Does writing about people that I know or come across make me a bad person?

[Warden-Yarn15]

I've been engaging with people on another pornsite, and new quick story ideas have come to mind. But the problem is, I have been, for whatever reason, more open about my personal life/route back home from school, and the people that I see and/or meet in order to get these ideas.

If I fantasize, or loosely based, a story/scenario which relates to me on a personal level, and base some characters on people that I know, however loose my interpretation of them is, does that make me a bad person?

Perhaps I should try and stop with these storyline. I'm not comfortable with these thoughts anyhow.

 

[Zeebop]

No, it makes you a writer.

 

[Cuchuilain]

We use elements of people that we meet to fuel our imagination Warden. Everyone does that - published authors in mainstream fiction too. We change enough so that the person isn't identifiable of course.
I find the escapism of writing here to be a useful pressure valve. However its probably not in my top 10 of the things that make me a bad person.
Try not to beat yourself up about it. Its meant to be fun, and if it isn't, well, don't do it.
Maybe as you say, just change the storyline and characters to people you don't really know.

 

[Dissonant Soundtrack]

Some of the most famous characters are unabashedly based on real people in the authors life. The Dude from The Big Lebowski is heavily based on Jeff Dowd. Kevin Smith wrote Chasing Amy about his relationship with Joey Lauren Adams, then cast her in the movie basically as herself. (Being the director, he got to make Ben Affleck his own stand-in.)

 

[raziel83]

Kramer from Seinfeld is based on (and named after) Larry David's neighbour. The character was meant to have a different name, but once the cast (while preparing for the show at Jerry's apartment) saw the man and his mannerisms for real, they decided that "Kramer" is just too good of a name to describe him.


The "Soup Nazi" is another famous character from the show based on a real person, but the most important thing to know is that George Costanza is actually based on Larry David as are many of the things happening to him and when the actor complained about how no one would actually react that way to such absurd and totally unrealistic sitations, Larry angrily replied "What do you mean?! This happened to me and this is what I did!" (Most famously, the bit where George goes back to his work after having quit it and tries to act like nothing happened, is something that Larry actually did. He quit Saturday Night Live and left while shouting at this boss, but then panicked and eventually decided to just show up back to work the next day and pretend that the outburst never happened.)

 

[Xenolan]

You should definitely avoid positively identifying information; change the names to protect the innocent, etc. This is especially true if the characters who are based on real people are engaging in the sort of activity which is common on CHYOA, such as sex of all kinds. But as long as you keep your descriptions vague enough that no one can be recognized, no harm is being done.