I'm just going to tell you, and please don't let him hear this, because he's from Canada originally, and so humble:
Al Watt is a storytelling genius.
I read over twenty books on how to write a novel. But one of them grabbed me by my neck, and despite numerous pleas from me, held on. This was The 90-day Novel. I found myself reading it again, and again, and again. I knew I was being shown "how" in a way that my English degree and years of reading had never taught me. Once I finished the book, I was able to take anything from Lolita to Pinocchio apart, and understand how it was working on an internal level.
But I felt I needed a teacher in real life too. "Al Watt" only existed in a book, so I went online to look for someone.
I knew it was impossible that someone who won the "Grand Prix" for his first novel, as Al did, was going to help me.
Imagine my astonishment when I found out that Al Watt was teaching his classes only fifteen minutes away from where I lived. And that's when my life changed.
I came in to write a dry, light-hearted, and urbane tale. I'm coming out with my beating heart on a page.
Part psychiatrist, part priest, part professor, we writers go to Al so that he can tell us what we're trying to express.
I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be a highly-prized ice sculptor in his last life, because distilling things to their essence is his true gift. He will put the chisel to exactly the right place in your story, he will tap the hammer, and everything extraneous will fall away, leaving the soul of your book.
You know the saying, "Those who can't do, teach?"
I know someone who is an artist at the highest level. And that is exactly how he teaches. read more