Trial and Error (book)

"Trial and Error" is Jack Woodford's book on writing and the publishing industry. The book focuses on writing and editing and describes the behind-the-scenes machinations that result in the final publication of writing.

The book was instrumental in the writing careers of Ray Bradbury, Jerry Pournelle, Piers Anthony, Robert A. Heinlein, and Richard A. Lupoff. The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler contain a paraphrased excerpt from Trial and Error that Chandler wrote from memory, entitled "Jack Woodford's Rules for Writing a Novel."

The introduction was written by the founder of "Esquire" magazine Arnold Gingrich.

Table of Contents

* "Introduction"
* "Cold Plunge"
* "Revision"
* "Taboo"
* "Ideas"
* "The Short Story"
* "Style"
* "Temperament"
* "Masquerade.. The Sex Element of Writing"
* "Treatment Stories"
* "Notion Stories"
* "Character Stories"
* "Follow Through Stories"
* "Theme Stories"
* "Newspaper and Magazine Features"
* "Agents"
* "Editors"
* "Book Publishers"
* "Plausibility"
* "Vocabulary"
* "Amanuenses"
* "Clinical Arcana: Liquor, Women and the Writer"
* "Author's Economics"
* "Excuria: Poetry, Plays and Other Perversions"
* "Matters Cinematics"
* "Warm Plunge: The Novel"
* "Splashing Around: The Novel"
* "Purl One, Drop One"
* "Completing the Novel"
* "Research"
* "Epilogue: Who Wants What You Write?"