{
  "id": 13081226,
  "title": "From Dud to Delicious: Deesha Philyaw on Raising the Stakes in Fiction",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/from-dud-to-delicious-deesha-philyaw-on-raising-the-stakes-in-fiction",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-09T09:09:18.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Literary Hub",
    "slug": "literary-hub",
    "url": "https://lithub.com/from-dud-to-delicious-deesha-philyaw-on-raising-the-stakes-in-fiction/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 2006, author Deesha Philyaw began crafting what would become her debut novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman. Initially, the story featured a character named Rebecca, a divorced woman co-parenting with her ex-husband, a pastor. However, Philyaw, unhappy with her marriage at the time, felt the story lacked depth and tension. A friend's blunt feedback prompted Philyaw to revise the character, creating a new version named Scharisse, a First Lady USA pageant contestant.\n\nPhilyaw's revisions aimed to introduce stakes in the story. By placing Schar into a high-profile marriage with a megachurch pastor, she elevated the potential consequences of their marital problems being exposed. Despite these changes, Schar still lacked a compelling reason to continue in her unhappy marriage. To address this, Philyaw introduced the First Lady USA pageant, a competition that offered Schar a chance to win over her fellow first ladies and become the ultimate First Lady. This goal created additional tension and obstacles, pushing Schar to work harder and risk more.\n\nTiming played a crucial role in raising the stakes for Schar. By shifting the narrative timeline and introducing a public scandal, Philyaw created a sense of urgency and complexity for her character. Moreover, Philyaw examined the motivations and flaws of her characters, ensuring that even the \"good\" characters had edge and complexity. This approach led to a more engaging and believable story, as Schar's adversaries were portrayed with depth and nuance, rather than as one-dimensional villains. Ultimately, these strategies transformed Philyaw's once-dull draft into the compelling novel The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman.",
  "summary": "This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. In 2006, when I started writing the book that would eventually become my debut novel The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, I shared my first, tentative pages with a",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}