Well, if it were me and I could prove it, I would come forward.
How could you resist an opportunity to get 15 minutes of fame?
Here is another example, and this one came full circle:
A Chicago based alternative band named Plain White T’s had a popular song titled, " Hey There Delilah" around 2005.
Delilah was indeed a real person, and the song was about her. As a matter of fact, she was told by one of the band members that they were going to write a song about her.
She was actually shocked at how popular the song became, and threatened to sue the band for useing her name in the song!
She even filed a restraining order against one of the band members because she feared she was being stalked!
There is actually a book with a title that is just my last name, which is not a common last name (and no, it’s not Bond). It’s about a suave, sophisticated super spy, skilled in martial arts and deadly catnip to the ladies involved in foiling a worldwide espionage conspiracy.
It’s like the author has been following me around and making notes.
In my younger days, I went through a period of some mental issues where I was very VERY attuned to the world around me and found a great deal of significance in EVERYTHING and thought that it related to ME. It was all so MEANINGFUL, as if the universe were talking to me directly.
I could see myself at that time describing what the OP is conveying.
Sorry for what is now surely an ancient reference, but isn’t this basically describing the horoscope?
Sure, things described in fiction (or the horoscope!) may not feel like generalities to people who read them, but they really are. It’s rather common for people to sue writers or songwriters for taking ‘their’ story even if they’ve never been within a hundred miles of them. People and stories and rarely as unique as we make them out to be.
In the YA novel, Trying Hard to Hear You, one of the characters is clearly based on me. His family owned a store (the same name as the character’s last name) and his grandfather was a friend of Einstein (my grandfather was – see photo). He also had the habit of bouncing his leg when sitting, had a penchant for trivia, and dated the woman who was the novel’s narrator (also based on a real person who I dated).
The author, Sandra Scoppettone, directed a play I was in and the novel uses that as background. All the characters are based on real people who were in the cast. It revealed some things about the other characters that I doubt they wanted revealed to the world. The book became a minor YA classic, one of the first to portray gays sympathetically.
Hilary Winston, ex-girlfriend of author Chad Kultgen, alleged that a major character in Kultgen’s novel The Average American Male was a barely fictionalized version of herself.
If, perhaps, you felt embarrassed, in retrospect, about being a teenaged girl who came onto her adult teacher? Especially knowing that, as you had been the subject of a popular song, which still gets a lot of airplay, revealing your identity would wind up being far more than “15 minutes of fame,” but would open yourself up to scrutiny and unwanted attention for the rest of your life?
there’s a lot of variety in reality BUT the great thing about AA meetings is you soon hear a total stranger telling your life story, right down to the feels. that’s an excellent treatment for loneliness and isolation and terminal uniqueness.
There is surprisingly great comfort in realizing your own path and own thoughts & feels are not so unique; others have fought the same battles for the same reasons. Some successfully, others less so. But to talk to folks who’ve “been there, done that”, and came out the other side in one piece, bedraggled though that piece may be, is uplifting and encouraging. At a time when you yourself need a lot of encouragement.
I’ve not had to battle drugs or alcohol myself, although close relatives have. I’ve certainly done peer support on both the giving & receiving ends for other topics. The power of anti-isolation is huge.
Whoa! How meta!
Be even better if she titled it: My Ex-Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me.
Perhaps that’s a hint to lose a little weight? And yes, I’m kidding.
Seriously, I thought @Icarus made an excellent point. Something about the OP’s POV smells odd to me. Not crazy, just unusual in an unusual way. Unusual2.
Most of you probably know this, but the Wikipedia entry on the song Eleanor Rigby has some information about the real-life Eleanor Rigby.
The gist of it is that McCartney claimed in 1966 that he’d first used the name “Miss Daisy Hawkins,” and Donovan recalled hearing an earlier guitar-based version in which McCartney sang about “Ola Na Tungee.” It’s not clear when Donovan recalled that, but he’s referring to some point before 1966. In the following years, McCartney offered several different explanations about the source, the latest in October 2021. In the 1980s, news about the gravestone got around. It’s located in a churchyard in Woolton, which is a suburb of Liverpool that’s closely associated with The Beatles (the location of Strawberry Fields, where John went to school and where Paul met John). When questioned, McCartney acknowledged that he’d often walked through the churchyard but insisted that it wasn’t a conscious decision of his to use the name. In relation to the OP, here’s the interesting part from the Wikipedia entry:
“McCartney has also dismissed claims by people who, because of their name and a tenuous association with the Beatles, believed they were the real Father McKenzie.”
And now for something completely different:
I used to think I was special, because no one else did.
I wish she did and won. God, I hate that song! (Years back I had a potential client contact me to photograph their house party. When I gave them my price, they asked me if I could do better. I said no (in a nice way). They then tried to dangle the fact that the guy from the Plain White Ts was going to be performing. I was so tempted to quote them an even higher price at that point. At any rate, we didn’t do business, and that was one less time I had to hear that song.)
I do not draw details from people I know to create characters. I find real life incredibly mundane next to the world of fiction. I know people who do, though. I don’t see a measurable difference in terms of work quality.
There was a Mr. (My maiden name) on a Perry Mason ep once.
The guy was a arsonist. So I knew it wasn’t my Daddy. He couldn’t light the BBQ grill without help.
Correction, I do not intentionally do so. I did accidentally create a character who is basically my husband in temperament and background. My husband is a psychologist, the character is a doctor. Who happens to be from a rich family that didn’t approve of his career choice. Both are ultra calm and compassionate healer types. Honestly never made the connection until like the twentieth rewrite. He is a supporting character but he’s grown on me so much, I want him to be the protagonist of the third book.
Likely being subject to a lawsuit by someone whose life story or public persona was clearly being depicted, despite the disclaimer. (Whether the plaintiff would have a chance of winning such a lawsuit is another question.)
I’m guessing that you are posting from a phone or other mobile device, which is autocorrecting you (as you’ve made this same typo repeatedly in this thread), but are you aware that “Iam” isn’t a word? It should be either “I am” or “I’m.”
