Story Day
unlock the story within
A six-hour story structure workshop with Alan Watt, live on Zoom.
Sunday, January 24, 2027
$295 $230 USD
“Alan Watt is a master teacher, with a brilliant, intuitive understanding of story.”
Allen Zadoff, Author of The Unknown Assassin series, Little Brown
unlock the story within
Story structure is not a formula. The structure is not the plot, but the key experiences that lead to your protagonist’s transformation. When you explore those experiences, situations emerge to support them.
find your story’s engine
Discover the central dilemma that gives your story tension, meaning, and a reason to keep turning the page.
let character drive plot
Explore your protagonist’s wants, needs, and inner journey—and how they suggest what happens next.
make structure your ally
Develop an organic understanding of the three acts, so structure supports your story without confining it.
a clearer story
in one day
Whether you’re starting with a spark or returning to a draft, this is a place to ask deeper questions about the story you want to tell.
✓ You have an idea, but not yet a path. Discover what holds the story together before you begin your draft.
✓ You’ve started writing and feel stuck. Step back from the pages to explore what your story is really about.
✓ You want structure without a rigid formula. Learn an approach that makes room for discovery, intuition, and your own voice.
For novelists, screenwriters, show runners, memoirists, producers, directors, songwriters, poets, editors, and anyone with a desire to deepen their understanding of how to build a story.
Morning / 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. PTUnlock the story withinConnect to the core of your story.
Through writing exercises and one-on-one work with the writers to illustrate the principles, you will connect to the core of your story. You will discover the dilemma that is driving your protagonist, and you will begin to connect to their transformation in a clear and dynamic way.
Afternoon / 1:30–4:30 p.m. PTStory structureFollow your protagonist’s journey.
You will be guided through the key experiences in your protagonist’s journey, and discover how they reframe their relationship to their primal desire in order to arrive at their transformed state.
teaching and
one-on-one work
Through lecture, writing exercises, and one-on-one work with writers to illustrate the principles, Alan takes you through the process of connecting to the core of your story by marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of structure.
one live day on Zoom
A morning and an afternoon session, with a one-hour break for lunch.
work on your own story
Alan works one-on-one with writers throughout the day to illustrate the principles.
leave with clarity
By the end of the day, you will have a much clearer understanding of the story you wish to tell and a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of story creation.
“Your subconscious is the seat of your genius.”
Alan Watt
Bestselling author of The 90-Day Novel
Alan Watt is the national bestselling author of The 90-Day Novel and The 90-Day book series. He teaches workshops and consults online with writers throughout the world. He has won a number of awards for his writing including France’s 2004 Prix Printemps (best first novel) for Diamond Dogs. He is also the writer/director of the award-winning feature film Interior Night.
Since 2002, he has been teaching writers a process of marrying the wildness of their imagination to the rigor of story structure. He has taught everyone, from award-winning authors and A-list screenwriters to maximum security prisoners, war veterans, housewives, doctors, lawyers, television showrunners, and a president.
“Learn the process of marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of structure.”
an organic approach to story
At the heart of Alan’s approach is a simple idea: story structure is a paradigm for transformation. The plot grows from a character’s changing relationship to what they want.
desire
Your protagonist wants something. That desire sets the story in motion.
conflict
Your protagonist encounters obstacles that stand in the way of their goal.
surrender
They surrender the meaning they’ve attached to their goal.
transformation
They reframe the goal—and discover a new way of seeing their world.
character suggests plot
Your idea of your story is never the whole story. It’s not that your idea is incorrect, it’s that it’s incomplete. Your subconscious is the seat of your genius, and when you understand that genius is not a noun, but a verb, you move in the direction of merging intuition to craft.
By moving from the general to the specific, discoveries emerge, and you begin to see how all of the characters in your story are thematically connected, and thus struggling with the same central dilemma.
The goal in creating an outline is not to eliminate surprise, but to understand your story deeply enough that you can begin writing your first draft with both a sense of direction and the freedom to discover.
“A treasure trove of insight, not only for beginners or aspiring writers but for grizzled old-timers like myself, who can profit, always, from revisiting the fundamentals and First Principles of the writer’s calling. Two thumbs up!”
Steven Pressfield
Bestselling Author of The War of Art
“He has a system for giving order and meaning to even the most complicated narrative. Working with Alan was like getting the keys to the castle.”
Patricia McCormick
Two-Time National Book Award Finalist for the novels Sold and Never Fall Down
“Now that the book has become a national bestseller, I understand that he intuited the ultimate potential of my story all along and wouldn’t let me quit until it was realized.”
Patrick O’Connell
National Bestselling author of Main, Middle and Gay, Celadon Books
any questions?
Who is Story Day for?
Novelists, screenwriters, show runners, memoirists, producers, directors, songwriters, poets, editors, and anyone else with a desire to deepen their understanding of how to build a story.
What are the date and times?
Story Day is on Sunday, January 24, 2027, live on Zoom. The morning session runs 9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Pacific and the afternoon session 1:30–4:30 p.m. Pacific, with a one-hour break for lunch.
Is there an in-person Story Day?
Yes. Story Day also runs live in Los Angeles on March 20, 2027. See the Story Day page for details.
How much does Story Day cost?
Story Day is regularly $295 USD. When you select join story day, your $65 discount is applied automatically, bringing it to $230 USD before any applicable tax. No code needed.
Story Day
unlock the story within
- Six-hour live workshop with Alan Watt
- Morning and afternoon sessions on Zoom
- One-on-one work with writers