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The 90-Day Novel: Unlock the story within Paperback – October 10, 2010
| Alan Watt (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Get the first draft down quickly! The 90-Day Novel is a day-by-day guide through the process of getting the first draft of your novel onto the page. The 90-Day Novel was workshopped at LA Writers' Lab over three years and has helped hundreds of writers complete their work. Some of Watt's students have gone on to become bestselling authors and win major literary awards.
The 90-Day Novel is structured into three parts. Part One describes the process of getting your story from the imagination to the page and prepares you, through a few simple, powerful writing exercises to access the story within. Part Two is a series of 90 daily letters that will guide you through the hero's journey. Writers often tend to get stuck halfway through, mired somewhere in their "idea" of the story. The 90-Day Novel will show you how and why you got stuck, and how to get to the end of your first draft. Part Three is a compendium of stream-of-consciousness writing exercises designed to help you access the primal forces in your story, as well as the Structure Questions that will invite up images at key stages in your hero's journey.
The 90-Day Novel teaches you how to distill your plot to its nature, and clarifies the mysterious process of assembling vague disparate images into a coherent narrative. Working in this way, story structure (which is often taught as an intellectual construct or "formula") becomes a springboard, setting you free to explore the far reaches of your imagination. "There are no rules," Watt tells us. "Stay out of your left brain, and let your unconscious do the heavy lifting." The 90-Day Novel clearly articulates the process of marrying the rigor of story structure to the wildness of the imagination and in the process reminds us of something we so often forget...that writing is actually fun. For more information on books, visit the90daynovel.com. For info on workshops, visit lawriterslab.com.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateOctober 10, 2010
- Dimensions6 x 0.69 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100983141207
- ISBN-13978-0983141204
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Steven Pressfield (bestselling author of The War of Art and Do The Work)
"I went $64,000 in debt for my MFA in fiction writing. After reading The 90-Day Novel I wonder why. This book will provide you with the tools missing from most writing programs."
Frank B. Wilderson III (Winner, 2008 American Book Award)
''For years I have been fascinated by the industry legend of how Alan Watt wrote his masterful novel Diamond Dogs in 90 days. Now, at last, he shares his secrets. The 90-Day Novel is smart, insightful, thorough and wise. It's also one of the best books on novel-writing I have ever seen. I feel confident that anyone who takes this program seriously will have a solid manuscript to show for the effort.''
David Liss (Edgar Award winner for his bestselling novel A Conspiracy of Paper)
''The idea of bringing a first draft of a novel to fruition seemed too daunting and overwhelming to even consider until I applied the principles in The 90-day Novel. Al Watt's methodology is deep and precise, and helps unearth unconscious themes and characters in you that let the story almost tell itself.''
Rebecca De Mornay(actress/writer)
"Every writer of fiction or nonfiction should read this book."
Ally Bishop (Hippocampus Magazine)
From the Inside Flap
From the Back Cover
* How to structure your novel without losing connection to your voice* Why you are uniquely qualified to write your story* The dilemma at the heart of your story* How your fears are a portal into your characters* The connection between your life themes and story themes* Why you kept getting stuck, and how to break through
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : The 90-Day Novel Press; 2nd edition (October 10, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0983141207
- ISBN-13 : 978-0983141204
- Item Weight : 1.16 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.69 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,600,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,546 in Words, Language & Grammar Reference
- #2,269 in Authorship Reference
- #6,381 in Fiction Writing Reference (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Alan Watt is an L.A. Times best-selling author and screenwriter as well as consultant to some of Hollywood's top writers and producers. He has won a number of awards for his writing including France's 2004 Prix Printemps (best foreign novel) for Diamond Dogs. He is also the writer/director of the award-winning feature film Interior Night.
Alan Watt first taught a summer screenwriting workshop at UCLA in 1998, and has been teaching and lecturing on the creative process in L.A. and at colleges around the country ever since. He spent three years teaching storytelling to inner city high school students through the non-profit arm of Spoken Interludes.
He founded L.A. Writers' Lab in 2002 as a place for writers to deepen their craft by learning to marry the wildness of their imaginations to the rigor of story structure. He has taught everyone from award-winning authors and A-list screenwriters, to journalists, poets, actors, professional athletes, war veterans, housewives, doctors, lawyers, television showrunners, and anyone else with a story to tell.
In 2010 he created The 90-Day Novel Press to publish books on writing, which includes Amazon's #1 bestselling book on writing, The 90-Day Novel. Mr. Watt is also the founder of Writers Tribe Books, a publisher of literary fiction. And you may, perhaps, recognize him from his three lines as the hotdog vendor in the "Chinese Gum" episode of Seinfeld.
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I bought this book with some trepidation. All silly concerns - my friends would laugh at me (in fact, several who saw it on my desk rolled their eyes). It would be too "generic", eg it wouldn't address the problems I personally was having. It would scare me. It would be boring. On and on and on and on.
As every writer out there knows, writing is scary, and sitting down, putting pen to paper, is often the scariest part.
So let me say out loud that I love this book. No, it didn't teach me how to write. You can't teach that. And no, it didn't make it any less scary to start. The only way to get past that is to start.
But here's what it DID do. It focused me. Again, any writer seeing this knows how hard it is to stay focused. This book, chapter by chapter, focused me. It also gave me a rhythm - once I did what Watts suggested, setting up a firm schedule, sticking to it, everything else fell into place.
A couple of suggestions for other writers, after my own experience.
1. Like most other writers, I have a full time day job, running the business part of my own career. I'm self-employed, but that just means I need 4-6 hours every single day to answer email, make phone calls, strategize etc. The luxury of my life is that I could set aside mornings for writing. At 64, I don't have nearly the energy I used to have - writing at night is not a great option for me. I set aside 8 am to 12 noon, figuring if I got up at 6 am each day I could take care of the most urgent business and exercise before buckling down.
2. As the book insists, over and over again, I made the time sacrosanct. Most of us feel guilty when we do that, as though setting aside time for our own creative endeavors comes last in the long list of daily life - behind shopping for food, fixing meals, hassling with the landlord, making sure everyone's clothes are clean, etc etc. I looked in the mirror one day and said "You need to get selfish about your real work". It made a huge difference.
3. I went to a local market to write, instead of trying to do it at home. Again, this is something of a luxury, but I found that when I stayed home I got distracted by everything. The dog, the phone, the yard, the business papers. So I began my project somewhere else. It was a great decision, because it allowed me to "show up for work" every morning and concentrate.
3. I made it a rule not to bring my computer with me - I found that the first draft needed pen to paper, rather than a computer. It changed my thinking and my writing.
4. I made a special "bag" that held my draft, my notes, this book, my Kindle (with a copy of this book on it), a large yellow legal pad (for the draft), and various pens - mostly ballpoints, but I also found that a yellow high lighter was handy.
5. I did one chapter a day, and resisted the temptation to go further. In fact, sometimes I did half a chapter. That was fine.
6. When I got stuck, as happened several times, I went back a chapter or two and started over with them. That refocused me, and reminded me that I was on track. Two steps forward, one step back.
All in all, I found this book incredibly helpful. I didn't expect a miracle, or a study aid. I hoped it would help me sit butt in chair and write, which is exactly what it did!
My decision to buy this book was due to the overwhelmingly positive reviews, the bargain price on Kindle, and the simplicity of the structure. I've currently been working on my book for 3 years now, which is a story many aspiring writers can relate to. We have our idea, we have some sense of how the story unfolds, but getting to the finish line is a challenge. So like many others, I'm hoping this 90 day approach will at least enable me to finish with a rough draft by this summer. That would be a wonderful relief for me.
The book is extremely encouraging and well organized. I like the way Mr. Watt walks us through what we can expect and how we're going to tackle it. The daily exercises seem easy enough, but heed my warning that if they are TOO easy, you're doing something wrong. Although a question might be simple, such as, "Tell me what your character regrets most in life," if your answer is one or two sentences, you're not digging deep enough. Really get your hands dirty and think about the most painful, gut wrenching experience this character had. Draw from your own life if necessary. Knowing the hard road your characters have traveled will ultimately inspire you to build three dimensional personalities that leap off the page.
I'll continue to work on this and plan to follow through to the end. As the book recommends, I've taken a break from writing any actual chapters in the book for now. But I do get fragmented ideas from time to time, which I dutifully take note of. (Takes lots of notes, by the way. Any time you have an idea about a scene, a conversation, a character, or even just the way the sunlight hits the trees in the morning, write it down! You may need it someday.)
Along with this book, I also recommend How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques For Dramatic Storytelling . That one really lit a fire under me and I go back to reference it again and again!
Wow! So different than other "writing" books and the most helpful I've read to date.
This book has made a huge improvement in my writing in a very short time. And not only that, it has made the creative journey of writing so much more enjoyable.
Try it. DO the exercises. Listen to Alan. Let your creative self go and INQUIRE. You won't be disappointed.
Top reviews from other countries
This book is not make you a great author in 90 days, however, if you follow scheduled writing routine, certainly the ability to write can improved.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 13, 2021






