The Doctor Is In - Even on a holidy weekend.

Every Friday I turn my blog into a couch and invite Dr. Sue O'Doherty to offer up some writer's therapy. To have your question answered write to her at Dr.Sue@mindspring dot com.

WHEN A NOVEL ENDANGERS A FRIENDSHIP

We are constantly admonished, “Write what you know.” When we follow this advice closely, life can get complicated. Below, a writer confronts a boundary issue:

Dear Dr. O’Doherty:
I am writing a novel featuring a good friend as the main character. Basically, I took her life and gave it a twist, an ugly twist. While much of it is not true, there are truthful elements to it that I'm sure she will recognize and be offended by. I am debating whether or not to pursue the publication of this story. If I do, I might lose her friendship. What should I consider and what should I do?

Hungry Writer

Dear Hungry:
I’m a psychologist, not an ethicist, so I’m afraid I can’t tell you what to do. Instead, I will suggest a few exercises that employ your novelist’s imagination, in the hope that they will help you arrive at your own decision.

1. Imagine you are writing a novel about a woman, A, who discovers that her friend, B, has used her life as material for his novel. Write the chapter that describes what happens when the A reads the novel. Write in the first person, from A’s point of view. Have her describe how she feels, why she thinks B has done this, which parts of the novel affect her most, and why. Don’t just scratch the surface; go as deeply into her emotions and makeup as I’m sure you have done in your “real” novel.
2. Now, switching to an omniscient narrator, write a chapter about the friendship. Discuss what it means to both characters—what the expectations and rules are, both spoken and unspoken. How will the novel’s publication alter the friendship? What is at stake for both characters?
3. Jump ahead a year or two. What is the status of the friendship now? Write a passage from each character’s POV describing the loss, or the continuation, of the friendship, and how this came about, and what it means in the character’s life.
4. At the end of the book, B is looking back over his life. He thinks of things he might have done differently. Is writing or publishing the novel one of them? If so, what would he change? Writing the book at all? Seeking publication? The timing of his disclosure to his friend that he had fictionalized episodes from her life? Be as thorough and specific as possible.
5. Once you have completed these exercises, put what you have written under your pillow. Leave it there for a week. During this time, pay attention to your dreams. What do they tell you about this friendship and the choice you must make?

Some friendships can survive literary appropriation. Some novels may be so important they are worth the sacrifice of a friendship. You are the only one who can decide your course of action—but tread carefully and with forethought, keeping in mind that in life, there are no first drafts, and that flesh-and-blood friends, unlike literary characters, will bleed if you cut them.

Susan O’Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A well-published author herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com

Comments

[Susanito]

Dr. Sue in the house! I'm thrilled you're doing this. MJ, excellent idea! And this was a very thoughtful answer to a thorny problem.

[katharine weber]

I always urge my writing students to consider and reconsider their own motives for writing about actual people and events in their fiction. When the writer is questioned about a detail or a gesture or a moment in a story, "That's the way it really happened" is NOT an acceptable explanation for its inclusion. If it doesn't do something to drive the story forward, if it doesn't illuminate character or expand our sense of atmosphere or take the plot to the next crucial point -- if it isn't serving the fiction, in other words -- then the motivation for appropriation from real life is called into question. With this in mind, it becomes clear if writing the best possible fiction is really the agenda, as opposed to reporting on actual people or events for personal reasons that are not necessarily consonant with making the story as good as it can be.

[Cornelia Read]

Couldn't the author change some key elements about this character to make the likeness less exact? Throw in adopted Chinese twin daughters, a few ex-husbands, a completely erroneous job, snake tattoos, and/or red/blonde/dreadlocked hair... maybe even a fictional obsession with quilting, voodoo ritual, meatloaf recipes, or Scientology?

If the not-essential-to-the-plot info bears no resemblance to the friend, the friend may be far less likely to take offense--especially if the author imbues this character with qualities, attributes, or life circumstances belonging to OTHER people they both know.

[ttre]

Awesome!!!0