Karen's blog: Writer's Digest newsletters

With details of the 89th Annual Writing Competition, publishing insights and more:

Each Flashback Friday throughout 2020, we'll be sharing an article from our archives to celebrate our 100th anniversary. Tweet your favorite WD memory to us @WritersDigest using the hashtag #WritersDigest100. Thanks for celebrating with us!

Stop Making Sense: Explaining Some Rules of Fiction Logic

An article by Lawrence Block from Writer's Digest, January 1990.

A couple of years ago, two friends of mine, a man and woman I’d known for most of a decade, made the papers. They did so in a rather spectacular fashion when the husband, a Wall Street stock analyst, murdered the wife, drove around for a while with her in the

trunk of the car, dumped her at the side of the road, and was in very short order apprehendedand charged with homicide. At the time of his arrest, he was wearing women’s underwear.

Eventually the case came to trial, but not before he had been released on bail, married someone else, beat up the new wife, and had his bail revoked. He stood trial, was convicted, and was in jail awaiting sentencing when he rather abruptly died, evidently of AIDS. The new wife attended his funeral service in the company of a woman who’d been in the news a while back when a former Miss America stood trial on a charge of using unlawful influence to get a judge to lower her lover’s alimony payments to a former wife. The new wife’s companion at the funeral was the daughter of the judge in question, and achieved some local notoriety by testifying against the former Miss America. What she’s doing in this story is beyond me, but I guess everybody has to be someplace.

After the funeral, the wife and her friend hurried back to the deceased’s house and stole everything they could carry.

I just learned of the latest chapters in this saga—the death, the funeral, the guest appearance by the judge’s daughter—a few days ago as I write this. Upon returning to New York I ran into an old friend and made the mistake of asking him what was new. He told me all of this, and then he told me some other things that had happened to some other people we both know, and with which I won’t burden you. Then we looked at each other, and I shrugged and said something about it all being a lot like a soap opera.

“No,” he said. “No, soap opera has a certain internal logic to it. That’s how you can distinguish between it and Real Life.”

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Coming to Your Senses

Fiction has to make sense. Life does not, and I suppose it’s just as well, or vast chunks of life would bounce back from the Big Editor in the Sky with form rejection slips attached to them. When we want to praise fiction, we say that it’s true to life, but it’s not that often the case. Life, unlike fiction, gives every indication of operating utterly at random, with no underlying structure, no unifying principles, no rules of drama. I think it was Chekhov who pointed out that it was dramatically essential that any cannon that appeared onstage in Act 1 had damn well better be fired before the final curtain. Life doesn’t work that way. In life, onstage cannons are forever silent, while others never seen go off in the wings, with spectacular results. Characters play major roles in the opening scenes, then wander off and are never heard from again. Perhaps it all balances out, perhaps there’s some sort of cosmic justice visited in another lifetime or another world, but all that is hard to prove and not too satisfying dramatically.

What I’m really getting at, though, is not so much that life is a tale told by an idiot as that fiction had better be otherwise. And, simply because fiction has to make sense, we take for granted certain things that hardly ever happen in real life.

Consider premonitions. Now, everybody has premonitions from time to time—the sudden illogical hunches that lead us to stay off an airplane, bet a number, or cross a street. Every once in a while a premonition actually turns out to be warranted—the number comes up, the plane comes down, whatever.

But in the vast majority of instances the premonition is a bum steer or a false alarm. The warning that came to us in a dream, and that we did or didn’t act upon, winds up amounting to nothing at all. The lotter ticket’s a loser. The plane lands safely.

Not so in fiction. Every premonition means something, though not necessarily what it seems to mean; in fiction, we ignore omens and hunches at our peril, and to our chagrin.

Some months ago they aired the final episode of Miami Vice, after a few weeks of preparatory ballyhoo and hype. Crockett and Tubbs, as portrayed by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, are up against a couple of arch-villains, and if they win you just know a drug-free America is in the cards for all of us.

Early on, Tubbs is looking over at Crockett. “I have a feeling I’m not gonna make it through this one,” he says. Or words to that effect.

Watching it, I knew that was the end of Tubbs. Because the poor guy has a premonition of doom, and we all know what that means. We know what happens in war movies, after the young subaltern gives his buddy a letter home “just in case.” We know what happens in westerns, when they’re circling the wagons and one character says, “You know, I had a funny dream last night.” Why should Tubbs be any different? By the time they rolled the last commercial, the guy was going to be feeding worms.

Except that’s not how they did it. When the episode ended, Tubbs was still on his feet, and there were no more references to his earlier intimations of mortality. For the first time ever, as far as I know, a fictional premonition turned out to be what they so often are in real life—i.e., nothing at all. And Tubbs didn’t even explain his premonitions away with a sheepish grin. Like most of us in that sort of situation, he probably didn’t want to think about it, let alone discuss it. The subject very likely embarrassed the man.

I have no idea how the producers managed to put such revolutionary material on the air. I don’t think they were trying to break new ground artistically, and suspect one of two things happened. Perhaps they wanted to heighten tension by making you certain Tubbs was going to buy the farm. (“But that’s cheating! If he has a premonition, he has to die at the end.” “So what are they gonna do, sue us? It’s the last episode. If they get mad, let ‘em turn the set off.”) Or, just as plausibly, Tubbs was destined to die in an earlier draft; after the decision has been made to save him, nobody bothered to excise the premonition. You can decide for yourself whether they were cynical or sloppy.

Writing in the Future Tense

In much the same fashion, fictional fortunetellers are always on the mark. Whatever their mode of divination, tea leaves or tarot cards, astrology or phrenology or foot reflexology, their predictions always come true. There may be a catch, as Macbeth discovered when Birnam Wood came marching toward Dunsinane, but such ironic twists of fate don’t lay a glove on the basic assumption—i.e., that all predictions are accurate.

We’ll I’ve had my chart done a couple of times, and my palm read, and my psychic temperature taken on various occasions. A friend of mine is a rather brilliant psychic, and some of the things she comes up with are uncanny, but she’s nowhere near as accurate as any storefront gypsy palmist ever met with in fiction.

In Life As We Know It, most fortunetellers are wrong most of the time. The more specific they get, the less accurate they seem to be. Whether they’re forecasting the end of the world or a romantic interlude with a tall dark stranger, you wouldn’t want to be the rent money on what they tell you.

Just look at the supermarket tabloids. They usually run extensive predictions around the first of the year, with famous psychics telling us what to expect over the next 12 months. Except for the can’t-miss shotgun predictions (“I foresee that somewhere in the world there will be a disaster, with great loss of life. Washington will be rocked with charges of political corruption and financial mismanagement. And, on the Hollywood scene, I see a marriage breaking up.” No kidding.), the predictors hardly ever get anything right.

In fiction, they almost always get almost everything right, and it never occurs to us to regard this as unrealistic. On the contrary, we’d be annoyed if it happened otherwise, as I was half-annoyed when Philip Michael Thomas survived on Miami Vice. We’d feel that we had prepared ourselves for a certain eventuality and that our preparations had been wasted. Because we’ve come to know that all predictions and premonitions come true in fiction, we took them for foreshadowing and braced ourselves for their fulfillment.

“Oh, this is silly,” a character says. “I’m not superstitious. I’m going to walk under this ladder.” Or break this mirror, or forbear to throw this spilled salt over my should, or whatever. And he does, and we know something’s going to happen to him before his story’s over. We may not be superstitious ourselves. We may detour around ladders, just on the general principle that it couldn’t hurt, but we don’t take the whole thing seriously.

Not in real life we don’t. In fiction, we know better.

Making Sense of It All

And what does all this mean?

I’m tempted to say that this column must be true to life, in that things aren’t going to be all worked out at the end, with everything neat and logical. Because I’m not sure just what it all means, or precisely what implications it has for us as writers of fiction. It could probably be argued that one of the reasons fiction exists, a reason it is written and a reason it is read, is that it is orderly and logical, that it makes sense in a way that life does not. Frustrated with the apparent random nature of the universe, we take refuge in a made-up world in which actions have consequences.

Truth, as we’ve been told enough, is stranger than fiction. Of course it is—because it can get away with it. It flat-out happens, and it’s undeniable, so it doesn’t have to make sense. If my friend’s story, replete with uxoricide and transvestism and the remarriage and the beating of the new wife and the trial and the death, if all of that were placed without apology between book covers and presented as fiction, I’m sure I’d have tossed the book aside unfinished; if I made it all the way through, I’d surely be infuriated by the virus ex machina ending. The loose ends would annoy me and the inconsistencies would drive me nuts.

But it’s fact. It happened. I can’t dispute it on dramatic grounds. I can’t say it’s improbable, or illogical. It happened. It’s what is. I may not like it, I may be saddened or horrified by it, but I can’t lay the book aside because it’s not a book. It’s real.

I’ve seen writers react to criticism that their stories were implausible, that they relied too greatly on coincidence, that they were unresolved dramatically, by arguing that their fiction had been faithful to actual circumstance. “How can you say that?” they demand. “That’s how it happened in real life! That’s exactly how it happened!”

Indeed, and that’s the trouble. If real life were fiction, you couldn’t get the damn thing published.

Lawrence Block, like life, doesn’t have to make sense. But he always manages to anyway.

Amy Jones

Amy Jones is a senior editor for Writer’s Digest and the former managing content director for WD Books. Prior to joining the WD team, Amy was the managing editor for North Light Books and IMPACT Books. Find her on Twitter at @AmyMJones_5

Building a Sustainable Writing Career: Priorities, Platforms, and Getting Paid

In this full-day workshop, Jane Friedman—co-founder of The Hot Sheet, former publisher of Writer’s Digest, award-winning blogger and author of The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press, 2018)—will teach you how to be strategic about developing revenue streams best suited to your personality, your writing, and your career expectations. We'll discuss early career foundation and brand-building for freelancers who want to work for publishers or businesses, how and when freelancers can successfully market and sell their work directly to readers/consumers, and the varied income opportunities related to being a visible writer or expert in the market.

Who this workshop is for:

Established and aspiring authors who want to develop more freelance income or diversified income streams
Bloggers and other online writers
New and emerging freelance writers
Creative writing students who want to make a living through writing or freelancing

Register for just the Thursday workshop or add it onto your basic conference registration at a discounted price. Seats are limited, so don’t delay!

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Information

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Want to jumpstart your writing career? Let us help!

For 89 years, Writer’s Digest has been looking for and shining the light on new and up-and-coming writers in any genre or category.

And it’s that time again—we’re looking for writing that strikes and grabs us, that we can’t put down. We’re looking for standout writing in any and all of the following categories:

inspirational/spiritual
memoirs/personal essays
print or online article
genre short story (think romance, thriller, mystery, sci-fi, etc.)
mainstream/literary short story
rhyming poetry
non-rhyming poetry
script (think stage play or television/movie script)
children’s/young adult fiction

That’s a lot of options, but we’re sure something you’ve written or are writing will fit in. And we’ve seen a wide range of winners in the past several years. Just be sure to check our website for entry details—we have strict word count restrictions for each category.

So, how will this competition help you? That’s easy. The grand prize winner will receive $5,000 in cash, a trip to New York City for the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference, and an interview for a feature article in our magazine. Ten first place winners in each category receive $1,000, ten second place winners in each category win $500, and on and on!

Ready to be the next writer we spotlight? Enter by May 4 for the best price!

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LEARN MORE

In this week's newsletter, learn strategies for figuring out freelance rates, check out a new agent alert and market spotlight, find tips on nonfiction article pitches, and more!

How Much Should Writers Charge?

Recently, I saw a job posting for freelancers "with initiative" to curate content on social media. They were offering up to 75¢ per social post, based on quality and quantity. While 75¢ per Tweet or Instagram post sounds great, most writers would probably find it difficult to create 10 "quality" posts per hour (or every six minutes). If they could, that rate would come out to $7.50 per hour—or just 25¢ better than the national minimum wage and below most state minimum wages.

(When and how should writers negotiate better terms?)

In other words, many serious freelance writers would skip on this job posting. Or if they responded to it, they would try to negotiate a better rate. But how much should writers charge? And how should they determine what an appropriate rate would be?

These are common freelance writing questions. So let’s look at how to handle them. Read the full article...

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Craft & Business of Writing

New Agent Alert: Maria Rogers

I'm currently looking for nonfiction that explores big events from new angles, whip-smart cultural criticism, as well as original and urgent journalism and science writing. I'm also on the lookout for books to engage kids in nonfiction topics, from ancient history to contemporary issues. Read More...

Wine Enthusiast Magazine: Market Spotlight

Wine Enthusiast was founded in 1988 and shares information on the world of wine, including hundreds of wine reviews in every issue. Published 13 times per year, this magazine receives hundreds of pitches a year and employs contributing editors in wine regions around the world who also propose story concepts.

The editors say, "Wine Enthusiast Magazine is an indispensable guide to the latest wine trends, ratings and reviews, food and travel, award-winning commentary and much, much more." Read More...

3 Ways to Improve Your Nonfiction Article Pitch

Writing nonfiction articles for magazines, websites, and other media is unlike nearly any other form of writing. That's because so much of a writer's success and failure is determined at the pitching stage. This can be both a good and bad thing. Good because you don’t have to start writing until it's already been accepted or assigned; bad because many writers would rather write than pitch their writing.

(5 tips for a successful freelance writing pitch.)

Regardless of where you fall on the pitching/writing spectrum, it's a fact that writers who can pitch well and write well are the ones that editors (like myself) turn to over and over again for new articles. Eventually, some writers begin to find that editors are pitching them (the writers!) on ideas, because they've become such a trusted part of the team. Read More...

Send Your Work to 2nd Draft Critique Services!
No matter your style or genre, Writer's Digest Shop offers a high-level view of your writing. After an evaluation of your submission, one of the professional 2nd Draft critiquers will provide feedback and advice. You’ll not only learn what’s working in your writing, but what’s not, and—most important—how to fix it. Gain a critique of your manuscript, query letter, synopsis, and more! Click to continue.

Should I Copyright Before Submitting?

Ask any serious creative freelancer (writing, photography, etc.) about rights, and they're likely to tell you that rights are as important as money. That's because whoever owns the rights also controls when a work can be used and distributed and how much money it will cost to use them.

(Why do submission response times take so long?)

Look at the wealth and success of creators like J.K. Rowling and George Lucas. Now imagine if they had accepted a one-time work-for-hire fee and not held on to all the subsidiary rights associated with their characters and stories. Rights are important.

So it’s not surprising to me that I'm often asked about copyright, especially in terms of whether writers should copyright their work before submitting it. Read More...

Robert Lee Brewer

Robert Lee Brewer is a senior editor for Writer’s Digest and former editor of the Writer's Market book series. He is also the author of Smash Poetry Journal and Solving the World's Problems. Find him on Twitter at @RobertLeeBrewer

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Writer's Dig

Publishing Insights

WD University

In today's edition of our WD Week in Review, get advice from Wendy Heard about writing using multiple points of view, discover our list of most anticipated new releases of 2020, and find out how to share your favorite authors with us.

Writing Multiple Points of View

By Wendy Heard

When a story calls for more than one narrator, it’s exciting (at first). In a way, starting a new book is like diving into a new relationship—a potentially abusive relationship with a high-maintenance narcissist who demands you spend every moment obsessing about them.

I’ve now been in two multiple points of view relationships, one with The Kill Club, a thriller released December 2019, and one with She’s Too Pretty to Burn, a YA thriller out in 2021. Going through the rounds of revisions on these two projects taught me a lot, and I hope what I’ve learned is useful to you. Of course, there’s no one right way to create art. If these tips resonate with you, wonderful. If not, I’d love to hear what does work for your particular brand of artistry.

That said, let’s dive into some suggestions I have for writing multiple POV projects.

Read the full article...

LITERATURE OF PALPABLE QUALITY

Bellingham Review's contests run 12/1-3/15.
First place $1,000, $20 entry. General submissions: 9/15-12/1. BR promises ongoing support to contributors.

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What's New

WD's Most Anticipated Book Releases of 2020

Looking for more new books to add to your to-read list? The editors of WD reveal the 2020 book releases that they are most excited for. Read More...

Who Are Your Favorite Authors?

As Writer's Digest celebrates its 100th anniversary, the editors want to know, Who are your favorite authors? Comment for a chance at publication in a future post on the website or in an issue of the magazine.
Read More...

What's in a Name?

Writer's Digest Weekly Writing Prompt

Build a character's traits based on the meaning of their first or last name. You may have to consult a baby name website or Ancestry.com. Write a scene or story starring your new character. Start Writing...

A Year in the Life of a Professional Screenwriter

A Script Magazine Feature

Screenwriter Bob Saenz takes you into a year in the life of a professional screenwriter—it's not what you think. Read More...

Voice and Viewpoint

Writer's Digest University

Looking to jump right in and find the right point of view for your characters? Enroll in this online course and master the elements of voice and viewpoint. And what's even better—it's all self-paced! Learn More...

Amy Jones

Amy Jones is a senior editor for Writer’s Digest and the former managing content director for WD Books. Prior to joining the WD team, Amy was the managing editor for North Light Books and IMPACT Books. Find her on Twitter at @AmyMJones_5

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