Techniques of the Selling Writer

Rating:
Summary: This book got me published
Review: Although Swain's book was originally published in 1965, there's a very good reason why it's still in print. The information he presents is solid, useful and timeless.

The book has 10 chapters. The first, Fiction and You, tells what the writer needs to know and gives common traps writers fall into. Then he discusses things like rules and the creative act of writing. His style is terse and sentences are short. That makes it easy to find specific information when you go back later to look for it.

In the second chapter he gets down to serious business -- words. How to find them, how to use them and make them clear and concise. The third chapter is all about feelings and how to use them. In the fourth he goes into the necessity for conflict, what to do and not to do in building it. Chapter Five presents the strategies of fiction. "Fiction..." he writes, "creates an especially vivid vicarious tension...Your job as a writer is to control and manipulate this tension." He also delineates the source of story satisfaction and describes how to produce it.

Chapter 6 is all about getting a story started, lining up story elements, developing the middle of the story and winding it up. Story people and the importance of characters and character development are covered in Chapter 7. Planning the story, recognizing good story material, preparing to write, and what you need in order to succeed as a writer wind up the last few chapters. He devotes one page to marketing advice and that simply directs the reader to study the markets.

This is, without a doubt, one of the most useful and easiest to use books on the craft of writing that has ever been published. Its advice is timeless. This book should be in every writer's collection.

Rating:
Summary: Top of the list of "must-have" writing books
Review: This book is usually at the top of every writer's "must-have" list, and for good reason. Packed with useful, easy to comprehend explanations on everything from writing with emotion to sustaining conflict, to preparing to sell your work -- TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER covers it all. Swain's instruction is almost conversational--perhaps a bit rambling in places--but always illuminating. A classic how-to book from an old master. Gotta get this one! (For a list of additional must-have writing books, visit the Resources page at WriteWayPro's website.)

Rating:
Summary: A must for all serious writers
Review: This book should be required reading for all writers. It is jam-packed with useful information, excellent examples, and "tricks" of the trade. Although much of the material is geared toward more commercial writing, the author does an excellent job at pointing out when and how these techniques can be modified for more literary genres. The book is extremely well-organized, always clear and insightful. For beginners and expert craftsmen alike.