate (particularly if the "fact" also happens to be libellous). For example, you couldn't have your fictional football team beat the Green Bay Packers in the Superbowl final if the Packers did actually win it that year.

So what you have to do is be a little clever when you incorporate reality into your fiction writing. Here's an example:

In John Irving's novel Until I Find You (I know I'm always going on about John Irving, it's just that I happen to know a lot about his fiction.) But anyway, in this novel the lead character wins an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. All of the real-life movie people are name-checked during the ceremony - all except for the guy who really did win the screenplay award that year. Now, you might think that the real recipient wouldn't be too happy at being overlooked like that and having a fictional character in a novel receive the award instead. But the real winner that year was Irving himself!

Harvey