Book Review

Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method

By Gerald M. Weinberg

One of the things I am focusing on this year is to improve my writing skills.  When it comes to writing, it always takes me longer than I think it should.  My ideas seem to come out of my head in an unorganized manner and as soon as I get those ideas typed, I try and re-word them, which then slows down the flow and I spend twice the amount of time on one sentence as I should.  Needless to say, I am looking for some sort of writing Method or any advice in helping me improve my writing skills.

So in looking around on Amazon, I found Gerald Weinberg’s book.  There are several great reviews of it by many authors.  The one by Johanna Rothman sold me on the book:

…One of the techniques Jerry suggests is that you have many fieldstones, chunks of work in progress. In progress may mean you've written two words. It may mean you've written several chapter-like things. It may mean you've written 50 words. Fieldstones allow you to make progress on any piece of work, which can allow you to finish more writing projects than you could imagine. …

The book really is a guide to learning the Fieldstone Method.  There are three phases to this method: gathering, organizing and trimming and polishing.  He describes all three in detail and provides examples and exercises to help you get it.  The phase that I learned the most from is the gathering phase.  When you are gathering your fieldstones, you are getting your writing ideas out of order (something that was a blocking point for me).  Whenever ideas occur capture them and keep them for later.  Then once you have a good amount of fieldstones or ideas you need to organize them and then fill in the gaps and trim and polish.

The number one thing I learned from this book (the item that makes it worth buying for me):  If you are thinking about something else, but forcing yourself to write another topic – you will slow yourself down and loose some valuable ideas in the process.  Focus on where your energy is (or mind is) and capture the ideas – they usually won’t come to you in the order you need them… remember that!

I am now in the process of trying to use the Fieldstone Method in my writing and so far I do seem more productive.  If you are like me and are looking for ways to improve your writing method, this book may help you as it has helped me.  It won’t help you on grammar, creative writing, or how to say what you want to say – you will need another book for that.