Published in 1965, Dwight V. Swain’s “Techniques of the Selling Writer,” some feel, is a bit outdated.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 Two – The Hunt for a Magic Secrets     The second trap for a would-be writer is the hunt for magic secrets. “Unfortunately, novices in the field of fiction often tend to a child-like faith in magic keys or secret formulas. No such key exists. There isn’t any formula or secret.” (p. 3) It’s interesting that Swain published those words in 1960, well before the first primitive word processor appeared in 1964. Some would-be writers use the most recent advances in Artificial Intelligence programs like a magic story writer. One observer complained that there’s a glut of AI-produced material being marketed today. Swain would surely have shown the door to any student who submitted an AI-generated story. He said there’s “no magic key. No universal formula. No mystic secret. No Supersonic Plot Computer. (p. 5) Remember, these words were written several decades before AI generated printouts. And just as important, the author asks, “Do you really want to succeed just because you possess a magic secret?” (p. 5) No, the author says, “Instead of one secret, he must master dozens, hundreds . . . devices, procedures, bits of craftsmanship and rules of thumb and gimmicks.” (p. 5)
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