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 https://www.markdstephens.com

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