Keep Writing Rules In Their Place

Of course there must be "rules." But Dwight Swain is right. Learn the rules, then use them to your benefit and advantage! This holds true in any art form.

Prof. Swain is a fellow Okie, and my copy of his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer, is fat with post-it notes and tattered and worn from many readings. Below is a copy of the original edition first printed in 1965!

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Dwight Vreeland Swain Bio

Dwight Vreeland Swain (1915 - 1992), born in Rochester, Michigan, was an American author, screenwriter and teacher. Swain is a member of the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame.

He joined the staff in the extremely successful Professional Writing Program at the University of Oklahoma, training writers of commercial fiction and film. He pioneered scripting documentaries and educational/instructional films using dramatic techniques, rather than the previously common talking heads.

He later wrote non-fiction books about writing, including Techniques of the Selling Writer; Film Scriptwriting; Creating Characters: How to Build Story People; and Scripting for Video and Audiovisual Media, and was much in demand as a speaker at writers' conferences throughout the US and Mexico.