Is it ok to reference names of real world people?
The protagonist in my autobiographical novel is a girl on spiritual adventures. I have the idea of her looks in my mind, but I don't want to dedicate words to explicitly express her looks, so is it OK if I just mention in one line that she looks like some real world actress? Also, can I mention names of some real-world spiritual teachers as she meets them on her journey?
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People Change
One thing to remember is that celebrities (and all of us for that matter) change and age with time. So what a celebrity looks like "today" may not be what she looks "now".
She was cute as a button, like one of the Olsen twins, but when she grew up, she grew up to look like China Phillips.
Now is I wrote that back in the 90s, you would have the idea of a cute little girl, blonde-haired girl who became rather large. Reading this today (2018) brings images of thing party girls and a mature woman.
And the following sounds even worse:
She was cute as a button, like one of the Olsen twins (from the third season of Full House), but when she grew up, she grew up to look like China Phillips (during her time with Wilson-Phillips).
Picture the character in your mind and your notes but avoid giving specific people description, whenever possible.
She was cute as a button: pig tails, blue eyes, and a contagious smile. Adolescence left her rotund, but with the same smile.
Again, that might be what you want to go for.
It's possible, and there are precedents. For example :
“If you took a couple of David Bowies and stuck one of the David
Bowies on the top of the other David Bowie, then attached another
David Bowie to the end of each of the arms of the upper of the first
two David Bowies and wrapped the whole business up in a dirty beach
robe you would then have something which didn't exactly look like John
Watson, but which those who knew him would find hauntingly familiar.”
[Douglas Adams]
The thing to keep in mind is whether the person you have in mind is famous enough that everyone will know who and what you mean (a Monroe, possibly a Streep), and that their appearance has been consistent enough over their acting career (so not a Mirren or an Agutter, unless you define it by year or film title). If you're picking a young actor, it's worth considering that their appearance might change after publication of the novel.
[Edit : If you're not seeing an immediate image associated with the names I've mentioned above, this shows how tricky this can be and I'll have tripped over the point I was trying to make.]
Also, does a reference to a particular actor work in the "world" of the novel? As well as the readers needing to know who she is, if the characters and narrator wouldn't be able to relate to the comparison, it could look incongruous.
Comparing looks is one thing, but if you're introducing a representation of an actual person (particularly a spiritual leader), it would be wise to look at how they're portrayed. In addition to libel considerations, the followers of spiritual leaders will have a certain image of them, and will resent any portrayal that they don't consider accurate. It's worth being particularly careful with this one.
Many authors use real names of celebrities as a trait example but if so, I find authors use it only once or twice in the whole book.
More often writers use a vivid description of a character while using real people as an example without using their names.
I think a real person doesn't harm your story if it fits well and if you mention he/she once/twice max.
Well, first off, like ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere mentioned, make sure to be careful with how you portray a real person. There are many possible ways to mess up, not least of which is libel which was mentioned in the previous answer.
However, and I have said this before: don't make the reader look things up in order to understand the story! It completely breaks immersion if I have to go look up what a particular person looks like, even if that is just a short Internet search away. Just don't. It's okay if the reader has the option to do that (one of my favorite authors regularly slips little real-life tidbits into her writing), but don't make them do it.
Instead, describe the individual as they appear within the story. This doesn't need to be excessive (you might want to check out my question At what point does a POV character noting their surroundings go from showing/telling to an infodump? for some discussion on a closely related issue), but it should be enough to get some idea of what the person they're describing looks like. You can then, depending on your point of view character and how they relate to this individual, write something appropriately-voiced along the lines of "the way s/he looked made me think of the name of some movie star goes here".
This also has the advantage that you're showing an association made by the POV, narrating, or talking character within the story; not making something that can reasonably be construed as a statement of fact about someone in the real world. That alone should go a long way, though not necessarily all the way, toward alleviating e.g. libel concerns.
is it OK if I just mention in one line that she looks like some real world actress?
Don't do that.
First of all, don't overestimate the relevance of how people look when you aren't working in a visual medium. Spending too much time on trying to get a photorealistic image of your character into the reader's head is a common beginners mistake. It usually falls under the law of conservation of detail. If the visual details of a character are not relevant to the plot or to the way other characters react to them, there is little reason to describe them. Just let the reader make up their own image in their head.
Especially writing something like "she looks just like [celebrity]" has a couple of possible drawbacks:
The reader might not be familiar with the celebrity you referenced. Especially when they are from a culture or demographic where that celebrity isn't as popular as in yours.
That character will become associated with that celebrity in your reader's head. They will start to associate all kinds of other traits of that celebrity with your character.
It might give an impression of being uncreative. Readers might assume that you couldn't come up with an original character, so you just copied a person who exists in real life.
It breaks the narrative fiction and drags the reader into the world of celebrity gossip. That's especially problematic if that celebrity doesn't exist or isn't relevant in your fictional universe.
Possible legal problems with regards to the personality rights of a person who can afford better lawyers than you do.
can I mention names of some real-world spiritual teachers as she meets them on her journey?
It depends. Do you reference the actual spiritual teacher? Does that teacher exist in the fictional universe? Is it plausible for your character to interact with them and/or get exposed to their work? Is the spiritual teacher dead for long enough that you can reference them without running into legal issues? Then go for it. Spiritual teachers influence millions of people, so your character also getting influenced by them is plausible.
But again, keep your reader's reference pool in mind. Most people might have heard the name Friedrich Nietzsche, but very few are familiar with what the man actually wrote. So give the reader a rundown of the philosophical concepts as your character understood them.
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