The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel: A Step-by-Step Guide to Perfecting Your Work

by Robert J. Ray

This follow-up to the bestselling The Weekend Novelist will guide writers of all levels through the next phase in crafting their the rewrite.
 
You’ve finished your first draft—congratulations! Think it’s ready for publication? Think again. The next stage is all about revising and reworking your manuscript—fine-tuning the plot, adding or improving subplots, and fleshing out characters; in short, addressing important structural issues that make or break a novel.
 
Robert J. Ray, who helped thousands of writers get from blank page to first draft in The Weekend Novelist , now guides the same audience through a series of seventeen weekend revision exercises designed to fit into any busy lifestyle, focusing on everything from rewriting scenes to developing sound flashbacks to refining characters’ back stories. Throughout the book, Ray illustrates his lessons with examples from such great works of literature as Jane Eyre, Gorky Park , and The Great Gatsby so that writers may more easily identify how and why a certain technique or structural element helps or hinders their own work. Also included are checklists, timed exercises, plot diagrams, and charts—all aimed to get you rewriting and revising your draft with confidence.
 
Whether you’re an amateur novelist, a seasoned writer who’s hit a mental block, or a creative writing teacher looking for proven exercises for better instruction, The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel provides the tools to transform first drafts into successful novels.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2007

About the author

Robert J. Ray is the author of the writing guide The Weekend Novelist and eight Matt Murdock mysteries, including Murdock Cracks Ice.

He has taught college literature, writing, and tennis. He lives in Seattle.

Reviews

[Carlie Van Amerongen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of great tools and techniques for re-writing your novel in broad strokes, looking first at how subplots function and then polishing major scenes, which allow new scenes to flow out from them. Relatively few pages are dedicated to word-choice and line-by-line editing, which is an important ratio for someone who has never edited before.

It's a formula for a commercial novel, advocating action and a plot structure that is easily adaptable into a film. I am personally not against this type of writing, but if you are working on something more literary and cerebral, this technique probably won't be much help.

[Kimberly [Come Hither Books] · Rating 1 out of 5]

After finding Ray's earlier book, The Weekend Novelist, useful, I was disappointed to find this one much less so. There's a lot of information here, but it's disorganized and inaccessible. The rewrite techniques covered here are drawn largely from screenwriting, but a lot of the terms and techniques are not explained well, or at all. Some sections were drawn out and repetitive; others skimmed over the material too quickly to explain it well. Overall, the chaos outweighed the usefulness.

[Brad Huestis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite craft book—it is pure gold.

[Mindy Halleck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an essential tool for any writer who is going through the gut-wrenching process of a novel rewrite. I’m currently using the cut-to exercises, the objects, the scene cards and so much more, in my re-write. The guidance has given me insights and a clarity I didn’t have about the story I am trying to tell.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. There were some parts that I felt were over kill but it's definitely helped me to make changes in my writing and to not only write better but create a better story line, scenes, and characters.

[Larry Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read books about writing to learn how to write; I already like how I write and I don't want to write how others tell me to, I want to write how the page and the characters tell me to. I read books about writing for the same reasons those who play sports read books about that sport: I like it enough that I want to get more of it even when I'm not doing it.

I especially don't want to write using tools and tricks and grids and diagrams. That's why when I flipped through the pages of this book and saw them, I picked it up. It's nothing like my mind would work, so I wanted to step inside the brain of someone who has one that does. It was a pleasant surprise to see that it was worth the trip.

Ray employs a useful device at the end of each chapter where he has a writer struggling with an unpublishable novel work with a friend/mentor on topics that are covered throughout the book. It's a nice illustration device, but unfortunately for me, I liked the original ideas a lot more than what the final product turned into. The original material was fresh and interesting, but by the end it was rewritten into another forgettable, mass market, easily sellable novel with a path to a screenplay. No flaws, but nothing worth remembering, either.

If just getting something published is what you're looking for, this book will probably help you. Rewriting isn't easy, and if you follow Ray's advice, you may well clean something up enough to see that dream come true. That's why I give it four stars even though it's not my kind of book: it does what it sets out to do and does it admirably.

For me, however, what it does successfully is not my cup of tea. The original material (Ray lampoons it as a hideous mess and spends the rest of the book reworking into something boring) reminds me a bit of Arizona Dream, one of my favorite movies. It was unique and imaginative and piquant and I still think of that movie from time to time. And, because it was unique and imaginative, its box office was barely in the six figures--it's one of the best movies no one ever saw. Ray's process would have rewritten that script into something that's so perfectly like everything else out there that Netflix would have picked it up in a heartbeat for multiples of what Arizona Dream made. If that's what you want to do, this book is for you.

[Shaun Dyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel: A Step-by-Step Guide to Perfecting Your Work is an interesting guide to editing your novel. I'll confess up front that I've not read the first book about drafting my novel, so coming in, some of the concepts were alien to me, but there is a good appendix to explain everything and strong examples throughout.

Like all of these kinds of books, your mileage may vary, and you need to take the pieces that work with your process and leave those that don't. No two writers' processes are identical. If you treat it like options to try out, you'll definitely get something useful out of it, even if it is just how not to do things.

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would not have been able to get my manuscript rewritten without this book! Great tools and step by step processes helped me take my book and make it have substance!

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of books about revision focus on later, small-grain stages of the process. This is the stuff you need to think about before that point. Ray has figured out how say something helpful about large-scale issues like structure without having read your particular novel.

[Imogen Woods]

So far, it's looking really good. One of the best writing help books I've read in a while.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Browsed it- it has a lot of great ideas, but not exactly what I needed at that moment.

[Karen PH · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my go to book as I work my way through my novel rewrite. Bob is an excellent coach and the tools he offers in this book are invaluable.

[HadiDee]

Very helpful in getting me to think about where to start to 'fix' manuscript in a structured way.