The Great American Novel

Every American writer secretly dreams of writing the “Great American Novel.”

What would that look like? It’s a book that captures the zeitgeist, that taps into something intrinsic to our national psyche. The Great American Novel is also something that we can only identify in retrospect.

What I mean is this: it isn’t possible to write the Great American Novel.

It’s only possible to tell your story. The desire to write something so prestigious is a setup for procrastination. When you put your truth on the page, your story has a chance to live.

This is what every working writer knows, and what every wannabe will never get.

Tell your story. Nothing more. The Great American Novel is nothing more than a myth designed to keep your ego from writing the story you were born to write.

Learn more about marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of structure in The 90-Day Novel, The 90-Day Memoir, or The 90-Day Screenplay workshops.