{"id":278,"date":"2015-02-23T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizjensen.com\/?p=278"},"modified":"2015-03-05T08:14:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T08:14:53","slug":"the-rule-of-cruel-optimism-truth-v-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lizjensen.com\/test\/articles\/the-rule-of-cruel-optimism-truth-v-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rule of Cruel Optimism: Truth v. Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"selectionShareable\">One of my favourite jokes goes like this: There&#8217;s an optimist and a pessimist. The pessimist puts his head in his hands and says, &#8220;Oh no, things can&#8217;t get any worse!&#8221; And the optimist replies, &#8220;Oh yes they can!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">When I write fiction, I find it useful to apply the structure of this joke to plots. I think of it as the Rule of Cruel Optimism, and its mechanism is simple: You put your central character in a situation where they think their life can&#8217;t get any worse, and then you make it do just that.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/arts\/books-and-media\/in-search-of-the-skateboarding-duck\/article4285476\/\" target=\"_blank\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my favourite jokes goes like this: There&#8217;s an optimist and a pessimist. The pessimist puts his head in his hands and says, &#8220;Oh no, things can&#8217;t get any &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lizjensen.com\/test\/articles\/the-rule-of-cruel-optimism-truth-v-lies\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-articles","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Rule of Cruel Optimism: Truth v. Lies - Liz Jensen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lizjensen.com\/test\/articles\/the-rule-of-cruel-optimism-truth-v-lies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Rule of Cruel Optimism: Truth v. Lies - Liz Jensen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my favourite jokes goes like this: There&#8217;s an optimist and a pessimist. The pessimist puts his head in his hands and says, &#8220;Oh no, things can&#8217;t get any &hellip; Continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lizjensen.com\/test\/articles\/the-rule-of-cruel-optimism-truth-v-lies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liz Jensen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-23T14:18:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-05T08:14:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Liz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Liz\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lizjensen.com\/test\/articles\/the-rule-of-cruel-optimism-truth-v-lies\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lizjensen.com\/test\/articles\/the-rule-of-cruel-optimism-truth-v-lies\/\",\"name\":\"The Rule of Cruel Optimism: Truth v. 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