Dear Geist,
I have written a short story about a client (I help people deal with their hoarding issues). How do I tell the story of his living space and his attachment to his piles of stuff, and respect his privacy at the same time? How much do I need to change about the experience of working with him?
— Coby, Ottawa ON
Dear Coby,
First, a disclaimer: We are not lawyers and this answer is not legal advice. It is a summary of our knowledge and experience on the subject.
For you, there may be legal privacy concerns as well as ethical ones. Therapists, lawyers, medical personnel and other professionals have standards and protocols that may forbid them to write about clients, even in fiction and even if characters’ identities are concealed. We encourage you to research this question first.
To do your best to ensure that no one will recognize this man by reading your story, you will change some combination of his name, age, personality, appearance, background, health/medical situation and treatments, neighbourhood (or city), friends and family, details of his dwelling, the items he saves, his methods of gathering and saving things, and so on. If your process in working with him is distinctive, you may want to alter some of those details too. For a bit more on writing about real people, we suggest you also take a look at a related Geist Lit-Lorn item, “
.”
Then be ready for any response. It is not unusual for a reader to accuse a writer of exposing someone—even if that someone is not the person who inspired the character.
— The Editors