Review: Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method

Author: Gerald M. Weinberg

ISBN: 093263365X

The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW Norm Goldman's Reviews

With the advent of self-publishing there is a current vogue for writing manualsand writers’ aids. Most usually take the same approach with little variations.However, Gerald M. Weinberg has come up with a creative approach with hisWeinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method. He offers alternatives to yourwriting habits that he has experimented with and that have proven to be quitebeneficial to him in his career. Weinberg has been writing books and teachingstudents how to write for forty years, and he is a leading author and“consultant’s consultant” in the computer industry.

In Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method he draws an analogy to thestone-by-stone method of building fieldstone structures. If you are not familiarwith fieldstones, these are generally used as for property lines and fences,although they can also be used in constructing various other structures.

Building a fieldstone structure requires gathering the right stones in astep-by-step process, as fieldstones vary in size, color, texture, shape anddensity.Similarly, writing a book requires the gathering of ideas or as Weinbergsuccinctly reminds us, “snatches of writing, photos, diagrams, quotations,pictures, and references that you find interesting.” Weinberg’s fieldstonemethod also uses the “stones of time,” wherein chunks of writing time are setaside, varying in quality and duration, in order to effectively write. In thisway you can avoid writer’s block and you can realize your writing projects withgreater ease.

Weinberg displays his deep writing knowledge throughout the book’s twentychapters that commences with the most important of Weinberg’s writing lessonwhere he states that you can write anything you wish in any style, however, itis imperative that you never attempt to write what you don’t care about. Thisis different then the usual rule where we are told to write about what you know.

From here Weinberg explores how to banish writer’s block, gathering andrecycling ideas, words, phrases that you can call up for future use in anyfiction or non-fiction you may write. We are also provided with severalexercises in order to reinforce the many new principles that Weinberg exposes tous.

There is a chapter dealing with the many tools available to assist us in ourgathering as the Internet, computers, notecards, pads, highlighters and stickynotes, and other technological aids that will make our writing life simpler andmore rewarding.

Other sections illustrate how to discard unwanted material in the same mannerthat we discard stones that don’t fit or suit our structure, how to trigger ourmemory, organizing our work, shaping ideas and words that fit, knowing when tostop, and what happens after we are finished.

Weinberg has written a clever writing manual. On one level it is highly readableand on another it is packed with excellent insights into how to effectivelyperfect the writing process with less pain and much more enjoyment.