Techniques of the Selling Writer (Paperback)

by Dwight V. Swain (Author) "You need to know only four things in order to write a solid story: how to group words into motivation-reaction units; how to group motivation-reaction..." (more)
Key Phrases: motivating stimulus, focal character, motivating stimuli, Fred Friggenheimer, Friend Reader, New York (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press (May 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806111917
• ISBN-13: 978-0806111919
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #22,082 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Patricia Kay "author and avid reader" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

24 of 24 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

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.