Identity Theft

If a neighbour’s cat persistently leaves its erm… ‘doings’ in my garden, is it acceptable to collect up all the offending matter and post it back to them in a large jiffy bag marked ‘Return to Sender’ (FAO Mr Fluffy at Number 47)?

Just wondering. I’ve been doing lots of wondering while wandering in the recent fine weather. Just walking in the fields and woods near home and pondering things like…

·         Is it acceptable for the Mr Fluffy’s owner to allow it to drop bio-bombs wherever it will (though short of making him eat a dozen eggs a day, or the application of corks in a manner unapproved by the RSPCA, I‘m not sure how they could stop him)?

·         How can it be legal for motorcyclists to encourage their engines to scream their particular brand of noise pollution at such ear-splitting levels? Especially on those rare mornings when I’m trying to have a lie in?

·         And is it right for me or any other writer to use a story that someone told me in the strictest confidence as source material for my next bestseller?( You’ll understand that in this instance ‘bestseller’ means ‘book of mine that sells better than my previous ones’.)

Sure, I’m going to change the names and tweak the details a bit but if the person in question reads a little into those shiny white gaps between the lines then they might still be able to see tiny fragments of their painful tale, mulched up and used as fertile soil in which to plant my ideas.

I’ll happily admit that I’ve used fictionalised versions of those I care about as characters in my writing before, many times, but I’ll be surprised if anyone recognised themselves. Sometimes it’s just the briefest stolen detail, like the way they flick their hair or a particular figure of speech they use. But other times their story has been rewritten much closer to the bone. I’m not citing any examples here, but I hope that one of my relatives never reads a certain short story about… well, that would be indiscrete.

I’ve also frequently used my own life experiences for inspiration, as all writers do. Helping my nephew with his football sticker collection became a story about a man in a fruitless rush around town to grab the last few packets for his own son’s collection. Loud animal noises in the night while we were in a secluded mountain-top cabin ruined what should have been the perfect romantic weekend away but lead to a fearful tale of a family trapped in their home while criminals tried to break in.

Things that have happened to me personally are fair game for dramatizing, but I’ve used many stories that friends and family have told me as well, though naturally I’m not going to break those confidences here. Not explicitly anyhow, though some of them have most definitely appeared in the short stories that I’ve posted on www.shaunfinnie.com each month.

So today’s question is, would you be bothered if you found one of your true-life experiences displayed to the world in my not-so-completely made up prose? Maybe it’s OK for me to steal the funny tale of the time you fell face-down in the cake at a friend’s wedding, but what if the interesting but intimate details of your painful divorce turned up in a story of mine? Or your one of my characters just happened to go through your own medical trauma?

Not that I ever would of course. But just how far is too far?

© Shaun Finnie 2012