Third Draft - Novel & Script - Part 2 - Re-writing and Editing

Sydney Writing Course

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Third Draft - Novel & Script - Part 2 - Re-writing and Editing

In Third Draft – Part 1, you learned powerful tools and techniques to craft compelling scenes and get your story and writing working on the page.

In Third Draft – Part 2, your writing will take a major leap forward as you learn more sophisticated rewriting and editing tools.

This is where your voice becomes more distinct and engaging, your characters take on greater complexity and depth, and your scenes and chapters build on one another with stronger pacing and a clearer sense of how each dramatic beat serves the whole story.

By the time you submit your opening 12,000 words, you’ll be amazed by the transformation in your writing.

“I’d hate to think what my story would’ve looked like if I hadn’t learnt so much from this course. I’m so sorry it is over.”
Sonya Fearby

Course Information

This course has payment options available, click ‘Enrol Now’ to view the payment options. Pre-requisite: 7-Month Third Draft course.

The Third Draft Part 2 course group meets once every two months at our Sydney Studio. The sessions run from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm on either a Saturday or a Sunday.

The Power of Feedback

The iterative feedback cycle is designed to help you improve your writing as you work your way through the course.

For each chapter, you receive guidance on your scene planning before you start writing, then you get feedback on the opening 600 words of each chapter to catch opportunities early before receiving detailed notes on one full chapter per session.

This layered feedback process gives you more opportunities to improve each chapter and ensures every part of your story contributes meaningfully to the whole.

Getting ongoing high-quality feedback will make all the difference to your development as a writer.

Ed Catmul, the founder of Pixar, who made such classics as Finding Nemo and Toy Story, said, “All the Pixar writers no matter how smart, talented and well organised they are become lost somewhere along the way.

“We believe in the power of embracing candid feedback and the iterative process of re-working, re-working, re-working and re-working … The story steadily improves with each step of the process. In my experience, creative people discover and realise their vision over time.”

Finding your unique voice and take on the world is what will make your story and writing stand out.

There is a clear pathway and structure to follow and the writing improves substantially. I learned more about the mechanics of good storytelling than I could have imagined. The Last Balfour is now being published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia. It really is a dream come true.

Cait Duggan

The Process

Pre-Course Work

Before the course starts, you will follow a process to help you explore and clarify your entire story. This is an opportunity to integrate any discoveries and insights you have made about your character and story through the writing in Part 1, potentially deepening your overall character journey and story structure.

Bringing out your unique voice

To make your writing compelling, unique, and engaging you need to develop a distinctive voice and explore moral problems that everyone can connect with.

The Third Draft Part 2 process will help you find the most dramatic and meaningful shape for each scene, drawing out the deeper themes of your story and enhancing your unique voice.

How the process works:

In each session, you will be given targeted exercises designed to keep you on track and help you further develop your characters, story and writing skills.

The tools will also enable you to track your character’s decision-making process and inner journey at an incremental level that builds drama and emotional engagement.

During the course, you will learn how to:

1. Draw your reader into deep participation in your character’s moral problems and emotional journey.

2. Develop the right pacing so the character journey and the action work in tandem in a dramatic, seamless, and engaging way.

3. Create irony and subtext so that you bring out the deeper themes running through your story and revealing them in a subtle yet emotionally engaging way.

4. Explore why you are the perfect person to write your story and use those insights to enrich your writing.

5. Reveal information about your character in a systematic and dramatic way that builds without feeling forced and creates a compelling emotional journey for your characters and readers.

6. Benefit from the dynamic feedback cycle outlined above. This system helps you catch opportunities early and keep improving as you go.

7. Participate in live on-screen editing sessions that will help you integrate the re-writing and editing tools you have learned into your own process.

8. Be part of a group of passionate, like-minded writers who will inspire you, keep you accountable and encourage you to keep reaching for excellence in your craft.

Crafting a Strong Opening

Towards the end of the course, you will apply all you have learned to the most important 12,000 words of your story: your opening.

Your tutor will read and critique the first 12,000 words of your story and you will have a one-on-one consultation to discuss your progress and what you need to do to next.

This is an important milestone to see your writing and story take shape and to get an honest and supportive assessment of the stength and opportunities in your writing and what you need to focus on to ensure your story achieves its potential.

Receiving objective, targeted feedback on your writing makes all the difference.

“As I was reading everyone’s work for this session, I felt that the writing in general has reached a close-to-publishable standard, better than many of the books I read.

“The voice of each writer is much clearer and confident; there is a sense of finding and settling down with the voice. There is a shift from being a slave to language to owning it. This is really satisfying to see.” Wallace Lee

READ COURSE REVIEWS

I will be completely honest and come out of the closet and declare that I have been full of doubt that any of our stories would ever hit the shelves with any degree of success. But I was wrong. Everyone’s writing has taken off. The quantum leaps in sentence structure, pacing and vocabulary would be impressive enough. But more, the emotion, the subtlety of plot and the development character are an order of magnitude better. I now see that are all within a whisker of publication.

Gilbert Mane

Course Outcomes

You can also come to a bonus class in October where we will explore and develop your moral dilemmas and your opponent giving greater depth to their motivation.

Session Dates and Times

Third Draft Part 2 Live – 12 July 2026

All workshops run from 10am to 6pm except final session: 2.00pm to 6.00pm & drinks.

Session 1: Sunday 12 July 2026

Session 2: Sunday 30 August 2026

Session 3: Saturday 17 October 2026

Session 4: Sunday 6 December 2026

XMAS BREAK

Session 5: Saturday 30 January 2027

Session 6: Sunday 2 May 2027

Third Draft Part 2 Live – 13 July 2025

All workshops run from 10am to 6pm except final session: 2.00pm to 6.00pm & drinks.

Session 1: Sunday 13 July 2025

Session 2: Sunday 31 August 2025

Session 3: Sunday 19 October 2025

Session 4: Saturday 29 November 2025

XMAS BREAK

Session 5: Saturday 31 January 2026

Session 6: Sunday 3 May 2026

Interested in signing up for the Third Draft – Novel & Script – Part 2 – Re-writing and Editing course?

Enrol Now

Third Draft - Novel & Script - Part 2 - Re-writing and Editing

SYDNEY WRITING COURSE

Start Date

12 July 2026
Duration

10 Months
When

Scroll down to see Workshop Dates
Where

Bronte Studio
Course Fee

$4,445 inc GST

Emma Lord

"I had only the earliest inklings of Anomaly in my head when I began the first draft course at the Writers' Studio. That course – and the subsequent second and third draft courses – provided the framework I needed to explore the possibilities of my story without binding commitment to what I put on the page. In short – I was empowered to make a very big, very necessary mess! Each draft – and the encouraging feedback I received along the way – helped me refine my story possibilities, until the novel took on thematic layers and momentum. For me, the structure provided was the key to creative freedom and productivity. My time with Roland, Kathleen, and the wonderful tutors at the Writers' Studio was an essential part of making Anomaly a reality – and now I'm implementing everything I learned for book two."

Nigel Bartlett

I'm extremely grateful to Roland and the couple of years I spent at the Writer's Studio. My time there finally set me on the path I'd wanted to follow for years. It taught me so much about plot and structure and, importantly, it cleared my head of the rubbish I'd previously believed about the mystery of writing and the creative process. The scales fell from my eyes at the Writers' Studio. 'King of The Road' published by Random House, 2015

Alex Gilly

Writers' Studio graduate and former tutor, Alexander Gilly, has signed a two-book deal with Tor/Forge, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, in New York. This is his first novel, a high-seas action-thriller that Alex developed through our first, second and third draft novel writing courses. 'I'm thrilled,' says Alex. 'By sticking with my story and to the principles I learned at the Writers' Studio, and by getting lucky, I've realised a life-long ambition. Thank you Roland and Kathleen!

Nick Lathouris

"The Writers' Studio is my testing ground, and a place equipped with the finest mental technologies, which unlike the thousands of books on the subject, are designed to nurture the screenwriter through that arduous practice and discipline of animating a story step-by-step, day by day, and refining it so that it represents the best of what you are."

L.A. Larkin

"If it wasn't for Unlocking Creativity and The Writers' Studio First Draft (Novel & Script) Course I wouldn't be where I am today - an author about to be published. Thank you Roland for the inspiration."  

Krew Boylan

‘Before I did the Unlocking Creativity course I knew I loved to write creatively but had no idea how I might start to channel that into something like a novel. The course teaches the basics of storytelling in a really accessible and inspiring way. Things like the importance of sensory detail in scene setting, writing a character’s emotion and conflict on every page. ‘The techniques really worked for me and I’m still a little bit amazed I was able to write a book and have it published using them. I refer to the notes I took during Unlocking Creativity even

Elizabeth Farrelly

Dear Roland. So excited. I have a publishing offer for my first book of fiction. So what I'm really saying is - thank you!' Elizabeth published her children's book, Caro Was Here, through Walker Books

Rachel Ward

"A truly practical approach to the secrets of good story telling."

Julia Zemiro

"I am doing a 10-month online writing course with them (The Writers' Studio) and it's challenging, exciting and frustrating. As it should be."

Shannon Garner

Thanks to The Writer's Studio I truly found my love of writing buried within. After completing the 4-week Unlocking Creativity course and then the 10-month Novel & Script First Draft course, I found the determination to write and submit my memoir 'Labour of Love' which has been published by Simon & Schuster. Thank you Writers’ Studio for triggering my drive and inspiration and my deep adoration for writing.

Elizabeth Packett

I work as professional script writer and editor, so I understand the basics of story structure, but the way the everything was broken down to the smallest of steps was just brilliant. It made me dig for my story, and get in deep, and get complex, rather than settling for the easiest first thought. Forcing me to think deeper and come up with more imaginative solutions. Loved the dance! Such a beautiful perfect balance.”