The 90-Day Novel

Get the first draft of your NOVEL or MEMOIR down quickly! The 90-Day Novel is Alan Watt's day-by-day guide through the process of getting the first draft of your novel or memoir onto the page.

The 90-Day Novel was workshopped at L.A. Writers' Lab over the course of ten years and has helped thousands of writers complete their work. A number of Watt's students have gone on to become bestselling authors and win major literary awards. Many writers credit The 90-Day Novel as their guide, from YA author Allen Zadoff (The Unknown Assassin Series, Little Brown) "Al Watt is a master teacher with a brilliant, intuitive understanding of story," to Ottessa Moshfegh (Man Booker Prize Finalist for Eileen, Penguin, Random House) "I went out and bought a book called The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt. It's ridiculous, claiming that anybody can write a great book, and quickly too, but it ended up as a Oulipian thing...it was actually interesting to conform to the rules."

The method was inspired by Watt's own experience. He wrote the first draft of his novel Diamond Dogs in just under 90 days and sold the North American rights to Little, Brown in a bidding war. The book became a national bestseller, won a slew of awards including France's 2004 Prix Printemps (best foreign novel). The 90-Day Novel is structured into three parts.

Part One describes the process of getting your story from your imagination to the page and prepares you, through a few simple, powerful writing exercises to access the story within.

Part Two is The 90-Day Novel, 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 ideas and images into a coherent narrative. Working in this way, story structure (which is often taught as a 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 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 (national bestselling author and Edgar Award winner of 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 was introduced to The 90-Day Novel. Al's methodology is deep and precise and helps unearth subconscious themes and characters in you that let the story almost tell itself." - Rebecca de Mornay (actress/writer)