The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books

by Eviatar Zerubavel

Book Overview

For anyone who has blanched at the uphill prospect of finishing a long piece of writing, this book holds out something more practical than hope: it offers a plan. The Clockwork Muse is designed to help prospective authors develop a workable timetable for completing long and often formidable projects.

The idea of dashing off a manuscript in a fit of manic inspiration may be romantic, but it is not particularly practical. Instead, Eviatar...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674135865
• ISBN13: 9780674135864
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book!

This book is short and to the point! I am currently engaged in writing my MBA thesis and I believe that I found the guidance that I am looking for in this book. I highly recommend this book for its basic yet effectual approach to thinking about/writing your thesis or dissertation. The book may be too basic for seasoned writers/scholars but for a novice scholar like myself, I find it extremely useful.

The write stuff (especially for first-timers)

When you are faced with the daunting task of a major writing project (a book, a thesis) it can be nice to know how others have done it--especially your first time around. 'The Clockwork Muse' offers two things for those in that situation: structure, and examples. The first of these (structure) helps with the practical necessity of breaking the project down into its executable elements: a writing schedule, outlines and drafts, timetables, and monitoring and ensuring progress. The second of these (the examples) are helpful to those of us who, in our own fits of self-doubt, need to know that another human has met similar obstacles and has overcome them. 'Clockwork Muse' manages to do both of these pretty well. It is stronger on the first, the structure. It reminds us that the overall job of a major writing project is taken one sentence, one page, one chapter at a time. In just about 100 pages, this book provides a basic, workable structure that can be modified by most writers to suit their individual needs. As far as examples and anecdotes go--how actual writers fare under the proposed structure, the author mostly offers examples from his own experience. While this is certainly interesting, it is one-dimensional; it would have been nice to have a wide variety of examples of how different authors, grad students, or journalists cope with the day-to-day prospect of writing a book or dissertation or long article. (And really, how helpful--or bizarre--is it to know that the author of `Clockwork Muse,' Evitar Zerubavel, sits in different chairs to write different drafts of a paragraph? To each his own....) Not all of the suggestions offered here will work for all authors. For examples, some of us do write multiple drafts of a book straight through from start to finish. Others of us write more haphazardly, bouncing around from section to section and chapter to chapter, but still producing a solid, finished product. Zerubavel himself prefers one method over another, but in the end, his practical advice on structuring a writing project is this book's real strength. It offers sound practical help, regardless of one's writing style, and makes a good quick reference to lean upon for some comfort during those late-night moments of doubt when chapter four just isn't coming together.

Inspiring and pragmatic, just like the title

When I was writing my dissertation, a hard-working and prolific colleague recommended this book to me. I borrowed it from my university library. It had an almost instant effect on my work, and I finished my opus quickly and relatively painlessly. Recently, I found myself procrastinating and meandering again, so I decided to buy the book!Things I like about the Clockwork Muse: it's very short. It gives very specific, pragmatic advice. It is light on molly-coddling psychobabble, unlike Joan Bolker's "Write Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day." The latter is useful in its own way, but it didn't do anything for my work habits.

It got me through my dissertation

Okay, I'll admit it--it's only a slight exaggeration to say that this book enabled me to finish my doctoral dissertation, or at least sped up the process by several months. How? By laying out with great clarity, detail, and an almost irritating degree of assurance exactly how to write a thesis, dissertation, or book. There it all is, in black and white--and all of a sudden it seems doable. You may not like Zerubavel's strategies; you may grumble and fuss and argue with them. But at least they give you a framework to adopt, or adapt, or dismantle. And in my case, at least, that was just what I needed--in fact, I wish to goodness I'd picked this book up six months earlier.Criticisms? Sure. Humility is not the author's long suit--most of his examples come from his own work, his own life, and you keep wishing he'd incorporated more examples and strategies from other people's experiences (one assumes the guy must have colleagues, but you'd scarcely know it from this work). More of that would have broadened and strengthened his book greatly. There isn't just one right way, and not everything Zerubavel suggests will work for everyone, but that's easy to forget in the face of the magisterial self-assurance his words convey. Never mind; the stuff works, and you can work with it, or against it, so that something from it will work for you. I read the paperback, but I'm buying the hardcover for my permanent library, and I'm recommending it strongly to every daunted graduate student I know. Zerubavel's ego clearly doesn't need boosting, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to give The Clockwork Muse my highest recommendation anyway.