“The 90-Day Novel is the most fun and exhilarating feeling I have ever experienced, like falling in love. Really, I never had this feeling before, not at Harvard, not getting my book published, I don’t even know how to put it into words. Al Watt is the best teacher I have ever had. He creates a space that is so safe and nurturing, I want to get it wrong because now I know I’ll be able to get it right. Al, thank you so much for sharing what you know and your experience with me.”

Maureen O’Crean, (author I Am Diva: Every Woman’s Guide to Outrageous Living)

“I’ve told several people with some confidence that I’m a writer. I admit I’m new to it and not yet published, but I can hold my head up and say I write. I get that confidence from the 90-Day Novel Workshop. Alan Watt, you are brilliant. How do you do that? How can you have an immediate response, insight, suggestion to what’s going on with the characters and sometimes the writer? …This workshop is so much more than learning how to write. I enrolled in the 90-Day Novel course on blind faith. If I had had some foreshadow of what I was going to go through I probably would have said “Uh…I don’t think I’m ready for that.” Amazing. I’m aware that you’re well respected by accomplished writers, still you teach the course in a humble way, making even me, as the brand new to writing student, feel just as worthy. Just as uniquely qualified. In our egomaniac culture I find this extremely amazing. I see story all around me. I feel so much more alive. This is where I fall back into a loss for words. It’s that thing I call God. You probably understand what I’m trying to say.”

Judith Scott

“What they teach you in MFA programs is how to rewrite, not generate raw material. Believe me, I know. I went to a ‘prestigious’ MFA program where I eventually rewrote myself into a corner. Then I stopped writing for almost ten years. On a whim, I signed up for the 90-Day Novel, and now I‘ve left that corner for good. Through the class, I learned how to play, inquire, and access the raw material needed for my story to come alive. The act of writing has become thrilling and fun again. Thank you, Al!”

Dorcas Nung

“This program is the deal of the century as far as I am concerned. It cuts out the low-risk, tenured university lectures and gets to the heat and action of the craft of writing. Al Watt is gifted. I don’t think it would much matter what he taught. He would find the essence of any skill. I am very grateful that he’s chosen to teach the craft of writing. I find his classes helpful, like oxygen. I will study with Al until he closes up shop.”

Jessica Hagan

“The 90-Day Novel teleconference workshop taught me so much on so many different levels, that I don’t know where to start. The first thing I learned was that by putting in the daily hours and allowing myself to write poorly, the story got written, despite myself. Al is not only a brilliant writing teacher, but a spiritual guide and that is what sets him apart from any other writing teacher. I don’t mean this in a new-agey way, I mean that he guides us to find the answers within – he gently nudges us towards our truth and it’s from that place that our stories emerge. I started the class with an idea – that was it, and I wasn’t even sure that it would work as a novel. 90 days later I have a story (over 500 pages,) with characters who have come alive and have used me to tell the story of their transformation. I think in any other class, it would have taken me years to gain the understanding that the last 90 days has given me. My characters have changed and so have I. I can’t thank Al enough.”

Sophie Uliano

“I resisted my story for five years, with ‘good reasons’ to dodge the work. Al’s 90-Day Novel class changed that. The daily letters, stream-of-conscious writing exercises and tales of the other writers kept me focused, honest and committed. It was liberating to write without reflexive rewriting – a huge change for me! And fun to absorb the new characters who kept showing up. I surprised myself every day. Especially the day I finished. Thanks, Al!”

Peggy Mulloy

“Al Watt is brilliant. The 90-Day Novel online workshop gave me the structure, support and guidance to finish the first draft of a novel I’d been struggling with for a decade. Al’s coaching gave me tremendous insight into the story and my characters, and the confidence that I actually could finish – which I credit as a minor miracle.”

Laura Brennan, (screenwriter)

“For twelve years I struggled with writing my first novel. A friend encouraged me to sign up for the 90-Day Novel Online Workshop with Al Watt and I’m so glad I did. In 90 days I have written over 150,000 words. I feel confident and alive with my writing, and happily realized I have a fantastic trilogy instead of a single novel. Who knew? I guess Al did. Now I tell everyone about his online course. Thank you Al, you’ve genuinely changed my life.”

Eddie Conner, (radio host/author)

Al Watt DOES NOT teach the typical, reverse-engineered, screenplay approach that is the ubiquitous contribution of so many brilliant left-brains out there. You know what I mean: real smart, insightful guys who have been able to incisively deconstruct many successful scripts, isolate and define the many component parts and their respective locals within a page count, and now teach students to first recognize these “devices” and then to insert similar ones within the framework of an outline/format. Well, yeah, that’s great, but how do I come to know my ending, the tone, the genre, the theme in a way that is more than a shallow, derivative, reconstitution of images from other stories/movies (even events in my own life) that are floating around my wracked skull? How do I connect to my writing, the thematic bedrock, in such an intimate way that these profound (yet typically glossed over) pieces/beats, rise up out of the infinite and introduce themselves to me as THE STORY? This is the stuff of Al’s class and, not accidentally, the call of great art. He teaches a PROCESS for the writer/artist/storyteller. We come to see structure as a simple, immutable expression of transformation: If the beats of the hero’s (or the audience’s) transformation have been successfully invited up from our unconscious, then structure will most assuredly have hitched a ride. Believe me, you’re gonna feel the fire of your hero’s adventure plenty, ‘cuz, kickin’ or screamin’, you’re goin’ with him/her.

Josh Drew (filmmaker)

Al Watt is not only a gifted writer, but a wonderful teacher. A typical class includes stream-of-consciousness writing exercises, followed by an incisive discussion of the issues the writing brings up, topped off with directives and assignments for the following week. Al is attentive, insightful, a wiz with structure, never phones it in, and has thought deeply about the writing process. A pleasure and a privilege.

Dave Voda (author/English professor)