Weinberg on Writing
Weinberg on Writing
About the Book
Ed Tittel writes: "Anyone who knows Weinberg's work knows he concocts a magical melange of insight, intelligence, and humor to deliver memorable and useful bits of wisdom on any number of topics. I'd always wondered how he managed his writing process, and now that I've read this book I feel like I have a much better idea.""For those of us -- including me -- who write for a living, the "Fieldstone Method" he propounds in this book helps to codify a very workable approach to this work. It's not always what works best for me in terms of meeting other people's schedules and deadlines (which Weinberg believes are best ignored, refused, or otherwise gotten around) but it is a very workable method for longer projects where I have time to research and collect information, then polish it, and put it into book form.""What I like best about this book (and about every one of Jerry's books that I've read) is that it makes clever and effective use of anecdotes and stories -- parables, almost -- to make its many and various points. I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in the process of writing, or who wants to improve his or her personal writing process. I'd love to see it become a staple text in creative and technical writing classes, where the usual teaching materials are often far drier and less engaging.""Two thumbs up!"
About the Author
Table of Contents
-
Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method
-
Chapter 1. The Most Important Writing Lesson
- First Exercise:
- Second Exercise:
-
Chapter 2. The Fieldstone Method in Brief
- Learning to Care About What You Have to Write
- What You Learned In School Doesn’t Work
- The Fieldstone Method Does Work
- Looking at Walls
-
Chapter 3 Banishing Writer’s Block
- The Structure of Creation versus the Structure of Presentation
- Writer’s Block and the Goldilocks Questions
- Observing Your Writing Activities
-
Chapter 4. Prospecting: Gathering Explained
- Writing versus Writing Down
- Why I Am Not Quite as Rich and Famous as Scott Adams
- The Energy Principle
- Learning by Copying
- Are There Enough Stones for Me?
- But My Stones Are Not That Significant!
- The Most Important Book for All Writers
- Gathering During Interactions
- Gathering Exercise
- Excuses Exercise
-
Chapter 5. Recycling Stones from Literature
- Gathering from Books
- Gathering Exercise: Nonfiction
- A Fringe Benefit of Fieldstone Gathering
- Gathering Exercise: Required Reading
- Gathering from Fiction
- Gathering Exercise: Fiction
-
Chapter 6 Stealing Stones Safely
- When Is It Plagiarism?
- Stealing Words
- Gathering Exercise: Words
- Gathering Exercise: Laundering Words
- Stealing Phrases
- Gathering Exercise: Phrases
- Stealing Sentences
- Gathering Exercise: Sentences
- Becoming a Professional Thief
- Gathering Exercise: Conversation
- Gathering Exercise: Conferences
- Gathering Exercise: Any Time
- Gathering Exercise: In Nature
-
Chapter 7. Tools to Assist Your Gathering
- My Computer
- Notecards and Pens
- Highlighters and Sticky Notes
- Typing Skill
- Other Technological Aids
- The Internet
- Keeping the References
- Gathering Exercise: Internet Resources
- Typing Exercise: Any Time
- Gathering Exercise: Highlighting
-
Chapter 8. Gathering Fieldstones from Memory
- Memory
- Triggers
- Gathering Exercise: Looking for Energy
- Test Your Memory
- Stimulate Your Memory
- Gathering Exercise: Discovering What Triggers Your Memory
- Gathering Exercise: Combining Triggers
-
Chapter 9. Discarding Stones That Don’t Fit
- Carrying the Raft
- Getting Off On the Wrong Foot
- Exercise: Some New Starts
- Rules and Habits
- The Perfection Rule
- Maybe I’ll Discard Something Important
- Exercise: Practice with Your For-Later-Use Bin
-
Chapter 10. Criteria for Discarding Stones
- Sound Tests
- Exercise: Read Aloud (in a group)
- Vision Tests
- Touch Tests
- Taste Tests
- The Life Test
- Weinberg’s Target
- Quality is Personal
- Exercise: Developing Your Own Quality Criteria
- Problems with Meaning
- Exercise: Do You Mean?
- Playing With Your Words
- Exercise: Word Play
-
Chapter 11. Decimating Your Work
- The Abecedarian
- Exercise: Less Is More (Dani’s Decimation)
- Applying Dani’s Decimation
- Cotton Candy Bricklaying
- Exercise: Decimating Fiction and Other Literary Forms
-
Chapter 12. Beginning to Get Organized
- Practice, Practice, Practice
- Gather First, Gather Last
- Use an Organizing Principle
- Use Organizing Tools
- Exercise: Card Sorting
- Exercise: Anchor Stones
-
Chapter 13. Outlining with Fieldstone Solitaire
- Make Every Stone Action-Oriented
- Work Inside-Out or Outside-In
- Pull Out the Wrong Rocks
- Be Patient
- Exercise: Pulling Stones
-
Chapter 14. Organizing Your Work Space
- Assignment: Writing Journal.
- Assignment: Feelings About Taking Care of Yourself.
- Creating Your Environment
- Assignment: Your Writing Environment.
- Writing to Music
- Exercise: Writing to Music
- Where Am I in the Organizing Process?
-
Chapter 15. Keep Moving Until You Have Enough
- Where I Am Right Now in the Organizing Process
- When You Get Stuck, Center, Enter, and Turn
- Exercise: Recentering Breaks
- Enter
- Turn
-
Exercise: Blah Blah
- An Example of the Center-Enter-Turn Process
- Exercise: Center, Enter, Turn
- Where Am I Now in the Organizing Process?
-
Chapter 16. Putting Your Subconscious to Work
- Look for What’s Missing
- Exercise: What’s Missing?
- Use Quotes
- Sweet Are the Uses of Solitaire
- Use the Power of Combination
- Exercise: Cut Ups
- Variations
-
Fantasize
- Where Am I Now in the Organizing
-
Chapter 17. ShapingStones to Fit
- Making Your Writing Memorable
- Making It Simple and Specific
- Writing for Rapport
- Exercise: Writing for Rapport
- Shaping Quotes
- Exercise: Varying Styles for Varying Effects
- Where Am I Now in the Organizing?
-
Chapter 18. Filling the Cracks
- Sorting and Associating Stones
- Exercise: Transitions
- Mortaring Techniques
- Organizing Based on the Underlying Ideas
- Where Am I Now in the Organizing?
-
Chapter 19. Knowing When to Stop
- The Bingo-Card Effect
- The Need to Be Perfect
- The Need to Be Loved
- How do I Know When I’m Done?
- The Last Few Stones
- How It Turns Out
-
Chapter 20. What Happens After You Finish?
- Getting Published
- Agents
- Life After Publishing—The Matthew Effect
- It’s Not All Sweetness and Light
- Postscript added for eBook edition
-
References
- Fundamentals
- Craft
- Tools
- Exercises
- Emotional Issues
- Nonfiction
- Fiction
- Publishing
- The Writing Life
- Index
-
Chapter 1. The Most Important Writing Lesson
Other books by this author
The Leanpub 60-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Do Well. Do Good.
Authors have earned$11,712,765writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
- #1
Recipes for Decoupling
Matthias NobackWrite software that survives
- #2
OpenIntro Statistics
David Diez, Christopher Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, and OpenIntroA complete foundation for Statistics, also serving as a foundation for Data Science.
Leanpub revenue supports OpenIntro (US-based nonprofit) so we can provide free desk copies to teachers interested in using OpenIntro Statistics in the classroom and expand the project to support free textbooks in other subjects.
More resources: openintro.org.
- #3
CQRS by Example
Carlos Buenosvinos, Christian Soronellas, and Keyvan Akbary- Leverage your Software Architecture skills by learning everything about CQRS in detail with lots of examples
- Develop faster applications by applying CQRS and fostering Read Models and Projections
- Learn how to apply CQRS into a brownfield project from a pragmatic approach
- #4
Maîtriser Apache JMeter
Philippe Mouawad, Bruno Demion (Milamber), and Antonio Gomes RodriguesToute la puissance d'Apache JMeter expliquée par ses commiteurs et utilisateurs experts. De l'intégration continue en passant par le Cloud, vous découvrirez comment intégrer JMeter à vos processus "Agile" et Devops.
If you're looking for the newer english version of this book, go to Master JMeter : From load testing to DevOps
- #5
Ansible for DevOps
Jeff GeerlingAnsible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server—or thousands.
- #6
C++20 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. JosuttisAll new language and library features of C++20 (for those who know previous C++ versions).
The book presents all new language and library features of C++20. Learn how this impacts day-to-day programming, to benefit in practice, to combine new features, and to avoid all new traps.
Buy early, pay less, free updates.
Other books:
- #7
Jetpack Compose internals
Jorge CastilloJetpack Compose is the future of Android UI. Master how it works internally and become a more efficient developer with it. You'll also find it valuable if you are not an Android dev. This book provides all the details to understand how the Compose compiler & runtime work, and how to create a client library using them.
- #8
The PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking Book
Don Jones and Jeff HicksLearn the patterns, practices, and details of PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking from the industry's two most recognized experts on the subject.
- #9
The C4 model for visualising software architecture
Simon BrownA guide to visualising your software architecture with the C4 model.
- #10
Mastering STM32 - Second Edition
Carmine NovielloWith more than 1200 microcontrollers, STM32 is probably the most complete ARM Cortex-M platform on the market. This book aims to be the most complete guide around introducing the reader to this exciting MCU portfolio from ST Microelectronics and its official CubeHAL and STM32CubeIDE development environment.
Top Bundles
- #1
Software Architecture
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #2
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #4
Pattern-Oriented Memory Forensics and Malware Detection
2 Books
This training bundle for security engineers and researchers, malware and memory forensics analysts includes two accelerated training courses for Windows memory dump analysis using WinDbg. It is also useful for technical support and escalation engineers who analyze memory dumps from complex software environments and need to check for possible... - #6
All the Books of The Medical Futurist
6 Books
We put together the most popular books from The Medical Futurist to provide a clear picture about the major trends shaping the future of medicine and healthcare. Digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, the future of 20 medical specialties, big pharma, data privacy, digital health investments and how technology giants such as Amazon... - #8
The Python Craftsman
3 Books
The Python Craftsman series comprises The Python Apprentice, The Python Journeyman, and The Python Master. The first book is primarily suitable for programmers with some experience of programming in another language. If you don't have any experience with programming this book may be a bit daunting. You'll be learning not just a programming...
