Thoughts from a lvl25 player who played fiddle a lot in non-ranked games:
This probably doesn't work for ranked games. But as 95% of the games I play develop pretty straightforward 2-1-2-laning-until-a-turret-falls, it's been very successful.

I either stand mid, or I jungle. If it looks like I have to lane, I pick a different champ. Fiddle just feels out of place on a lane, especially on level 1-5. This guide is about midlaning.

I mainly play to get ahead in level. I use the threat of killing to make the opponent miss XP without taking much risk. I try to preserve mana and use fiddle's healing power to stay in the lane without having to recall and miss XP (I hate doing that on a solo lane).
And I kill once I'm ahead in level. Be the bully, don't pick someone your own size.

I usually deny my opponent XP by fear+draining them just before my minions are about to die, so he'll have to run away and miss them. If you're succesfull at this once or twice and you're up against a melee or a lifestealing champ like vlad, position yourself between the fight and their turret to deny them even more. I sometimes gain 3 levels on my mid-opponent without even killing him. (Watch the map and look out for misses because playing behind their creepline is risky)

When I'm ahead in health, I even like to dive his turret with my ult when my creeps are nearing his turret. This makes him either run away so that he won't get XP from the turret killing off your huge wave. Or he stays and dies. Even if you also die yourself, you'll have cleared his 6minion wave but he'll miss out on the 10ish minions that walk into the turret.

With a style like that, there is no time to get Silence and the longer range is less important anyway, so I go fear/drain all the way. The silence on lvl7 is mainly to disrupt channeling and remove veil-like abilities. If you're not against opponents who do that, delay it even further.

If you are successful on mid and you keep your opponent low in level, try to get replaced. Your replacement shouldn't have much trouble with your weakened opponent, and you can gank a lane (do the golem+dragon while your ult is on timer) and gank some more. Max fear+drain is better for that also.