| rdfs:comment
| - Seriously, though. In fiction, it is relatively common for the main character to be a writer or a reporter. This is in large part because many narrative works of art are initially driven by writers themselves (novelists, playwright, screenwriters, etc.) This can tie into the Literary Agent Hypothesis, particularly if the story is written in the first person, i.e. the writer protagonist had an adventure, wrote up his account of it, published it and this is supposedly the book you have just read. See also Most Writers Are Male and Most Writers Are Human.
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| abstract
| - Seriously, though. In fiction, it is relatively common for the main character to be a writer or a reporter. This is in large part because many narrative works of art are initially driven by writers themselves (novelists, playwright, screenwriters, etc.) Interestingly, such characters are only occasionally Author Avatars. As the page quote indicates, one of the main pieces of advice writers hear is "Write What You Know", and since, as writers, they know writing, they have some idea how a writer would react in a given situation. This trope is almost unavoidable when the setting revolves around a Show Within a Show, and may lead to a Writer's Block Montage. Making characters who are writers by trade has a number of advantages for a narrative.
* It helps get past the whole Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic problem, since a writer would be expected to know how to use big fancy words.
* Journalists and other kinds of nonfiction writers generally are expected to have investigative skills and an attention to detail that are useful to many kinds of plots, such as They Fight Crime.
* Even if they don't use those skills in the plot, journalists are generally close to a wide variety of local important people like politicians and big events like disasters, but not actually one of those people or part of those events. This is the in-universe reason why Superman and Spider-Man went into journalism in the first place, so they could keep their ears to the ground and find out when and where superheroes are needed.
* Freelance writers and journalists have a semi-plausible excuse for their One-Hour Work Week.
* Fiction writers in-universe, because of that same "write what you know" principle, can theoretically have every Chekhov's Skill an amateur could plausibly have if they had researched it for a book.
* However, writers who don't write also don't get paid, which means this can become One-Hour Work Week if the writer never actually gets around to doing any writing, or if they spend too much time doing something other than writing. This can tie into the Literary Agent Hypothesis, particularly if the story is written in the first person, i.e. the writer protagonist had an adventure, wrote up his account of it, published it and this is supposedly the book you have just read. As a corollary to this, there are a disproportionate number of movies about the movie industry, a disproportionate number of plays about actors and playwrights, a disproportionate number of songs about singers, and so on. A consequence of this is that there is a disproportionate number of works involving the difficulties associated with getting a job after college when you have an English major, even if it's a good economy, as all the writers were English majors, and virtually none of them could find a job after college, even in a good economy. See also Most Writers Are Male and Most Writers Are Human. Examples of Most Writers Are Writers include:
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