People have told me for years that were I to write stories centered around my extended family, I’d have bestsellers on my hands. Of course, I’d have to sell them as fiction, because no one would believe any of it to be true, but that’s an entirely different matter.
The one question I struggle with is this: when writing is “inspired” by real-life, how much can we pull from real people before we require permission? Do I need to inform my insanely neurotic, outrageously interfering and pathologically hypocritical grandmother that character Z is based on her? Or can I just smile demurely and shake my head with wide-eyed innocence and ask why on earth she would recognize herself in such a person?
Where is the line?
