You have seen the movies where it says the following is based on a true story. I use to be impressed with that expecting that the movie would be upfront and accurate from the story they took it from . That came tumbling down with the first of the Jason Bourne movies. Walking out of the movie theater I asked my husband, who had read the book, how accurate was it. He said, “ My name is Jason Bourne.” He then proceeded to walk to our vehicle. Catching up I inquired more of how it was accurate. He said that is it. I think I remember that line correctly.
How true do you want your book to be? How much do you want it to be accurate to a story or headline you are writing it from? As writers or movie makers we can take a wide leap and a huge circle of license to complete the story line.
Now when I hear this statement I take it with a grain of salt. When a movie is based on a book if it is decent enough I will go back to the book and read to see how much they used versus how much they changed the outcome.
It does come down to the artist and how they want to proceed with the project. But it be nice if they write that it is based on a true story that a portion of it is accurate and not just the statement alone.
Sharon C. Williams-Author 