I’d say The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel is useful whether you’ve got a completed manuscript or not.
There are suggested methods for rewriting a whole manuscript by targeting certain parts of it on specific weekends, and suggested methods for writing vivid word pictures: use sensory descriptions, strong verbs, and concrete nouns—especially repeated objects that can become symbols.
But there are larger lessons, too.
The book talks about the primal conflicts that make stories compelling. Using examples from successful fiction and film, it explains story structure by breaking down subplots by character and showing how major scenes happen when secrets explode from the subplot and collide with the plot.
I still like Save the Cat better.
When and Why I Read The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel
I read this before. I remember it had useful things to say about subplots.
Genre: non-fiction (writing)
Date started / date finished: 07-Mar-17 to 13-Mar-17
Length: 266 pages
ISBN: 9780823084432 (paperback)
Originally published in: 2007
Amazon link: The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel
