Learn to Lie

Angela –

I “related” to this week’s feature article, Relatively Speaking, It’s Not You, It’s Me, by Carol L. Skolnick, and I think this is important stuff for writers to remember. Adding the human element to articles is a handy technique, but also delicate territory. I recently had an article published in which I retold a conversation I had with a friend; however, I inflated his actual words for entertainment value and to emphasize the point of my piece. He didn’t like it.

I apologized, our friendship remains, and I learned something valuable: learn to lie. Like Skolnick says, I should have changed his name or told the story in a hypothetical fashion. One point she missed was simply pick another person who doesn’t mind being a part of the story. Another friend loves it when I portray him to be funnier than he really is.

Anyway, I enjoyed Skolnick’s piece and I’m sure other writers have had to deal with this before.

Cheers, Mark D. Stephens

Should Haute Living Magazine Pay This Writer?

Readers weigh in on this controversy:
https://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?t=7072

Hi Angela,

Absolutely… if the publication used the article, it must pay. If the material were substandard, the website should have reassigned the piece in-house or to another writer. But the publisher used the article, and assigned the writer more work. Sounds like the publisher thinks it has found a good patsy who will write for free. The writer should refuse to do any more work for Haute Living, and should take steps to demand payment.

My 2 cents, such as they are…

SK