Techniques of the Selling Writer [Paperback]

Dwight V. Swain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1982 | ISBN-10: 0806111917 | ISBN-13: 978-0806111919

This book provides solid instruction for persons who want to write and sell fiction, not just to talk and study about it. It gives the background, insights, and specific procedures needed by all beginning writers. Here one can learn how to group words into copy that moves, movement into scenes, and scenes into stories; how to develop characters, how to revise and polish, and finally, how to sell the product.

This is the book for writers who want to turn rejection slips into cashable checks.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dwight V. Swain spent a lifetime writing newspaper and magazine articles, pulp fiction, and screenplays. For more than twenty years he taught in the Professional Writing Program at the University of Oklahoma. His popular books, Techniques of the Selling Writer and Creating Characters: How to Build Story People are published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) (May 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806111917
• ISBN-13: 978-0806111919
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

164 of 165 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book got me published July 1, 2002

By R. Tiedemann

Format:Paperback

Although Swain's book was originally published in 1965, there's a very good reason why it's still in print. The information he presents is solid, useful and timeless.

The book has 10 chapters. The first, Fiction and You, tells what the writer needs to know and gives common traps writers fall into. Then he discusses things like rules and the creative act of writing. His style is terse and sentences are short. That makes it easy to find specific information when you go back later to look for it.

In the second chapter he gets down to serious business -- words. How to find them, how to use them and make them clear and concise. The third chapter is all about feelings and how to use them. In the fourth he goes into the necessity for conflict, what to do and not to do in building it. Chapter Five presents the strategies of fiction. "Fiction..." he writes, "creates an especially vivid vicarious tension...Your job as a writer is to control and manipulate this tension." He also delineates the source of story satisfaction and describes how to produce it.

Chapter 6 is all about getting a story started, lining up story elements, developing the middle of the story and winding it up. Story people and the importance of characters and character development are covered in Chapter 7. Planning the story, recognizing good story material, preparing to write, and what you need in order to succeed as a writer wind up the last few chapters. He devotes one page to marketing advice and that simply directs the reader to study the markets.

This is, without a doubt, one of the most useful and easiest to use books on the craft of writing that has ever been published. Its advice is timeless. This book should be in every writer's collection.

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Skip the MFA classes and read this book, then write! January 11, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I had published a fair amount of fiction BEFORE I read it. But reading Swain, having him help me take apart the structure of my scenes, the very order of the sentences in a paragraph, the order of words in a sentence, and to then change them for maximum power--wow! Since then I've published much more fiction, because I have an understanding of the techniques of writing. The selling parts of the book are things I've gotten elsewhere, but learning what makes good sentences, good scenes, balanced chapters--it's worth a fortune. This book and Gary Provost's MAKING YOUR WORDS WORK are the two best tools for writers I've found. And I'm saying this as my 1th book is about to come out, and my 500th shorter piece. Thanks, Dwight. Wish you were still around.

66 of 71 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on writing around November 10, 2001

By Patricia Kay

Format:Paperback

This book was recommended to me before I sold my first book, and I'm certain what I learned in reading it contributed to that first sale and all the ones that followed (I've sold 45 novels in all). I highly recommend it, not only for novices, but for all writers.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Advice for Commercial Fiction December 26, 2000

By Tami D. Cowden

Format:Paperback

This is a tried and true classic among books on fiction writing.

This is a hefty read -- best digested in smaller portions, but well worth the effort. Swain takes separate looks on all aspects of story building -- characterization, plot, scene structure, etc., and pulls them apart to get to the basic elements. The approach is somewhat scholarly, but for those wrters who do study it, this book will definitely increase understanding of the interlocking components of great fiction.

Readers should remember that this book was first published decades ago. The markets -- especially book and short story markets - have changed quite a bit since then. Thus, the reader should take care to separate the craft advice - which is timeless -- from the advice related to selling, which may not be so timeless. Also, Swain does not give many examples, but the few that are given are, at times, somewhat obscure.

With only that caveat in mind, this book is one I'd expect to see on a serious writer's bookshelf.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best on Writing Dramatic Fiction August 11, 2008

By Maine Character

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book on account of all these rave reviews, and everyone was right - this is one of the very best books on writing fiction there is. I have over twenty, and even after all that, when reading yet another chapter on point of view is like slogging through sludge, Swain brings such refreshing verve and wit to the subject that everything seems new again. And it actually is, since he clues you in to key aspects you'd never considered before.

First, some clarifications - forget the title and the ugly cover. Rip them off, if you like. A better title would be "Techniques of the Dramatic Writer Who People Will Enjoy Reading." `Cause that's Swain's clarification - that this book isn't about pretentious writing for literary journals, and it's not about shallow novels or selling out. It's about solid storytelling and what engages audiences. What will, in the end, sell, simply because it's what publishers are looking for - novels with depth, feeling, and compelling characters that carries audiences along from one scene to the next.

Most books on writing stay at one level - the literary theories that just briefly touch on actual works you've heard of, and the cookie-cutter manuals that stay on the surface without giving you the tools or insight you're looking for. But here you find a combination of psychological depth and street wisdom that never floats off in heavy philosophy and yet never sinks to crude sketches for the popular market. It tells you how to write with both emotional insight and compelling action....

To top it off, Swain not only gives you the basic story structure of a hero facing conflict, but also gives a few nuggets I haven't seen in other books, such as curtain lines, scene and sequel, pet fragments, simultaneity, framing tightly in close-ups, reaction sentences, and the hero's stated goal vs. their true goal. The section on wish fulfillment was especially enlightening. There's also sections on a writer's life and being productive - including fifty pages on Planning, Preparation, and Production - that are sharp and true to life.

"The best observation anyone can make on preparation, planning, and production is that everyone has a God-given right to go to hell in his own way - and don't let anyone kid you out of yours."

Sitting down with this book is like sitting down at an all-night diner with a straight-talking veteran like Gene Hackman and having him lay out the terrain for you. Sketching phrases on napkins and crossing out words, telling you stories about fellow writers, and always setting up dramatic situations and how you can make them better. Spinning out stories about the waitress and explaining between goals of achievement and goals of resistance and how her boss's reaction could be the key.

Swain's enthusiasm is uplifting, his candor refreshing, his insight exactly what you need. He even breaks up each chapter into sections, so there's barely a single page with a solid wall of prose. For instance, the sections on increasing tension include 1) Build with scenes, 2) Don't confuse delay with complication, 3) Tie your characters to your story, 4) Balance your forces, 5) Have enough at stake, 6) Force continuing adjustments, 7) Keep the action rising, 8) Box in your hero, and 9) Drop a corpse through the roof.

Each of these is given a half page or more of explanation: "Your job is to spot holes and plug them; to foresee escape routes and block them; to cut off your hero from all apparent hope. If you don't, your reader's going to see those holes, and scream because your hero doesn't duck out through one."

It clocks in at 320 pages, jumps right in on the very first page, and though written in 1965, it's dated only by the magazines it names, mentions of typewriters, and a funny line about computer tubes. You still find the usual Steinbeck, Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and Travis McGee. Everything else is as timeless advice as Shakespeare or Stephen King would give.

(For a pointer, it helps if you already have a few stories under your arm to check with Swain's advice as you go along. Also, when he mentions character types, or dramatic reversals, write in the margins the books and movies you've seen this in. It'll sharpen your perception and help you make the connections between what he's talking about and the works you've always enjoyed. And finally, Chap. 3 is good, but can be skipped to get right to the best parts.)

My only regret is that I wasn't given this book in college, rather than the stale, technical wish-wash that made writing fiction seem like typing up doctorates to please your professors. Those books one had to sit down and slog through, but this one I always looked forward to, knowing that even the things I already knew would be told with bold, brash wit and made new again. Which is, actually, what good writing is all about. Read more ›