December 22, 2024

For some budding writers, there can be the desire to write a book about a real-life event, but in order to protect certain circumstances or persons may seek the option of altering details or persons names. In such cases, the real-life event is not being conveyed as a work of non-fiction when completed, but instead is a semifictional work to which only the fictional parts remain known to the writer.

While there really is no best procedure in tackling sensitive parts of a real-life event – those revolving around controversial issues of an individual’s social or economic status, for example – sometimes a simple alteration of a person’s name to protect the individual is not enough. The location might be changed, or even a time period changed, so long as it makes sense within the realm of possibility to the reader. For example, if the real-life event that is being written about utilizes modern technology such as a cellphone, the setting can be placed within the mid-1990’s to now, but not during the 1950’s, and obviously not during the Renaissance Period.

For example, suppose one has the idea to write about an event that took place in a state like New York City. The details of the event were imparted by a great-grandparent. Maybe the event took place during the building of one of the most famous bridges in the nation, the Brooklyn Bridge. While the event did not happen near the Brooklyn Bridge, nor in New York City itself, the structure can be mentioned as a means of establishing a location to the reader of the semifictional work.

The Brooklyn Bridge under Construction, from "Appletons' cyclopaedia of applied mechanics, vol. 1"
edited by Benjamin, Park. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1880

Depending on whether the final written work is going to be self-published or someone else, consider looking into the publishing policies of different book publishers. Some publishers may have submission guidelines when it comes to semifictional manuscripts.