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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/13496-Why-We-Do-What-We-Do.html
Drama: December 24, 2025 Issue [#13496]




 This week: Why We Do What We Do
  Edited by: Jayne Author IconMail Icon
                             More Newsletters By This Editor  Open in new Window.

Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

Hi, I'm Jayne. I'm your editor today.


Letter from the editor

I have a secret.

I find the drama newsletter exceptionally difficult to write.

It’s not that it’s truly a difficult subject—although it can be—but because the term is such a massive umbrella that it becomes hard to narrow anything down. Once you do pick a topic, it seems too deep to do it justice in a single newsletter.

What often ends up happening is a bunch of oddly specific, disjointed conversations. The newsletters aren’t bad, per se. They’re simply...untethered in space.

So next year, I’m changing the approach.

Instead of focusing on what you’re “supposed” to do in a dramatic scene, I’m taking a more cumulative look at things. We’re going to talk about why your characters do what they do. The ultimate goal is to write better dramatic scenes because we understand the human behavioural logic behind it (some of which is highly illogical but nonetheless true).

Because when scenes feel flat, forced, or performative, the problem is almost always the same: the emotional logic isn’t there.

And this connects to a very real anxiety people have right now: “Is AI doing this better than me?”

Short answer: no. Not this.

If we understand how humans function on an emotional level, we can write sharper scenes that are inescapably human. It’s the Human Fingerprints – How Real People Think that still stands apart from the AI markers in creative writing. You’ve already encountered those markers here on the site (you may not have recognized them right away, but they’re here). And no, you can’t go around accusing people; patterns are trends, not verdicts. But when the patterns are consistent in a broad swath of writing , and the human fingerprints are nowhere to be found…well.

I simply move on.

But therein lies one of the main issues: some AI writing is “passable.” So how does a writer stand out in a landscape full of AI-generated sameness?

If the average plot and basic dialogue are fairly easily replicated, maybe the baseline effort isn’t cutting it anymore (whether or not it ever should have is outside the scope of anything I’m going to talk about).

So, we’re focusing on the humanity of it all next year.

Not the morality, or ethics, or fairness of the whole thing.

Simply what you can do to put more humanity on the page and make your stories unique and unquestionably you.

See you in 2026.

As always, happy writing.








Editor's Picks

Some 2025 Quill Nominees:

"Of Love and Ghosts"  Open in new Window. by Jeffrey Meyer Author Icon

"Seven Second Soldier"  Open in new Window. by Dorian Wordweaver Author Icon

"Of Love and Ghosts"  Open in new Window. by Jeffrey Meyer Author Icon

"Destroyed"  Open in new Window. by Amethyst Snow Angel Author Icon

"Cow Concert 2025"  Open in new Window. by Choconut Author Icon

You can still nominate great work for the 2025 Quills!

 
SURVEY
Quill Nomination Form 2025 Open in new Window. (E)
Quill Nomination Form 2025
#2333343 by Jeff Author IconMail Icon

 
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Word from Writing.Com

Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
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