I’m sure one or two of you dedicated writers out there have heard this question from a friend or acquaintance. I don’t know many writers personally, and of course I joined SoulCast because there are many writers in this community. Though my opinion on people asking this question isn’t based on any experiences beyond my own, I always wondered if anyone else encountered this question.

Over the course of the last year and a half, I’ve been working on a novel. The premise is based around events that happened to me shortly after I graduated high school. I explain to people that this work is somewhat autobiographical, a personal account of emotionally charged, real events that altered the course of my life. The girl I was seeing at the time asked me a few weeks ago if she was in the book. Of course, she felt excluded when I said she wasn’t. I couldn’t help but get indignant, so I told her, “this is a tragic novel! Why would you want to be immortalized in a tragic novel?” Fair enough, at least I think so. Though that was true, the reality was that fitting her into the storyline would make her little more than a superfluous character, because she didn’t fit in the scheme of events throughout the book. I couldn’t exactly say it that way because she’d equate that with the notion that she was a superfluous character in my life. That obviously isn’t true.

I’ve noticed this in the webcomic community, too. Many webcomic artists get fan mail asking to be in a comic. This, as I understand it, annoys the comic authors a lot. My uncle, for example, is a webcomic artist. Though his isn’t very well-known, he tells me of more popular comic artists he knows who are being pestered by friends and fans about being immortalized in their works. I’ve always wondered if it’s the same with novel and short story writers.

So my question to all of you is this: Have any of you writers ever been asked by a friend if (s)he is in a piece of your writing? More accurately, has there been anyone who asked you if there’s a character in any of your works based on him/her? I think the question of “Am I / can I be / is there a character based on me in your book” is a curious one. Though “Am I in the book?” is probably more geared toward fiction with autobiographical themes (such as the one I’m working on), I’m guessing it’s because many people like the idea of having their characters in print. Or is it the need to feel included in a major creative project?

Care to share your thoughts?