Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies [Paperback]

Most of the brass tacks of this book are in Part II, Fiction. This section includes 16 different chapters on all of the basics -- characterization, plotting, dialogue, point of view, etc. -- with some subchapters that include techniques or exercises that this reader didn't expect. For example, Stein's section on plotting includes two chapters on the Crucible and the Actors Studio method for developing plots. Personally I found his chapters on characterization most useful. Stein briskly walks the reader through quick ways to help shape a character, such as markers, dialogue and in some cases a little exaggeration. Throughout the book Stein sprinkles some very effective examples from what seems like hundreds of authors. I found his writing to be clear and very fast, without any time wasted on "the writer's life" and other such new age nonsense I've seen in a lot of this kind of book. At 300 pages you're getting a very quick, pragmatic read.

I've only got one big criticism of this book: Sol Stein admits from the get-go that his primary interest is in character-driven literary fiction, and that's the entire focus of his book. I didn't expect him to cover genre fiction; honestly if you're going to write mysteries or sci-fi you'd be much better served by purchasing a book that focuses on that market. But I found it frustrating that at least according to Stein, the entire universe of "literary fiction" is driven by character. For the most part he's probably right, but I've also read literary fiction that's driven by theme, plot, and the author's style. I got the sense that most of the authors Stein has worked with were doing their best work 30+ years ago, and that he's a little uninformed on newer literature and authors. Stein also writes in a very diffinitive style that comes off a little arrogant at points and could be offputting, but so many literature teachers are like that anyway.

Overall, this is a great start but not the Holy Bible on good fiction writing his devotees might have you believe.

"On Writing" is separated into seven distinct parts, with each part divided into distinct chapters that cover specific aspects of the craft. This allows writers to either read the work as a whole or to simply concentrate on the topics that interest them. Stein illustrates his concepts and suggestions with many examples from not only his own work but also the works of others, from Chaucer to Joan Didion and many more. Stein's style is colloquial and accessible and writers at any level should be able to take away something from this elder statesman of writing, Sol Stein.

Grade: A-

Granted, I did pick up a few tips along the way, but overall I found Stein's book to be really basic. Perhaps it's best usage is to re-read your work to look for easy fixes. Or, to get the basics upfront, before you start your writing career. If your skills, say creating characters, needs some work, then reading this book won't help you at all, you'd need specialized books. In other words: it's great to fix dumb mistakes but it won't help you in the skills department.

One curious thing I noticed is that Stein quotes from his own work, nothing wrong with that of course. But is it just me or do those examples just not work in the specificed context? They didn't illustrate his point anyway. Some of the other examples he uses don't come across to me as good writing either, it is all so clinical.

If you are a bad writer, this book might help you turn into a mediocre writer. If you are a mediocre writer, this book might still teach you a few tricks and it might point you in the way of more specialized books. On it's own it's just not really interesting.