Swain-6-2

Dwight V. Swain
Author
Techniques of the Selling Writer
I. How to line up story elements. According to Swain, there are five key elements in every solid commercial story. The line-up is a way to arrange them in a dynamic form so that it’s possible to check their strength or weakness.

He lists the five elements as:
A. Character, without which there would be no story. The story brings a character into being who fights back against the danger that threatens him.
B. Situation, that which describes what the focal character wants to attain or retain, a thing which is in danger. His striving is the essence of the story whether or not he succeeds or fails.
C. Situation, since no character exists in a vacuum, there must be a backdrop of trouble that forces character to act. That backdrop, that external state of affairs, is the story situation.
D. Opponent, whether personal or immaterial, that resists the focal character. Whatever the opponent, it must fight back in one way or another against the focal character to make for exciting reading.
E. Disaster, the climax, something awful which focal character must face, near the end just before he escapes the hook.

Swain says that these five elements must be reducible to two, and only two sentences. If more than two sentences are required the goal may be too blurry, the plot fuzzy, or the character lacking definition.

   Sentence 1 focuses on a statement. It establishes character, situation, and objective.
   Sentence 2 is the story question. It focuses on opponent and disaster.
Swain says that sentence one is an essential step for fiction writing. One who would write must force himself to do this. Without this process, or one similar, one might think there is a story where none exists. In sentence two, the story question is so framed that it can be answered with a clear-cut “yes” or “no.”

The issue in a story is always, “Will the focal character defeat his opponent, overcome his private danger, and win happiness?” A broader or less rigid approach takes emphasis away from the basic conflict and moves it over to a puzzle element. While such digression may be valuable as a component of the story, it should be avoided as a dominant, overall story question.

A reader reads fiction first and foremost for emotional stimulation, not motivated by any great desire to think. So a story that rests on analysis or logic holds little appear for reader. Swain argues that this simple, essential, basic approach does not limit writer’s range, but does sketch out the skeleton of a story.

Swain warns: This method for beginning a story is only an aid.

First warning: It’s a semi-mechanical procedure whose purpose it to keep writer reminded of the dynamic elements of the story. It is anything but foolproof, and no substitute for thinking. Unless one adapts this process to his own ideas, tastes, and reader, it may do more harm than good.

Second warning: This is not the only method. There are many ways to go about this. Whatever way writer uses, the most important element is the fresh idea, the unique twist, the sudden insight into character, the enthusiasm that captures and excites the reader’s imagination. Swain argues that these are writers’ and writers’ alone.
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