Published in 1965, Dwight V. Swain’s “Techniques of the Selling Writer,” some feel, is a bit outdated.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 Eight – Failing to Master the Technique
The eighth pitfall for a writer, according to Swain, is to fail to master the technique. True, writing is a creative act, Swain argues, but that does not obviate the importance of mastering technique and process. Learning how to make description vivid, build conflict, tie incidents together, decide where to start the story, or make a character interesting. (p. 18) What processes and techniques a writer possesses depends on the writer and his level of aspirations.
Is the person most knowledgeable about technique more creative? Not necessarily. One who strains hard to master process and technique may be fascinated with technique for its own sake rather than a tool to help tell a story. The most important technique is the one needed at a specific moment. “You don’t write fiction by the numbers. Each person goes about it in a different way. Some plan and some don’t. Some plod and some don’t. Some think and—not necessarily regrettably—some don’t.” (p. 20) He continues the discussion by saying that one learns all the varied techniques by writing, writing stories and being willing to be wrong.
So the author concludes this discussion of a writer’s pitfalls by urging a writer to “buckle down and forge yourself a kit of techniques out of the iron of your own copy.” (p. 21) He says that each story will provide more experience to translate into literary process, each trick mastered will free the writer a little more from feelings of inadequacy and frustration. No doubt one will violate some rule of process or technique in establishing his own catalogue of skills. Swain concludes by quoting an old proverb: “Half the fun of sinning lies in knowing that it’s sinful.” (p. 21)
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