Originally posted by Lara Joelle Kent:
I know from a fellow fanfic writer who had one of her original characters turn out to be a criminal. That characters first name was very common, but his last name was invented. Made up out of thin air.
A couple of months later, she found some hatemail in her (email) inbox, written by someone whose name matched that of her original character.
It sounds as if someone needs to take a chill pill and stop Googling themselves. I have created so many characters in my lifetime, it's insane to expect writers to double-check online to see if anyone has the same name in real life. Apparently, we all need to add that line they use in movie and book disclosures, such as: "all characters' names and likenesses in this story are creations of the author (except those owned by DC, etc.), despite any similarities to anyone living or dead."
On that note, I'll admit that I did Google the name Kirk Devlin which I used in Wrong Clark, because it sounded so good I figured I must have heard it somewhere before. Nothing out of the ordinary popped up, so I used it.
