Is it Revenge Fiction or Fiction Based on Real Events?

Who says real life is too boring to write about? Not me, that’s for sure. I have had so many experiences worth writing about, some of which have been written about on blogs, that many people have encouraged me to write my life story.

 

If they only knew.

 

See, I have been writing about my life, but not in the way most people would think a writer would do so. Sure, I have written essays about experiences, as well as poems and chapters for a memoir, but I have also drawn from personal life in order to get ideas for fiction writing.

 

And not all of it is the good stuff that happens.

 

In most cases, if someone treats me badly (and many people have!), then I stick them into a story somehow. I might use their name, have a character look like them, or I’ll have the character act and talk like them. Or I’ll throw them together with two other people, might change their gender, change their name, and put them into a story. Seeing this POS get their comeuppance in a story has been VERY satisfying (and a lot cheaper than therapy!).

 

The trick, though, is to make sure nobody recognizes them.

 

One writer who has been spending months burning bridges on Facebook wrote a revenge story with a late writer who he not only named in his story but treated badly in their story. This incensed so many writers who knew and respected that person that the book soon ended up on many “do not read” lists.

 

If you’re going to write revenge stories, my friends, don’t name the person you are writing a revenge story about!

 

But this begs the question: If we take a negative experience we have in life and turn it into a story, does that story count as revenge fiction? Or, is the writer simply getting an idea for a story based on their personal experience?

 

This can be tricky. Writers always take inspiration for their writing from their own life. I have done it many times. I also get ideas for things to write based on my dreams. But where do we draw the line between writing that is based on real life and what counts as  revenge?

 

I think if we add a bunch of twists and changes to our characters and stories, including changing names (!!), then it’s not so much “revenge fiction” but “fiction based on true events.” My novelette, Lost Soul, is based on true events, but I changed things around a bit with the family dynamics and names. And some of the stories in my flash fiction collection releasing on July 6, Shadows, are also based on true events. As well as people, but let’s not go there. (Let’s just say IYKYK!)

 

Even so, revenge fiction can be very satisfying to write. I was bullied for years, I have experienced discrimination because of my deafness, some able-bodied and hearing people treating me less-than because of being neurodiverse as well as disabled, and of course I’ve endured the many experiences of having a broken heart or being cheated out of something. Writing all about these things has been therapeutic, but so is writing revenge fiction. Yes, I write the occasional revenge story! But sometimes, the story is a combination of revenge and personal life with a lot of changes thrown in. Both forms of writing are good for the soul, and as long as you can escape a lawsuit, both of these kinds of writing can be entertaining for other people out there who have experienced the same thing.

 

It’s just one of the reasons why I love writing horror. Anything can happen in horror, and it usually does.