If you're a writer, this one is worth adding to your home library collection. ( )

It had interesting exercises, but I didn't really like any of them and didn't feel half of them helped me actually move forward with the story. I didn't find them helpful at all (well, maybe one or two), and it just seems like it'll lead you to a very formulaic novel (even if at its very core every novel is formulaic, as it follows a beginning, middle and end, after all).
Also the basic tips it gives behind all the exercises and rambling are pretty obvious tips.

This might work for some people, but it's not working out for me.
It might also work if all you want to do is get down on paper a novel or that first novel because you're terribly blocked or it's your very first and you're super nervous... but that's about it. ( )

I've read over fifty books on the craft of fiction. The 90-Day Novel stands in the top five. Using the exercises in this book changed the way I write fiction. At the risk of melodrama, the book was life-changing in that it opened the door to help me understand why I write the kinds of stories I do, and gave me incredibly deeper access to my Voice. I highly recommend it. ( )

The cynical reader probably understands, on some level, that you get what you pay for. When I bought this book, I did not. I'm not sure what I expected... but the author's advice is to write a story about a fictionalized version of yourself, resolving some sort of conflict you currently face. When I tried it, the results rapidly proved to be stupid, preachy, and unreadable...

I suppose that says something about me as well as about the author. But then again, I have no desire to read any of the author's books, and his descriptions of them over the course of this book left me less desirous of reading them; a bombastic puritan of a reader, and a writer mired in the contemporary, deserve each other.

Well, no, the author deserves better readers... and this /is/ about getting a /first/ work written, not a best one -- about getting over the hurdle of getting a first work created, not about perfecting your skills once you've gotten underway...

And for the right kind of person, the recommendations would work. Novels in general turn out to be unsuited to what I'm trying to write...

I don't think I recommend applying this methodology to stories not set in the present day, though... ( )

Written in a friendly approachable style, THE 90-DAY NOVEL takes an unusual approach in that it makes a good effort at explaining the unconscious aspects of writing. Combining tips and secrets, quotes and writing exercise, Watt encourages the reader through the dynamic process of completing a first draft of a novel within a 90-day period.

His explanation of showing versus telling to add life to a story was very good, as were many of the writing secrets he revealed. At last I feel comfortable being a writer who prefers to write with only the vaguest sense of where the story is leading me!

While repetition is a good teaching technique in a live workshop environment, encouraging students to remember core concepts, there was a lot of repetition in this book. At times this was annoying.

I’m also not a fan of writing books that have writing exercises as an integral part of reading the book – my only reading time is late at night, in bed, which makes doing writing exercises difficult. Other readers who like doing practical exercises to help them understand may find the book easier to read than I did.

I did pick up many useful tips on writing a novel quickly, the main one being to trust my own writing process and not to fear writing the forbidden.

(This review is for the Kindle edition) ( )