Stories Based on Real Events

[Stanfield2025]

I'll start. I don't know how many of you know about Jake Paul and Logan Paul, but they're YouTube vloggers who get up to all sorts of crazy antics. There was an incident in which Jake Paul carried on a toxic relationship with a YouTuber known as Alissa Violet. Alissa cheated on Jake by having sex with his brother and it created a whole YouTube drama that lasted for several months.

I was so inspired by this I took that basic situation and placed it in a medieval setting. In the story, the queen cheats on her cruel king by having sex with his brother, then has a child from that brother, and things eventually escalate into a civil war due to the succession crisis.

So, I'm wondering if this sort of thing is normal. Do any of you see things happen in real life and write those things into your stories?

 

[dirk2024]

I'll start. I don't know how many of you know about Jake Paul and Logan Paul, but they're YouTube vloggers who get up to all sorts of crazy antics. There was an incident in which Jake Paul carried on a toxic relationship with a YouTuber known as Alissa Violet. Alissa cheated on Jake by having sex with his brother and it created a whole YouTube drama that lasted for several months.

I was so inspired by this I took that basic situation and placed it in a medieval setting. In the story, the queen cheats on her cruel king by having sex with his brother, then has a child from that brother, and things eventually escalate into a civil war due to the succession crisis.

So, I'm wondering if this sort of thing is normal. Do any of you see things happen in real life and write those things into your stories?

First off, I like the direction you're taking with the real life train wreck.

The question about "is this normal?" Is there such a thing as "normal" here on Lit?

I'm sure there are people who have taken real life experiences and turned them into stories here. Though yours would certainly be more of a creative push than others.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Inspiration is where you find it.
I've written several stories where the inspiration was some story I heard and I thought... "what if..."

 

[Stanfield2025]

Though yours would certainly be more of a creative push than others.

Really? What makes you say that?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Really? What makes you say that?

I'd agree, because you are taking a relatively simple situation and writing a MUCH bigger story around it. That's a good thing IMHO.

 

[dirk2024]

Really? What makes you say that?

Well, from what I've seen, the stories were set in our time.

You are turning to the Mideviel era for yours.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I think it's pretty common. Usually it's fairly 1:1 though, so I like the direction you're taking this.

 

[Actingup]

Check out @TruthwithaTwist’s stories for an example of an approach that is explicitly about retelling his own experiences with bits of fantasy thrown in.

I think that many writers use real life experiences, myself included.

 

[SkyBubble]

Since "true" isn't a caegory, I won't say how many of my storis are based on real events.

 

[DanDraper]

This is a common trend among many authors here. Most of my stories I came up with on my own, but I have written several stories inspired by either my own personal experiences, or stories I've heard from others, and put a twist on it.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I can't count the number of times that some element of true life hasn't inspired a story.

Songs are frequently an inspiration for me, as are news stories, historical events, and people I have met in real life.

 

[SimonDoom]

My personal favorite example of this is my story Penis Fish, which was inspired by a true story that MelissaBaby linked to about thousands of innkeeper worms, also called "penis fish" because of their appearance, washing up on a beach in California. In my story the penis worms were actually alien invaders intent on impregnating women and taking over the Earth.

That part of the story isn't true. I took a little bit of license.

 

[SarcasticHusband]

All my stories - none of which I’m brave enough to post yet - are at least inspired by real events. Not newsworthy events or even interesting events, but real ones that happened to me. Could be a person I know and their reactions, a great location for a scene, an outfit I see in public: it’s all fodder for my fantasies.

 

[Stanfield2025]

In my story the penis worms were actually alien invaders intent on impregnating women and taking over the Earth.

Sounds scary.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

So, I'm wondering if this sort of thing is normal. Do any of you see things happen in real life and write those things into your stories?

Weird to see the Paul brothers named on AH, but to answer this question, then yes, this is actually normal in real life. Really, it's the most common gossip ever; so common it's a cliche on every single corner in every single town ever to exist. Sometimes it's made up because the one who started gossiping misread, misunderstood, and assumed the wrong thing. If you're looking for historical examples, there's tons to choose, and you bet your ass England has at least one to pick. But forget the high-stakes politics; family feuds and friendship groups broke apart due to stuff like that, and they were just nobodies like you and I.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

brothers

You spelled garbage wrong.

 

[Comshaw]

My personal favorite example of this is my story Penis Fish, which was inspired by a true story that MelissaBaby linked to about thousands of innkeeper worms, also called "penis fish" because of their appearance, washing up on a beach in California. In my story the penis worms were actually alien invaders intent on impregnating women and taking over the Earth.

That part of the story isn't true. I took a little bit of license.

WHAT??? Say it ain't so Joe!!!

Comshaw

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Kid from my kid's class is now a dad at 17. He'd had a girlfriend for two years, but now doesn't because the mum is the girlfriend's cousin. Apparently the big family Christmas was entertaining!

It's a common enough scenario that I'm not outing anyone by saying that.

There was the time two colleagues, both practical jokers, came and told me she was pregnant and he was the father. He had a fiancée, she had a husband who also worked with us. No-one believed them, thinking it was another joke, until someone asked the husband. That was a fun few months.

I don't write adultery stories, but some of my stories are true, some are mostly true, many could be but weren't.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

You spelled garbage wrong.

Keep it in the politics thread.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Kid from my kid's class is now a dad at 17. He'd had a girlfriend for two years, but now doesn't because the mum is the girlfriend's cousin. Apparently the big family Christmas was entertaining!

It's a common enough scenario that I'm not outing anyone by saying that.

There was the time two colleagues, both practical jokers, came and told me she was pregnant and he was the father. He had a fiancée, she had a husband who also worked with us. No-one believed them, thinking it was another joke, until someone asked the husband. That was a fun few months.

I don't write adultery stories, but some of my stories are true, some are mostly true, many could be but weren't.

Truth is stranger than fiction as they say.
A college friend was at a party and watched a girl confront an older woman about sleeping with her boyfriend. Turns out it was her mom...
There are probably very few stories on Lit in the basic categories where something remarkably similar hasn't happened in real life a time or two.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Truth is stranger than fiction as they say.
A college friend was at a party and watched a girl confront an older woman about sleeping with her boyfriend. Turns out it was her mom...
There are probably very few stories on Lit in the basic categories where something remarkably similar hasn't happened in real life a time or two.

My mother is convinced I'm with the wrong brother, and still asks me if I wouldn't be happier with BIL despite me being married for 20 years.

a) I'm not interested in BIL
b) I'm sure BIL isn't interested in me
c) BIL's wife, who he's been happily with since I first met him, would kill me! And him!

What I haven't told my mother is that spouse and his sister looked pretty much identical when I first knew them (I'm pretty faceblind, I admit, but same colouring and hair at the time), and when SIL realised I couldn't reliably tell them apart, started flirting horribly with me and suggesting a shag or even a threesome. Which we refused! But if anyone wants that plot, go for it...

 

[Kelliezgirl]

My mother is convinced I'm with the wrong brother, and still asks me if I wouldn't be happier with BIL despite me being married for 20 years.

a) I'm not interested in BIL
b) I'm sure BIL isn't interested in me
c) BIL's wife, who he's been happily with since I first met him, would kill me! And him!

What I haven't told my mother is that spouse and his sister looked pretty much identical when I first knew them (I'm pretty faceblind, I admit, but same colouring and hair at the time), and when SIL realised I couldn't reliably tell them apart, started flirting horribly with me and suggesting a shag or even a threesome. Which we refused! But if anyone wants that plot, go for it...

One of my brother's co-workers is an identical twin, he and his brother married a set of identical twin sisters. If one pair were to cheat... a paternity test would be useless.

I'm not faceblind, but I'm certainly twin-blind. I have a horrendous time telling twins apart, so I'd never date a twin. Seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

You spelled garbage wrong.

I'm sorry, but garbage does not deserve to be degraded to such level.

 

[liliput1]

You spelled garbage wrong.

I couldn't think of a better pair for that to happen to. And oddly on brand. Good for her.

 

[WaxPhilosophic]

Once upon a time, some jack wagon floated the idea that Mars colonists could pay their way to the red planet by entering into what essentially amounted to indentured servitude contracts. I got a story out of this (and then some) with Tales from the Stream. Lesbian space pirates who said screw this indentured servitude crap, stole a spaceship, and set out on adventure.

So yeah, go for it!