Techniques of the Selling Writer
by Dwight V. Swain
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dwight V. SwainEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1982-05-01
ISBN: 0806111917
Number of pages: 342
Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd)
Book Reviews of Techniques of the Selling Writer
Book Review: this book is different from other 'How To' books on writing fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
Why is this book different?
I think people who are capable in any area can generally be separated into two types:
Unconsciously competent and consciously competent.
The unconsciously competent writer, if she/he tries to teach someone else, can often do
more damage than if they had never tried to teach.
Why?
1) ) the writer, being unconsciously competent, truly has no idea how she came up with what she does.,
and 2) Because teaching is a separate skill.
So the only ones who have any business writing a book on writing are the ones who consciously figured out how to solve the weaknesses in their writing.
But there are problems here as well. 1) Anyone who had ALL the potential problems a writer might have and figured out how to solve them would be in a nursing home by the time they 'got it down.' Thus any successful writer is going to have blind
spots because any person with EVERY writing problem won't keep trying long enough to figure them all out---life is too short. 2) Were the things these writers figured out truly salient?
3) Do they truly remember what they did to solve the problem?
4) Is their solution idiosyncratic to that particular writer, ("generalizable" to others) or not?
5) The writer is instinctively 'good' at other areas, but the beginner may need specific help in that particular area. Finally, the writer has to be able to teach (with all the multitude of problems in any teaching situation.)
This is why, in my opinion, many writing books are like nuggets of gold buried in tons of chaff. The 'chaff' represents all the blind-spots described above.
To convey an idea of how good this book is, let me use an extended metaphor.
Let's say a foundation funded a study to see if 'the average person who reads for fun' can be taught to 'write a reasonably enjoyable short story.'
A group of a dozen editors is paid to read through 100 manuscripts. These manuscripts range from the worst examples of writing from a freshman writing class to professionally
written, publishable stories. The editors rank the manuscripts into piles of "good", "mediocre" and "bad."
Any manuscript in which there is a major disagreement is discarded. So the study is left with 30 manuscripts that ALL the editors can agree rank into "good", "mediocre" and "bad." The "mediocre" manuscripts are then dropped, leaving 20 total
manuscripts: 10 "good," and 10 "bad."
The study researchers start with 1000 people who read for fun and have never considered writing as a vocation. The designers of this study need to weed out people who can't recognize a decent piece of writing from bad. In other words they need to weed out people with a 'tin ear' for writing. The 1000 subjects are asked to read 20 manuscripts and to rate them in terms of writing quality.
Those subjects who were able to distinguish the "good" ten from the "bad" ten are selected.
This leaves a group of 300 people who can recognize decent writing and poor writing, but have no idea "why."
Each month the 300 "writer-researchers" sit down and each write out a short story. They then meet and discuss each story in terms of what works and what does not. After much discussion,
they start with sentences as a basic unit of analysis. They agree as to what makes for a 'good' sentence. Then they go back and write another story. Now things get very tough, because things are very muddled. They're following the rules for 'good' prose sentences, but some of the manuscripts are barely readable. After a comparison of the 'readable' ones with the 'unreadable' ones, the 300 focus in on motivating stimulus
& response units as the next big area of failure.
This process of writing, analysis, agreement on new techniques, and writing is repeated for several years until finally each of the 300 people can write a 'reasonably readable and enjoyable story.' Naturally, there is considerable variance in insight into human nature, facility with metaphors, and so forth. But ALL the stories are 'reasonably readable and enjoyable,' even if the characters vary widely in their interest to the
reader. In short, they are publishable, though certainly only one or two may be good enough to wind up in the Atlantic.
The 'writer-researchers' then collect their techniques and insights into one handbook.
Such a handbook would avoid many of the above mentioned pitfalls of writing books. It would focus on letting the writer discover what the "why"s of particular writing problems without didactically saying as most writing books do, "This is MY way of
solving the problem, it works for me, I'm published, so you should listen to me."
In my opinion, "Techniques of the Selling Writer" by Dwight Swain is the closest thing to such a handbook as I've seen. It's amazing, and worth far more than the asking price.
Summary of Techniques of the Selling Writer
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.
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