Published in 1965, Dwight V. Swain’s “Techniques of the Selling Writer,” some feel, is a bit outdated. Written before the ubiquitous word processor, Google, and AI gives the book some age; however, after reading the book once and studying through it a second time, I think the book has good information. It is still in print, which speaks about the book’s endurance. The book has information for a freshman writer, like myself, or a senior writer. I’ll be studying through the book again and presenting some of my observations.
Dwight Swain (1915-1992) began his writing career in the 1930s. From publishing short stories, his writing evolved to include mysteries, westerns, and action-adventure stories. He was also a screenwriter.
Swain taught in the Professional Writing Program at the University of Oklahoma, where he oversaw the development of student writers. Students in the program submitted writing assignments. From these submissions, Swain drew many illustrations used to support his points in his nonfiction books about writing, such as Techniques of the Selling Writer, the focus of this discussion.
Writer’s Trap One – An Unrealistic View
In chapter 1, “Fiction and You,” Swain says one only needs to know four things to write a solid story: (1) How to group words into motivation-reaction units; (2) How to group motivation-reaction units into scenes and sequels; (3) How to group scenes and sequels into story pattern; and (4) How to create the kind of characters that give a story life. (p. 1)
If, as Swain says, these things are not hard to learn, why then are there not more writers? Here is where he dives into the gist of the first chapter. He argues that people find it difficult to write because they fall into one of eight traps.
This first trap that a would-be writer falls into is taking an unrealistic view. I have a file of all the sermons I’ve written over sixty years. It’s been a long time since I’ve pulled out some of the early drafts. Frankly, it’s embarrassing. There’s a cliché among academicians about publishing their doctoral dissertations. The essay should be published immediately after completion because after a while, the author will probably be uneasy by the amateurishness of the piece. No tennis player has his first match at Wimbledon, and scarce is a writer whose first book makes the best-seller list.
One can know how to write, how to plot, how to characterize, how to intrigue readers, Swain says, but what one does with them is the question. “You can’t know for sure how well you’ll do until you try. . . . In writing, more than in almost any other field, initiative is the key.” (p. 3)
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