Using real people as inspiration.

[Ssbbw4u1974]

Mostly, yes....i change the names, and I've never had the sexual experiences with the characters they are based on IRL...

But in fantasy, they are based loosely on people I know...

 

[KittyOfSteele]

we're perhaps not as original as thought... No shame in being influenced... It's how you use it that's important.

Honestly I never saw myself as original. Actually, originality I think of it as a bit of a myth. Yeah, I know how the adage goes: "good artists copy, great artists steal," but that scratches the surface of what I mean. To me it's more like what we craft now is built upon the lessons that we learn from the craftsmen before us, who are teaching us through their work.

I can't seem to escape Blade Runner, Shadowrun, Sin City, Vampire: The Masquerade, and the neon-noirs of Nicolas Winding Refn... But yes indeed, I can make them my own, with bits and bobs from other places.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Honestly I never saw myself as original. Actually, originality I think of it as a bit of a myth. Yeah, I know how the adage goes: "good artists copy, great artists steal," but that scratches the surface of what I mean. To me it's more like what we craft now is built upon the lessons that we learn from the craftsmen before us, who are teaching us through their work.

I can't seem to escape Blade Runner, Shadowrun, Sin City, Vampire: The Masquerade, and the neon-noirs of Nicolas Winding Refn... But yes indeed, I can make them my own, with bits and bobs from other places.

Making them yours is the important part...
Hard to be original these days... Only so many plotlines...
Just tell your story utilising your style... Your voice...

Cagivagurl

 

[MrPixel]

I have only one character (of many dozens) that I drew straight across from real life, a friend and co-worker from some 40 years ago. He was definitely a ladies' man, handsome, smooth, with a baritone voice that I knew sent shivers down many a female spine. And a great guy all around. He fit perfectly with a hotel bar pickup scene I wrote a couple of years ago, I just had to write his character exactly as I knew him, even using his IRL first name.

Sadly, I discovered he passed away several years ago. I searched for him online, and true to form, his "retirement job" at a state resort was the kind of volunteer work where ladies on holiday would be numerous. I'm sure he charmed every one, that was simply his nature. If he was around to read my portrayal of him, I know he would approve.

 

[AchtungNight]

Glad to see so many positive replies here! For a moment I was worried I was being a real creep.

Characters in my stories tend to be based on people I know, with names and some minor details changed for the sake of things. It's sort of my way to vent some fantasies and get them out of my head.

I do this also. However that’s at the beginning of my process. By the time I’m finished with a story, all the characters are more fictional and remain so even if they’re still recognizable as their inspirations.

 

[Belegon]

I often do. but they are not only renamed, I tend to mix them together. And with rare exceptions, personalities are almost always different looking from the real person. Some of them might be obvious to the right person... especially if they ignored physical description. Although I often do use someone for the physical description and just make sure their personality is different from the real person....

In my Novel, Real Vampires Don't Surf, the female lead is based almost entirely on two ex-girlfriends. One provides the body, although she was more a swimmer than a surfer, and the other provides a great deal of the personality. The girl who provided the body, if she recognized me via my pen name, would probably recognize her physical description. The girl who provided the personality I know for damn sure would see herself in the character, but that won't ever happen as she (Biplaymate420 her at Lit.) passed away in 2023.

The biggest exception I have is some early stories. my first story ever posted here is basically autobiographical... the name is changed and the hair color, but there is a lot of the actual girl in there. The guy's secondary profession is a little bit of me dreaming, as I never had the guitar skills attached to the character. I did play in a few bands in that era, but I was always on bass. Wingman, my first story that ever won anything here at Lit, is very close to an actual event and four of the characters and the situations they create are true to life. And not all of the names are even changed.

 

[nice90sguy]

do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters

Always.

 

[old_prof]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters?

I am finishing up my first series, also my first anything published here and my first fiction written in fifty years. Several of the characters are based on people I knew well in my younger days. One of my terrors of pushing submit was that one of them would discover the series. Even though all the characters vary from their real life counterparts significantly, I think anyone out of that group would recognize that it was based on us. I had a zoom meeting recently that included one of them, the one who I had particularly misrepresented in the stories. He did not say anything, much to my relief.

 

[HordHolm]

I use real people all the time. They'd never recognise themselves, though, as I change them to fit my needs. I do this in both erotica and in non-erotica. Mostly I use traits rather than physical characteristics, and I try my best not to mix the two from one person - so, I might loosely describe a close friend (without their most distinguishing physical characteristic), but then give the character a mix of traits from other people I know. A kind of Frankenstein's character, if you will.

EDIT - I should add, I do this almost exclusively for side characters, hardly ever for a main character (I can only think of one time a main character was, physically, someone I knew. That was in something non-erotic.).

 

[Pabiporffor]

What I tend to do is pick one name of someone I know ( or a random name out of a newspaper) , pick another person for the physical description, and then another person for the personality traits. Fortunately I know more than a few people who's personalities are just right for lit stories, I just need to exaggerate a wee bit.

 

[madelinemasoch]

I wouldn’t put it in the way most of you on this thread have. I will say that creative ideas come from priorly existing realities. I don’t like using logic to force anything onto the ideas because if I’m open, non judgmental, and intuitive enough, the ideas show me with energy I can feel and visuals I can see and lines that come out what they want to be. I wouldn’t want it to be any other way, even though this approach takes more time to get right. “Right” just means in accordance with the ideas for me.

Also, because my process is so much a channeling, I don’t think it’d be fair to “blame” me or what have you for how my work comes out. I am only a messenger. The really good ideas have themes and conceptual symbology baked in. I’ve found if they don’t show me those deeper aspects, I lose interest in writing them these days.

 

[SkyBubble]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters? Like, do you base their appearance off someone you know/knew, or do you just make everything up?

For those that do use people you know for inspiration, do you ever feel weird/wrong/bad about doing so?

Some of the women in my stories have characteristics of women I've known. I borrow these to help ground my characters in reality of a sort.

 

[YDB95]

Most of my stories have at least one character based on someone I know or used to know. Of course I change the names and don't use anything too specific...but I imagine my friends from college (a few of whom have read my stories, I know for a fact) could probably guess who I had in mind when I wrote some of my stories.

 

[GrantBricksly]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters? Like, do you base their appearance off someone you know/knew, or do you just make everything up?

For those that do use people you know for inspiration, do you ever feel weird/wrong/bad about doing so?

Every story i write has a character based on my wife. And most have character based on me. Do I take creative license with those characters and sometimes enhance certain aspects? Sometimes, if the story calls for it.
Do I feel weird/bad/wrong doing it? No. I write my stories for me, and for my wife. People on Lit are just bonus readers.
I use erotic writing as a creative outlet. A way for me to live out my fantasies. A way to give my wife her fantasies. So no, I don't feel weird or bad or wrong about it. I feel great.
And Again, I write the stories FOR me, and FOR my wife. And while occasionally ill have another character based on a real person..it's usually someone I met in passing...someone I'll never see again...and the inspiration is just that, inspiration. While my wife and I are more than just inspiration. Those character are based on us. They think like us, look like us, act like us...

 

[Lifestyle66]

I started a story about a week ago, loosely based on some past events (and things I included in previous stories.)

But with the approach of Memorial Day, I thought about old friends, gone but not forgotten.

The story is now over 7.6K words and growing as I include more of those not forgotten and build far more detail. At this point, I can't just throw it out for the public, because I want to make a much better story ... in their memory.

 

[Writer61]

When writing erotica, do any of you use real people as your inspiration for characters? Like, do you base their appearance off someone you know/knew, or do you just make everything up?

Quite a lot. For most of my stories, I have a picture or two of each character in a PowerPoint file. Some are people that I know (my dentist is slated for a future story), others are actors, and a few are random photos of strangers.

I don't write about the person per se, but I do use their physical characteristics and sometimes an odd personality detail. In my mind, those images become a hook that I hang made-up details on. When I look at the photo details of the made-up character come straight back to me.

For those that do use people you know for inspiration, do you ever feel weird/wrong/bad about doing so?

I did at the start, but as I realised that I was not associating the real person with the character in the story, that went away.

FWIW, in the Powerpoint files, I also have photos of places or objects relevant to each story. This has been very useful when picking up unfinished stories after a hiatus.

 

[MillieDynamite]

A simple disclaimer is sometimes required. In historical fiction, I include the line about historical characters being used in a fictional setting.

Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

 

[TiberiusPrime]

If you've read any of my stories, it's most likely "no". However, my 750 word story is based firmly on my life in many ways, just not directly. The title "A Single Purple Rose" is based on my wife's favorite flower.

 

[crookedletter]

I'm sure I do this subconsciously to a degree, but I don't recognize anyone I know in my characters. To the extent that every product of my mind/imagination is informed by my experience, I'm sure when I create a character I'm sifting through the catalog of traits and quirks and idiosyncrasies lifted from people in my life, real and fictional. But as far as any conscious process goes, no: much of the fun for me is in creating these people from scratch and trying to make them come alive.

 

[old_prof]

I knowingly do it to an extent, especially about aspects of myself. But I realized last month that part of a repeating character was based on a student of mine. I doubt she would recognize it in herself, at least yet. She has an inner strength that is starting to emerge as she gains confidence; Iborrowed that growing strength, and amplified it some, as part of the growth in my character.

I have recognized traits of myself in many of the characters that I had not explicitly recognized that I was using until I had reread the story or others in the store comment on that characteristic.

 

[THBGato]

I got this comment on Forty the other day:

So annoying it's from anonymous, as I really want to reply and find out which musician! (Loads of real life musicians appear as background characters in the story.)

 

[MillieDynamite]

Give him your PayPal information and wait for him to make good on the "would have" comment.

I got this comment on Forty the other day:


So annoying it's from anonymous, as I really want to reply and find out which musician! (Loads of real life musicians appear as background characters in the story.)

 

[GraiceeGirl]

So far, all of my stories have been based on my own experiences and those of acquaintances and friends. When I tell someone I write erotica, most of the time they respond positively. I always ask if I can write about them and ask many questions if they say yes. So far, no one has said no. Some of the events in the story may or may not be factual. Everyone has been pleased with their stories.
That said, I'm working on a three-part series that features characters I've dreamed about. No one that I know.

 

[StillStunned]

Myrna in Red Hot isn't based on my wife, strictly speaking, but on how I imagine my wife would be if we met now, instead of 20+ years ago. All the flirting, but with the added confidence of maturity and the possibilities that modern phones offer.

 

[LondonLucy]

Yes, I do use real people as inspiration - but I don't usually base a character solely on a specific person - more often it will be a composite of more than one person, with a bit of my own personality/imagination thrown in for good measure...