Writing Confessions:
An Interview with Bea Sheftel
An Interview with Bea Sheftel
by Moira Allen
What, exactly, is a "confession" story?
A confession is a short story told in the first person from the woman's point of view. It can be a romance, coming of age, or other story where the protagonists learns from her mistakes.
Confessions are written in a fictional format from the first person point of view. They can be about something that happened to you or someone you know. Even though you use fiction story techniques, whatever can be true should be true. (The editors of some of the magazines still want their readers to think the stories are real.)
In other words, use your own experiences to bring you main characters to life. Choose a setting you are familiar with. Create scenes with setting and dialogue and action to move your story along. Give your characters dialogue that sounds real, and story lines that could have come from your life or the newspaper. Make sure the conflict is strong enough to actually be important to the plot.You don't want a story that can be resolved simply by the people admitting their love.
What are some of the elements that are common to any "true confession" story? First person. Woman's viewpoint. The woman makes a mistake but learns from this and moves on to improve her life. She is wiser.
How is a confession story different from, say, a traditional "romance" story? They have a lot in common. Many romance writers started with confession writing and some still contribute. Famous authors such as Steven King wrote confessions. Most novels today in the romance field are written from the third person point of view and allow for both the male and female viewpoint. The confessions are told in first person and allow only the woman's viewpoint. All romances have happy endings. Most confessions do also, but some are potentially happy endings.
What types of problems or situations are most popular in confession stories?
The headlines on the covers of confession stories seem to be all about sex. And yet the stories, themselves, are moral. Any issue might have a woman who stole her mother's, sister's, or best friend's boyfriend. There are women looking for love who make mistakes due to immaturity. They grow and learn. The headlines usually display some aspect of guilt. Sometimes the guilt is not the person's fault. She might have been abused as a child or as a spouse. Other times, she does step over line and do something wrong, but she repents and changes her life.
Please describe some of the variations between or among confession publications.
The Black confessions require two sex scenes and 5,000 words. (Black confessions are about Afro Americans though they do not have to be written by people of color. They are published in Black Romance, Bronze Thrills and Secrets. They uniformly have 5,000 words and two sex scenes. They are sexier than the traditional confessions.) They ALWAYS are romances. The other magazines such as True Story and True Confessions are more flexible. They accept manuscripts of 3,000 to 8,000 words. There might be a sex scene but it isn't required. They offer some stories that are romances, but others are coming of age, or maturing type stories. The heroine learns to grow as a person and change her life for the better. So you might read about a divorced or widowed woman who reclaims her life while taking flying lessons, or learning boating, or opening a business.
What are some of the benefits/advantages to writing for this market?
The stories are generally easy to write. They are conversational in tone as if you are telling a story to a friend. The editors need a dozen stories per issue so there is plenty of opportunities for publication. The pay is $100 to $300.
What are some of the disadvantages to writing for this market?
The editor might hold your manuscript from two months to a year. The editors receive hundreds of manuscripts every week. After three months, a call to check on your manuscript is okay. I've tried including a self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt of my manuscript. Editors at the confessions seem to be too busy to reply so patience is needed. If you complain you'll get your story back without publication. So it is a wait and be patient kind of submission.
Who reads confessions?
The target audience are high school educated women married to blue collar workers. These are stories meant to entertain and yes, sometimes to present a moral. They are not literary fiction. The readers need to identify with the characters. That means, keep your female character in jobs the reader will understand such as teachers, nurses, teacher-aids, nurses-aids, secretaries, clerks, sales associates, small shop owners. The men can work in an office, a garage, own a small business, be a carpenter or any other blue collar job. They can also be teachers.
How do you break into the confession market?
You can send a story to each of the various confession magazines. Keep trying. They admire perseverance.
What tips would you offer a writer who wants to get started writing for this market?
Take a course in writing confessions, read the magazines and outline them. Write several and see if they fit the format.
You need to feel the character in your bones in order to make the reader feel your emotions. In other words, get the character under your skin. Put your own experiences into your character's life.
Get your point across in a variety of ways including dialogue, dramatic scenes, and some narrative. You need a balance of all three. If you have too much narrative you are telling instead of showing. If you have too much dialogue, the reader won't know the setting. It is like talking heads.
What are some of the markets for confession stories?
Only one publisher owns all the confession magazines. That is MacFadden. (It used to be Sterling for Black confessions and MacFadden for the others. Then MacFadden bought out Sterling and they have the same address.) Each magazine has about a dozen stories ranging in size from 3,000 words to 6,000. The pay for some magazines is by the word and for others, such as the black confessions, by the story. I can earn from $100 for a black confession to several hundred for one of the other magazines.
Once you are published by MacFadden you have a greater chance of having other stories published by them. It helps to send directly to a particular editor. Never submit the same story to more than one editor. Since staff change is common at MacFadden, call to find out who is reading for the particular magazine you are interested in submitting to.
Sterling/MacFadden
333 7th Ave., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Anything else you'd like to add?
I enjoy writing confessions. It gives me a chance to write out of the box. I listen to TV talk shows, and read the newspaper for ideas. Sometimes the ideas come from conversations with friends. They are relatively easy to write since they don't require a lot of revision. Confessions are my bread and butter writing. Once you get your foot in the door editors will read and hopefully accept your work faster. In fact, I worked with one editor who called me on the phone to discuss ideas for future stories.
Bea Sheftel was first published when she was 16 years old. She has dreamed of being a successful writer all her life. Over the years she wrote fiction, nonfiction and poetry while holding down other jobs. She has hundreds of articles, short stories and poems published in regional and national magazines, as well as two books of poetry. For the last few years she has concentrated on writing for web magazines, as well as the confessions. She has two novels in the works, and several long term nonfiction projects. The story of her childhood dog was published in Guideposts books, Listening to the Animals, and a story she wrote about her husband is in the current Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul. She also teaches writing on line and in person. This summer she taught a writing class at Skidmore College.<
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