I am keeping a diary at the moment and considering one day publishing it but I have a few worries. Is one aloud to use actual names of every day people in books I know that in Anne Frank she used alternative names for each person and some prefered just initials, how does the whole business work does anybody know?
I am not quite sure how it worked with Anne Frank as in the Afterword it stated the main charecters real names such as the Van Daans etc. Most of her classmates however were just referred to with initials. Anyway I have decided to use fake names as I don't want to go through the hassle of changing names later on.
I don't really know, I'm afraid - I think that, using Anne Frank's diary as an example, she used the original names of the people she knew but that when her father sought to publish it everybody featured had to be asked whether they minded. That's why some people have their real names and other's don't (often the people not portrayed the most kindly!) I think that's usually how it works, but I'm not really sure.
Good luck :-)