Stein on Writing
Sol Stein, the author of Stein on Writing published in 1995, produced around ten published novels and was a playwright. He also served as editor for popular fiction writers in the twentieth century for more than thirty-six years.
Throughout the three-hundred-page book, Stein shares his craft techniques and writing strategies. The book contains seven major sections: “The Essentials,” “Fiction,” “Fiction and Nonfiction,” “Nonfiction,” “Literary Values in Fiction and Nonfiction,” “Revision,” and “Where to Get Help.” He also includes a “Glossary” of terms for writers.
“The Essentials” contains three chapters. Stein starts off Chapter 1: “The Writer’s Job May Be Different than You Think” by saying that he is presenting a book “of useable solutions” for writers. He also states that a writer’s correct intention should be “to provide the reader with an experience that is superior to the experiences the reader encounters in everyday life.” He goes on to say that the fiction writer’s primary job is “creating an emotional experience for the reader.” These statements resonated with my personal experience as a reader. I much prefer reading to watching films because the soundtracks force an emotional experience. I prefer to experience the story from my own center of emotion.
In Chapter 2: “Come Right In; First Sentences, First Paragraphs” he addresses the importance of the first sentence and the first paragraph, giving ample examples to make his point clear: writers should engage not bore readers. He suggests that to catch the reader’s attention, writers characterize a curious character or action by introducing something surprising or unusual.
In Chapter 3, “Welcome to the Twentieth Century,” Stein emphasizes that readers raised on film and video want to read novels that focus on scenes rather than long descriptions. He suggests that narrative summary sections be short and limited to setting up immediate scenes and the transition to the next scene and that writers avoid “off-stage” descriptions while focusing on characterization and action.
In the second section, “Fiction,” Stein devotes almost 15 chapters to how to write effective fiction. In Chapter 4, “Competing with God: Making Fascinating People.” Stein reminds the reader that we all love fiction because we love and remember the characters. He discusses the difference in writing for plot and writing for characterization. He remarks that when he reads, he wants to fall in love with the characters in the books. Writers can achieve this effect if they use characterization effectively. Stein suggests characterizing through action or exaggeration rather than description. He also suggests that characterization should convey a visual image.
Stein tackles how writers use differences to introduce taboos, reveal the unspoken, and discuss the slippage between what people think they are and how they act in Chapter 5, Markers: The Swift Key to Characterization. He states that “differences can be the source of high feeling and high drama.”
Chapter 6 deals with “Thwarting Desire: The Basis of Plotting.” Stein mentions Kafka, Fitzgerald, and Flaubert to demonstrate characters whose desires form the basis of the novels they wrote. Stein points out that desire can mean wanting or not wanting something but is essential to writing a readable novel. He says, “…the want and the opposition to the want need to be important, necessary, and urgent. The result should be the kind of conflict that interests readers.”
Stein discusses his work with the Playwrights Group of the Actors Studio in New York in Chapter 7, “The Actor Studios Method for Developing Drama in Plots.” He suggests that novelists use a script technique devised there to build interest and conflict into a scene. In effect, the author should give each character in a scene “a different script,” which will create immediate disagreement and conflict as well as dramatic action.
In Chapter 8, “The Crucible: A Key to Successful Plotting” Stein discusses how to create tension throughout the novel, rather than in just one scene. He quotes the author James Frey who defined the crucible in fiction as “the container that holds the characters together as things heat up.” If a plot is successful, the characters are unable to escape the situation or “their motivation to oppose each other is greater than their motivation to run away.”
“Suspense: Keeping the Reader Reading,” is the topic of Chapter 9. Stein suggests that “suspense needles the reader with a feeling of anxious uncertainty” which builds interest in the story. He recommends that authors use a scene outline that includes location, character, and action to help them sort out how to alternate the scenes for the most effect. Stein states that “architectural suspense” is a technique to be “overemphasized.”
In Chapter 10, “The Adrenaline Pump: Creating Tension,” Stein begins with “Writers are troublemakers…Their job is to give readers stress, strain, and pressure.” Stein defines the difference between suspense and tension thusly: “Suspense can last for a long period, sometimes for an entire book. Tension is felt in seconds or minutes.” He mentions that an easy way to create tension is to introduce a “chilling fact,” “dangerous work,” “a deadline,” “an unfortunate meeting,” “a trap,” or through dialogue.
Stein introduces “The Secrets of Good Dialogue,” in Chapter 11. He asks authors to consider the differences between normal “talk” which is “full of rambling, incomplete, or run-on sentences” and written dialogue which “…has purpose…stimulates the reader’s curiosity…creates tension…build(s) to a climax or turn of events…or a change in relationship.” He also points out that fictional dialogue is often deliberately oblique. He ends with the fact that dialogue on a page seems to make the story move along faster because of the increased white space.
In Chapter 12, “How to Show Instead of Tell,” Stein gives multiple examples of transition from “telling a story” to “showing” what is happening. Showing is visual in that it helps the reader “see” what is happening. Showing involves conveying emotions through the characters’ actions.
Stein discusses the importance of the author understanding how to use point of view in Chapter 13, “Choosing a Point of View.” Careful selection of one’s point of view in the novel is important because it affects the reader’s emotions: “…the reader wants to know whose story this is.” Stein provides an excellent POV checklist for writers to use to examine their own stories.
In Chapter 14, “Flashbacks: How to Bring Background into Foreground,” Stein points out that flashbacks can create problems for readers. He recommends writing the information that would be covered in a flashback into a foreground scene.
The topic of Chapter 15, “The Key to Credibility,” asks the writer to address the fact that characters must be real, their motivations must be credible, and what happens in the story must be believable. Credibility can be built into the story by careful “planting” of certain details. He recommends avoiding the use of coincidences.
“The Secret Snapshot Technique: Reaching for Hidden Treasure” discussed in Chapter 16 is designed to help writers learn that “Probing secrets is a key to writing memorable fiction.” Stein suggests that writers need to be brave and explore territories from their past that have been hidden from public view.
In Chapter 17, Sol Stein details “How to Use All Six of Your Senses.” He provides examples to show how to use touch, smell, vision, hearing, and taste while adding a discussion of intuition as the sixth sense. Notably, he insists that characterization of the senses be shown through action, not description.
“Love Scene” is the topic of Stein’s Chapter 18. Stein reminds us that a love scene is not necessarily between a man and a woman. It could reference love in other situations: human and animal, parent and child, but his main topic for the chapter is romantic and sexual love between adults—a topic he says is often among “the worst written scenes.” He emphasizes that in a good love scene, the reader understands “the relationship between the lovers better than the lovers do.” He suggests that the two most essential aspects are “tension and tenderness” and that “interruptions can be useful.” Stein also suggests that the writer let “the reader’s imagination do a lot of the work.”
The last chapter in the section of the book, “Creating the Envelope” addresses the need for writers to be “specific, particular, concrete” but at the same time allow for readers to exercise their own imaginations. When “creating an envelope” for the reader, Stein suggests that the author “…trigger the reader’s imagination.”
In the rest of the book, Stein on Writing, Sol Stein discusses fiction and nonfiction, which I will not address in this blog. However, I highly recommend Stein on Writing to beginning and aspiring novelists. His knowledge, experience, and guidance are impressive and could save you hours of revision by guiding you to do it right the first time through. I definitely intend to rely on this book as I rework a second draft of the novel, I am currently workshopping in my critique group.
My Writing Goals for 2023
Continue to work on my poetry.
I continue to write a poem each day. The process grounds me in the present as I write about what is most important to me at the moment. I have been attending monthly Zoom meetings with Bardic Trails to listen to the featured poet and others who read. This month I found a website where I can publish poems.
Submit poetry to contests/awards:
I have still not heard the results of the poetry contest.
Finish, request feedback, and send my first novel out for review:
I am workshopping this novel with my critique group.
Continue to work on my other novels:
This month I completed more research for one and spent time pondering about the other one.
Continue to develop a network of kindred spirits in the world of writing and publishing:
Boulder Writers Alliance:
In July, I attended a summer happy hour event at a local venue. I also attended the early August Writers Who Read GabFest hosted by Gary McBride at a local watering hole.
Denver Woman’s Press Club: I read the newsletter. I also watched a biopic about DWPC member Mary Coyle Chase, From Housewife to Pulitzer Prize—one of four “Great Colorado Women” films nominated for a Heartland EMMY this year. Mimi Pockross, who is a current member of DWPC and featured in the biopic, wrote Chase’s biography Pulling Harvey Out of Her Hat: The Amazing Story of Mary Coyle Chase.
Women Writing the West: In July, only three members of the critique group met. The feedback my colleagues gave me on my pages included: Make sure each detail is relevant to the passage. Readers will jump to conclusions, so make sure they jump to a potential solution. There are a couple of spots where the content and tone change too much between paragraphs. Transitions are too abrupt.
Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers:
I read the RMFW newsletter.
This year I plan to monetize my blog:
I did nothing to work toward this goal this month.
Document my writing progress through my blog and post it on the seventh day of each month, one blog per month 2023:
Today is the seventh day of August which is the eighth month of the year. I am posting my eighth blog for 2023. Four celebrations of life of close friends and family marked the month of July. It has been a sad summer for me but it was heartening to experience the love and support of friends and family.
August 7th in Literary History
Garrison Keillor, author of the Lake Wobegon series, is a writer, radio personality, singer, and humorist born in Minnesota on August 7, 1942.
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