The 90-Day Rewrite: The Process of Revision

."So, you've written a story. " Monty said. "Well done!"My heart thumped me for getting excited that a telephone offer was about to be made. I tucked the sweaty handset under my chin and winked across the table at my wife. Her eyes widened as she clenched her teeth and shook me a double-fisted thumbs-up. "Look, I thought I explained it to your Uncle Chaz. We only publish novels here. Sorry son," he said and hung up. So, that was it! The cottage we'd eyed in Cornwall for my next first draft became a rustic granite bowl for another bleary pipe dream. My wife came over and rubbed my back as she passed me. "You'll get there, love," she said. Then, a year later, I discovered 'Al Watt's '90-Day Novel'. I could not put it down. I also read his award winning novel, `Diamond Dogs'- it's part of the 90 day course. Those three little words still haunt me today, 'fat, brown and nipple. Of course there are the other useful phrases like, Keep going, get to the end, and holding it loosely. Thankfully, I got to the end. Remarkably, my story is complete and so is the first rewrite. As I polished up my manuscript for a writer's conference at the end of next month, I was thrilled to find that his `90 Day Rewrite: The Process of Revision' is now available. I'm using a couple of other well known tools to tighten my work up but having read into Day 22 of Al's process, I see that it provides a similarly invaluable insight to our work and to who we are as story tellers. Hey, it's a ninety-day experience, and my only reason for not giving it a five star rating. What am I, a liar? No, but I had you on the first ten lines didn't I? In this book we learn to 'nurture' the right-brain, left-brain experience of a rewrite'. The relationship between the creative and the analytical are now a fascination, instead of a form of madness or an `early-onset of something or another.' In conclusion,many of us know that sometimes, bad things happen to good people, and perhaps the heaviest burdens do fall upon the most faithful of shoulders. I needed to tell our story. More important, I want people to read about it.Learn to overcome guilt, shame and fear, allow your story to blossom, to realize its unfettered intention. Buy this book!Thank you, Sir Al, my story is written and my first novel continues to reveal itself, chapter after chapter after....."Oh shut up! That's way too wordy," she said as she took my `90 Day Novel' off my desk and slipped off to the bedroom."Okay, I'm done."

If you've been spinning your wheels, postponing until a "tomorrow" that never comes, waiting for someone to help you finally revise a novel that deserves attention but never seems to move forward - wait no more! Help is here! That "tomorrow" has arrived! Finally, you can get out of the mud and get the dang thing done - in 90-Days!Al Watt marries support for the craft needed along with an unfaltering belief in the power of story. "Technique without imagination is worthless, and imagination without technique will cloud our work's intended meaning." This book delivers its promise on both.Throughout each of the 90 days, Al provides inspirational quotes that match the technical focus, as well as asking a set of guiding questions or giving specific ideas for how to proceed with your work.Nurturing the story's heartbeat requires a delicate balance between Technical Matters and how to "keep the patient alive during surgery." Al Watt brings us through the operation and then gives us ideas on how to get an agent, consider self-publishing vs. the traditional route, and ways to promote your book.On the craftwork side of things, Watt weaves technique into each of the 90 days, but he also devotes an entire chapter to principles (not rules) that will help writers make informed choices during revision. In the section on "Pacing and Proportion," he justifies the time that will be taken creating an outline during Week One. "There is pacing at the level of sentence, paragraph, chapter, and act." As we revise, with the whole story clear through our outline we can have a finger on the pulse of pacing without getting too tightly focused on any single moment, losing sight of its relationship to the story's flow."Our reader is always subconsciously searching for meaning." Watt guides the writer toward being aware that what is chosen for emphasis must deserve the amount of attention in proportion to its weight in the story. Sometimes in revision it is easy to lose perspective as we get wrapped up in details giving them "a sense of importance that can distract the reader from [the] story's larger meaning." Creating Watt's brand of outline is an integral part of understanding how to revise with an ear to pacing and proportion.Don't procrastinate any longer! This is the real deal from an award-winning writer who walks the talk. The 90-Day Rewrite will help you get it done, too!

Michael Crichton said that novels aren't written they're rewritten.Now after rewriting my novel it's amazing to look back on the ruff, right brained mess that was my first draft, and compare it with what it is now.The 90 Day Rewrite is a step by step, day by day guide to carving away and reforming a rough work into something that can be read and enjoyed.Like his first book The 90 Day Novel, The 90 Day Rewrite tells you what to do and in what order. I've read many other books on writing but they never helped me in knowing what to do next or first. I would read something about how to make dynamic characters and think that it was spot on, but I wouldn't know how to apply it to MY writing. The 90 Day Rewrite takes care of that. I knew what to do every day and how to apply it to my novel.There are plenty of books on how to write a novel, but hardly any about how to rewrite one. And even though I don't have much to compare it to, I can't imagine a more well thought out, helpful book on how to rewrite a good story than The 90 Day Rewrite. The only thing I didn't like was waiting for it to be released.If you haven't already bought The 90 Day novel, I highly recommend it and you mind as well buy The 90 Day Rewrite with it too because you'll definitely want it, and you'll wished you had saved on the shipping costs!

There are hundreds of books claiming to teach would-be novelists how to write, how to plot, how to reach instant bestseller status, but strangely, precious few that concern themselves with the vexing but vital business of how to rewrite.Al Watt, founder of the LA Writers Lab and author of The 90 Day Novel, turns his attention to the topic in this new book. He starts with a simple premise. Writing your first draft is not the end of the story. Now it's time to refine, rethink and recalibrate the manuscript. And he believes that with disciplined daily focus it can be done in three months.The really great thing about Al Watt in general and this book in particular is that he respects us as fellow writers, and addresses us as such in the series of daily letters which form the backbone of the book. You won't find any of those impenetrable story-structure graphs here, nor gimmicky forumulae for creating the perfect scene or plot hook.Watt favours an intuitive, right-brain approach to the creative process. His mantra is that no one is better qualified to tell your story than you are, you just have to allow the details to emerge through showing up to the page every day. Although American, Watt was actually born in Aberdeen of Scottish-Italian stock, and anyone worried about an overly Hollywood-style approach needn't worry. The tone is sharp, funny and to the point.In short, the 90-Day Rewrite is an invaluable resource by someone who has actually written a hugely successful novel (Diamond Dogs) himself.

Incredible. Just read it. Great thought provokers on different aspects of the novel to propel you through your rewrite. Also a great deal on the philosophy of life through a writer’s lens. Fascinating. Thank you, Al!

just what I needed