The 90-Day Novel © Telecourse is an intensive workshop designed to guide the writer from initial idea to the completion of a first draft. This program is available for both fiction writers and memoirists, and is offered to writers at all levels.

This workshop is pay-what-you-can with 10% of all proceeds benefiting
The Book Truck, a literacy program for Los Angeles at-risk youths.

Instructor Alan Watt is the Creative Director of L.A. Writers' Lab, bestselling author, and writer/director of Interior Night. He founded L.A. Writers’ Lab in 2002 as a place for writers to deepen their craft by learning to marry the rigor of structure to the freedom of the muse. He has taught everyone from award-winning authors to A-list screenwriters, journalists, poets, actors, professional athletes, war veterans, housewives, doctors, lawyers, television showrunners, Emmy-winning directors, first-time writers, and anyone else with a story to tell.

PLUS*, Q&A WITH YOUR FAVORITE AUTHORS:

Jennifer L. Scott is the New York Times bestselling author of Lessons from Madame Chic, At Home with Madame Chic and Polish Your Poise with Madame Chic (Simon & Schuster) and creator of the blog The Daily Connoisseur. She is a contributing writer for Huffington Post Style and has been featured on CNN, BBC, and CBS News, and in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, USA Today, Newsweek, and The Daily Mail. She lives with her family in Los Angeles, California.

Aimee Bender is the author of five books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) which won the SCIBA award for best fiction and an Alex Award, and The Color Master (2013), a NY Times Notable book. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in Los Angeles with her family, and teaches creative writing at USC. Here is a link to her latest book: The Color Master.

*(list subject to change)

The 90-Day Novel Course Outline

WORKSHOPS - Mondays 12:00-1:30 p.m. PST
Q&A - Fridays 12:00-12:50 p.m. PST

NOTE: All workshops are recorded. You don't have to take it live. We'll send you the playback information. (Recordings are available for three weeks after each respective session).
 

MONTH ONE: IMAGINING THE WORLD OF THE STORY (CREATING AN OUTLINE)
The first four weeks are dedicated to stream-of-consciousness writing exercises as you begin to develop a relationship to the world of your story. As you inquire into the nature of your premise, images and ideas naturally emerge. Al Watt works one-on-one with each writer to illustrate the process of seeing beneath the premise to the primal forces at work. There are no rules to novel-writing, but there are story principles and tools to help you develop a more specific and dynamic version of your story. Many writers have had the experience of getting stuck halfway through their work. The 90-Day Novel helps free writers from limiting ideas they may have of their story, and provides tools to explore the story in a deeper way. Below is a brief outline of the weekly topics covered.

• Story Structure lecture
• The nature of the premise
• Building an outline
• Plot versus theme

• Show, don’t tell
• Beginnings, middles and endings
• Backstory
• Story analysis

MONTHS TWO AND THREE: WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT
The remaining sixty-two days of the workshop involve writing roughly 750-1000 words per day, as the instructor guides you through the hero’s journey. Three weeks are spent on Act One, four weeks on Act Two, and the remaining two weeks on Act Three. 

• The opposing argument
• Characters behave uncharacteristically
• Giving yourself permission to  write poorly

• The protagonist experiences false hope
• Blind spots
• Making the scene dynamic

• The protagonist suffers
• Story isn’t linear
• Raising the stakes

• Reframing the protagonist’s goal
• Protagonist accepts the reality of  the situation
• The protagonist is stripped bare

• Completion of first draft
• How to proceed from here

THE 90-DAY NOVEL TELECOURSE PACKAGE INCLUDES:

• 13 LIVE 90-MINUTE WORKSHOPS every Monday from 12:00 to 1:30 pm.
• 13 LIVE 50-MINUTE Q&As every Friday from 12:00 to 12:50 pm. Email your questions to me. I’ll go over them LIVE at the end of each week and work one-on-one with writers as needed.
• PLAYBACK ACCESS to the workshops for 7 days following each respective class.
• 90 DAILY LETTERS outlining the process.
• STORY STRUCTURE WORKSHEETS and over two hundred STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS WRITING EXERCISES.

Pay-what-you-can Suggested Donation: $445,

Minimum Donation: $100 through August 31st

“Al Watt is a master teacher with a brilliant, intuitive understanding of story.”
Allen Zadoff (author of The Unknown Assassin Series, Little Brown Books)

“I seriously didn’t even think this could be a reality until I took your workshop!”
Aditi Khorana (author of Mirror in the Sky, Razorbill, Penguin Books)

“I went $64,000 in debt for my MFA in fiction writing. I sit in this class and I wonder why. This is a great class!”
Frank B. Wilderson III (American Book Award winner for his memoir, Incognegro, Duke University Press Books)