To avoid confusion, my book "Stein on Writing," now in its third U.S. printing, has just been published in Britain by Souvenir Press under a different title, Solutions for Writers, with the subtitle "Practical Craft Techniques for Fiction and Non-Fiction." It is the same book, with the addition of a special section for British writers. Four reviews of the book under its American title are posted on Amazon.com. Two of the reviews are by literary agents who urge their clients to read the book.

I have been answering questions from British and Commonwealth authors in two subject areas: Craft techniques in fiction and nonfiction and U.S. publishing practices.

Questions should be addressed to solstein@aol.com. As a publisher and editor-in-chief, I had about 75 British authors at any given time. They ranged from Jack Higgins to Edward Heath. You'll find the advice I gave three of them--Higgins, Christy Brown, and David Frost--in the section of this web site called Stein's Advice to Famous Authors.

Question: What was the biggest difference you found between UK and US authors?

Answer: During the earliest of my 39 trips to Britain, I found that in some quarters of the UK editing was negligible because it was thought to be bad form. It is certainly bad form to point out to someone with a large and irremediable nose that they have a large nose. Editing, however, is--or should be--directed to helping the author realize his intentions. British writers, including some distinguished authors, were hungry for editorial input, whereas their American counterparts were used to it. British writers seemed to have greater control of and skill with their language than most Americans, but British novels tended to be done on smaller canvases, quieter, and with less of the conflict and drama that has energized fiction and theater since their beginnings. These were the issues that were discussed in the editorial process. British fiction on the whole now has a somewhat wider angle than it used to have, and is less confined to quiet events, but it is still necessary too remind some writers that scope and resonance are important.

Chapter 31 of Solutions for Writers deals with Increasing the Effect on the Reader Through Resonance. In future months, the subject will be dealt with again here.

Question: What major craft issue was least discussed in Britain?

Answer: The fact that much if not most enduring fiction is based on differences. Those differences are in inherited characteristics, upbringing, and individual temperament, as in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, or Lady Chatterley's Lover. Writers of nonfiction as well as fiction can use markers (quick social identifiers). Cultural differences are a touchy subject for most people. Touchy subjects arouse emotion. People in civil society usually try to overlook the differences but in fact do not. Their attempt to cover up noticed differences sometimes fail, hurting others. Social and cultural differences can be a source of feeling and high drama, essential to effective writing. Differences can be in clothing, choice of words, habits, mannerisms, and much else useful in both characterization and plotting. Much more on this subject and how to use emotion-arousing differences to enhance your writing are available in FictionMaster (see menu at left).

Question: What other craft points were elided?

Answer: Surprisingly, eccentricity. Eccentricity is valuable to writers because it interests readers. In reviewing the important novels of the century, it is clear that almost all of the protagonists are eccentric. Despite the rumor that eccentricity is a British invention, British fiction writers--and Americans--sometimes avoided eccentricity in their principal characters.

The everyman hero or heroine does not please readers who long to spend twelve hours with characters more interesting than and different from the people they meet daily in shops and streets.

Question: What is the Actors Studio technique for creating instant tension in plays and fiction?

Answer: In short, give each character a different script. In life, in any group of two or more people, each is functioning with at least somewhat different experiences and intentions. I first saw this technique used at the Actors Studio to train playwrights. I was part of the first demonstration, when the director, Elia Kazan (winner of two Academy Awards and director of five Pulitzer Prize plays, and an author whose enormous bestsellers I was to edit) took me aside from the audience of playwrights and directors, and told me that I was to play the headmaster of the Dalton School, who had just thrown out a rambunctious boy who caused trouble both in and out of the classroom. I was about to be visited by the boy's mother, but I was not to reinstate him under any circumstances. Then Kazan ushered novelist Rona Jaffe out of the room, and, as I later learned, told her that she was the mother of a brilliant, well-behaved boy who had been unfairly dismissed from the Dalton School, and she had an appointment with the headmaster in order to get her child reinstated. We were not given to words to say, just our different scripts.

The rest was to be improvisation. I was seated at the headmaster's desk, Rona Jaffe came in, and within seconds I was on my feet and we were arguing heatedly. The scene worked well because it contained disagreement and conflict. I then adapted the technique to creating tension in any kind of scene in fiction. It has served many writers since. There is a chapter in Solutions for Writers on this technique, and a section in FictionMaster (for more information about FictionMaster, click on it in the menu on the left).

Question: What is the most important distinction between overheard speech and dialogue?

Answer: Recorded speech, as in court transcripts, is repetitive and boring even when disagreement and conflict are in evidence. Unlike actual speech, dialogue is an invented language that creates the semblance of speech. In conversation we expect answers to questions. Answers in dialogue are to some degree unresponsive, oblique, employing indirect replies not in line with what the previous speaker has said. Dialogue is as difficult (or, for some, easy) to learn as a foreign language. At the University of California, I gave a twelve-week course on Dialogue for Writers, the essence of which is available on a free audio tape. See Free Writers Gifts on the menu.

Note: You'll find additional Tips for Fiction Writers and Tips for Nonfiction Writers in the menu at the left.

Direct your questions to solstein@aol.com. Questions of general interest and their answers will appear here. All questions will be answered via e-mail or letter to a street address.