Occasionally, we at Writer’s Relief find ourselves working with a writer who doesn’t quite know what genre he or she is writing (fiction or nonfiction). Let’s say a book or story is based loosely on the author’s real-life adventures. Perhaps the names have been changed. Or maybe one or two little things have been altered, but the story is largely factual.
Should this story be called fiction or nonfiction? If the story is in book form, should it be pitched as a novel or a memoir?
Here are some scenarios we’ve run into, along with suggested solutions.
SITUATION ONE. The author has written a book based on his life. The story is faithful to his experiences in the way that all creative nonfiction tries to recreate stories from memories as accurately as possible. The author has changed the characters’ names to protect identities, but otherwise everything is true. (Writer’s Relief tip: Changing a person’s name will not necessarily protect you from a lawsuit if your characters are recognizable as real people. Learn more: Creative Nonfiction: How To Stay Out Of Trouble).
The problem: The author values his life experience and wants to pitch his book as a memoir. But the names have been changed, so in that way, it’s not entirely truthful.
Solution: In your query letter, explain the situation clearly: My book is an accurate memoir of my life story, though I have changed some names.
SITUATION TWO. An author has written a book based loosely on her life. The story is very familiar to her because she has lived much of it. She has changed characters’ names. She has also taken liberties here and there in order to make the story more compelling, and she amped up her ending to be a little flashier.
The problem: The writer knows that small parts of her tale are fictionalized (perhaps she added a pet dog, a villain, or a love interest), but the larger story is mostly true. Because her real-life experience is so out of the ordinary, she feels it’s important that readers understand that the things she’s writing about actually happened to her (for the most part). Is this a memoir or a novel? Fiction or nonfiction?
Solution: In this case, we feel the author would be best served by calling her story a novel. Memoir promises truth, and so if the book is not as truthful as the author can possibly make it, then it is not a memoir. In her professional writer’s biography, the author might note that her own story is similar to the story of the novel—though not exactly the same.
SITUATION THREE. A writer has a friend who has an unusual life story because she was a professional spy. The writer gets his friend’s permission to write a story about everything that happened to her.
The problem: The writer is responsible for what he writes. And so if the writer’s friend is feeding him inaccuracies—intentionally or not—the writer will be responsible if/when the book is published. Research is key. All sources must be verified.
Solution: If the writer has done his due diligence and all facts are backed up with proof, then this book might be best pitched as a biography. But if the writer can’t perfectly attest to the truthfulness of his friend’s story, then this book might be best pitched as a novel—and it should probably be quite fictionalized to protect the subjects, the writer, and the publisher.
Still not sure what to call your story?
If you’re not sure whether or not your book is a novel or a memoir, you don’t necessarily have to worry too deeply about it while you’re querying literary agents. Your job as a writer is simply to write the best book you can.
You can learn more about short stories, essays, and mixed-genre pieces as well in order to decide what to call your work.
Finally, you can always call your project “a story inspired by real-life events” or “a work loosely based on my life.” If a literary agent or editor is interested in your project because you’ve got a strong story and a unique voice, then it’s likely that he or she will be happy to talk with you about the most appropriate way to publish or pitch it.
Learn more: How To Write Fiction Based On Real Life.
THE MORAL: Always be honest. If parts of your story are fabricated, say so. If you’ve changed nothing but names, say that as well. As long as you’re being honest, you have nothing to worry about!
Remember, our team of submission strategists is here to help. We’ve been working with creative writers since 1994 to help them navigate the publishing industry. And we’re standing by to help you too!
QUESTION: Do you base your characters closely on people you’ve met? Or are your characters born mostly of your imagination?
Photo by Julia Manzerova
This has always been a gray area for me — appreciate your clearing it up!
My characters don’t come from any one place. I don’t think I’d ever write a character that was based closely on a real person. I use elements of real people and combine them into unique characters.
That said, some people read my writing and say, “Oh, this character is based on Uncle So-and-So, isn’t it?”
I just laugh and say “If you say so!”
I’ve had to change the names in my memoir to protect the innocent (and not so innocent). This can be a sticky situation when your life story contains details that may hurt the people you love.
Thanks for writing this piece. I have written what I am calling a memoir, and by your definition, believe I still can. There are a few places where casual people I met who have a line or two in the book have names I didn’t remember but other than that all the circumstances of the book happened as told. The book is about an around the world transformational journey I was blessed to take in 1980. Working title “There’s a Lizard On My Ceiling.” if you’d like to read it.
A slightly different problem I have is that I’m writing about real people and real events that occurred over 500 years ago. Yes, I’ve made up a few characters and attributed characteristics to real people who lived who happen to not have been famous. But I’m torn on whether to call it historical fiction after people like Jeff Shaara and others write about history and make up conversations that supposedly occurred that no one except the people directly involved could have recounted. So MUST I call my tome “fiction” or how do supposed historicans get around making up conversations?
I agree with this article to the fullest. My stories are most definitely fiction but the first one that I’m halfway finished with has bits of me in it, but real life affections of a secret crush I once had. Thanks for the insight! ^__^
re: Gary Knight’s dilemma with his story that took place 500 years ago: My book took place 150 years ago and is now ‘on a desk’ with a publisher (fingers crossed). In the forward I called it ‘faction’ – a story based on true events and characters but necessarily fictionalised as far as conversations and unreported details went. My Afterword spelled out my own journey of discovery about my protagonist and which important bits were inserted to explain the actual history. That’s how I dealt with the problem.
But the real question is: What sells- fact or fiction?
There are three options.
1. If you’re making stuff up frequently, it’s a novel inspired by real events.
2. If what you are making up is very minor, if the book is 98% nonfiction, and if your narrative has a nonfiction prose style (as opposed to a novel prose style), you can call the book nonfiction. Feel free in your narrative to say things like “we could imagine a conversation between the two men would go something like this.” That way, the reader will know when you’re moving from strict nonfiction to projecting a possible situation that arose from nonfiction elements. The key is to be clear and honest about what’s fictionalized. You might also write in a forward that conversations have been imagined based on real life events.
3. Take the Richard Zacks approach. Zacks is shelved in nonfiction (see THE PIRATE HUNTER), but his books have the page-turner feel of novels. They are intense and fully imagined. Zacks does offer some hypothetical details based on fact (he will presume that Captain Kidd is crunching over oyster shells on his way to the docks, since shells were deposited as landfill in lower Manhattan and it’s entirely likely that Kidd DID crunch shells under his shoes at some point). Zacks manages to paint a vivid picture although his book is nonfiction, without bringing in too many truly fictional elements. It may be worth a look for you to check out his technique.
Larry, Good question! And, alas, the answer is “it depends.” While nonfiction usually makes up a greater percentage of overall book sales, novels are still viable and known to go viral!
Thank you for this article. I have written a children’s story about the struggles a child actually faced, and you have helped me understand how to decide what should be true to life and what to fictionalize.
My memoir (Whorehouse Diary) has the real working names of all the women who were prostitutes because they used phony names when they were working and most of them are dead anyway. I changed all the names of the men (even the dead ones) because they asked me to. I even used the pictures of the women to prove the accuracy of my memoir.
My book is a pretty much factual account of my being raised on a schooner on the Mississippi River in 1950s.I did receive a couple of encouraging rejections from agents. They both expressed a liking for the book,but said memoirs are a hard sell in today’s economy, especially if not “written by a celebrity”. I’m thinking of just submitting it as a first person novel. I could say it was based on some aspects of my life living aboard boats.Do I have to change all the names of real people? .
Carole, Sounds like a great book! Regarding name changes, that is a discussion that a literary agent would be willing to have with you later on in the process. If you leave your book as is and submit as a novel, you can then talk with an interested agent about the best way to revise and pitch to editors. Good luck!
I just finished a book called ‘Love Goes To Nam.’ It’s based on my eighteen month tour as part of a Swift Boat, (and other small craft) maintenance crew, in 1967-68. The names of the people have been changed and some of the events have been slightly embellished, as have the conversations and hull numbers. Who could remember all that was said forty
years ago? All the events in the book actually happened.
I was planning to promote it as, based on true events, but after reading this, I’m not so sure. Thanks for enlightening me.