Sherman's saga began on May 1, so you may want to start there and work your way forward. Each video is under two minutes long. Below the video we look at another kind of writer's block and how to overcome it.
THE 'WHAT IF THEY RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES' BLOCK
If you're writing something that is based even loosely on real people, you may wonder whether they, like Sherman's mother, might wonder whether you're writing about them. If you have portrayed them in a less than flattering light, will they hate you? Sue you?
Here are some tips on how to avoid that:
* Change lots of details so it's not easy to recognize your models for the characters. You can change gender, age, physical description, the setting, profession, hobbies, relationships, etc.
* Go for hybrids. In other words, mix together the characteristics of several people so that the combination is not that much like any of them. This also gives you deniability. You can say, honestly, "No, that character was not based on you."
* Remember that actually people generally don't know themselves well enough to recognize what you've used, especially their bad traits. Lots of successful authors have commented on that.
And if you're worried that a totally ficitonal character might accidentally be similar to a real person who coud turn around and sue you, here are a couple of tips:
* If you create somebody really hateful, give them either a common name or an obscure name. The Bill Smiths of the world are used to encountering hundreds of other Bill Smiths and they won't automatically think that an evil character with that name is modelled on them.
If you give the character a very obscure name, check Facebook and Google that name to see if anybody actually is called that. Be especially careful that you haven't give this evil character any characteristics that you spot for someone with a similar name. For instance, if your character is a sadistic dentist named Hieronymous Skitch, and you find there's a real dentist named Hieronymous Skatch, change the name totally.
Frankly, usually fears about this issue usually are overblown. Use a bit of common sense and you'll be fine.
(Want more good writing advice? Not just from me but from Charles Dickens, Anton Chekhov, and Jane Austen? It's in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)
