by Gerald M. Weinberg
Copyright (c) 2011
Gerry Weinberg has a PhD in communications and has written around 60 books on various topics, mostly having to do with computer programming. As a glorified computer programmer and an aspiring writer, this Weinberg book on his methodology for writing seems appealing.
His basic take runs through writing from the heart. He uses the analogy for nineteen of twenty chapters in this book of craftsperson building a wall with “fieldstones” and mortar.
For example, the act of sorting stones into piles is compared with sorting one’s ideas into working projects. Many ideas, like many stones, are to be thrown away. Some are meant for placement in one section; some are meant for placement in others. All require careful arrangement.
I like how Weinberg’s process is highly non-linear, much like the way I think. I tend to accomplish more through the use of non-linear thinking. (Aren’t all good minds essentially non-linear?) I also appreciate the spatial metaphors he uses as I find the linear way I was taught to write in high school to be very confusing.
I write words like I write code – in a blow-off-the-doors, mad rush to dump out my thoughts onto a keyboard. Fitting in a linear process does not really work well for me, whether that be in a manager’s linear model (waterfall methodology anyone?) or in an English teacher’s ploy for high test grades. I do best when I just make a quick dump and organize as I go. This seems to be how Weinberg teaches us how to communicate as well. That confidence in a method that fits me enables me to write more recklessly and with more moxie than I would otherwise. For that, I am grateful to have read this book.