“No one is free until we are all free.”- Martin Luther King Jr. It is human nature to search for absolutes. Joe is a liar, while Helen is trustworthy. Abe is punctual, while Ruth is always late. …
The Writing Process
Never Give Up
I was a half decent 800-meter runner in high school, not great, but I ran with a lot of heart, and sometimes I placed near the front. It's a tough race, as it requires both speed and stamina. It is …
The Price of Joy is Grief
As human beings we tend to seek positive experiences, but as writers and storytellers we understand that the purpose of story is to reveal a transformation. Without suffering and ultimately surrender, …
Loyalty
Do you feel loyalty pulling at you in your story? Isn't it interesting how guilt emerges when you speak your truth? Why is it that standing up for yourself or setting a boundary brings with it a sense …
Why Writers Should Embrace Doubt
Doubt lives in each of us. We are unsure about our futures, our relationships, our new tile in the bathroom, our car insurance, etc. Doubt is the cradle of conflict, both internal and external. In the …
“Why Do I Get Stuck?”
When writers come to a dead stop there can be a tendency to panic. It’s important to remember that your idea of your story is never the whole story. When you try to figure it out, you tend to dig a …
What is Success?
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates Years ago, I was on the phone with a prospective student, and he announced, “I will consider myself a failure if my book does not become a …
One True Moment
"Where did that come from?" I believe there is something we writers are collectively seeking. We are all attempting to convey an experience, a true moment, to tell a story that somehow reveals more …
What Do I Write Next?
Writers frequently come to me and say: "I have three ideas. Which one should I write next?"In the 90-day workshops, one of the first exercises we do is we write for five minutes, beginning with: "My …
Choose Love
In every story, love is the mystery that is always on the table. In the beginning of your story, the question may appear to be a choice between loving and not loving. But perhaps you have already …
Most popular posts
Never Give Up
I was a half decent 800-meter runner in high school, not great, but I ran with a lot of heart, and sometimes I placed near the front. It’s a tough race, as it requires both speed and stamina. It is also tactical. If you go out too fast, you choke. But if you don’t make …
Read More
We Are All Connected
“No one is free until we are all free.”– Martin Luther King Jr. It is human nature to search for absolutes. Joe is a liar, while Helen is trustworthy. Abe is punctual, while Ruth is always late. Absolutes give us the illusion of security, but they also lead to lazy stories because they simply aren’t true. When …
Read More
The Price of Joy is Grief
As human beings we tend to seek positive experiences, but as writers and storytellers we understand that the purpose of story is to reveal a transformation. Without suffering and ultimately surrender, there can be no context for your protagonist’s redemption. In other words, the price of joy is grief. At the core of any well-told …
Read MoreThe 90-Day Novel
The 90-Day Novel® is a Live-on-Zoom workshop with Alan Watt that will take you from initial idea to the completion of your novel's first draft in 90 days.
Recent Posts
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 …
Read More
Writers, The Time is Now
I know writers who have struggled for decades to complete their first novel. They work on their novel for a while, then distractions come along. They put it in a drawer, fish it out a few years later, work on it for a while, and this goes on indefinitely. I began teaching the 90-Day Novel …
Read More