The new UUFC Novel Writing Group will gather via Zoom videoconference for an organizational meeting Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 5 pm. 

The group leader is Fellowship friend Justin DiFeliciantonio. His deputy is Fellowship member Bill Harlan. We’re open to everyone, and non-UUs are welcome.

That said, this is not free-ranging discussion a group. Our approach is very specific. We’ll follow author Alan Watt’s The 90-Day Novel, which is about getting a first draft done and doing it in three months. Like Liam Neeson, Watt has a very specific set of skills. If you’re interested, we recommend you peruse his book. If you join us, you’ll want a copy.

Our group will meet weekly by Zoom videoconference but not to share writing. (Watt discourages sharing during a first draft.) Rather, we’ll meet to support each other in the process. You don’t need a writing background. What is required is a willingness to commit a significant amount of time every day to writing. (Not eight hours a day, but not 15 minutes either. Watt recommends two hours a day.)

We are approaching writing our novels an exercise in self-discovery—that is, as a way of becoming aware of and resolving inner conflicts. We’re also doing it to have fun. Watts says a story lives within all of us. We’ll see if he’s right.

Justin has pulled one of his favorite quotes from the introduction to Watt’s book:

“I finished the first draft on the forty-fourth day. It was around 50,000 words. I will never forget the experience of standing at the seventh-floor window of my hotel room staring down at the mid-afternoon traffic. For the first time in my life I felt like the world was no longer my enemy. I didn’t know what I had written. I just remember standing at the window and wondering, ‘Where did that come from?'”

If this passage inspires you, contact us at [email protected] and put “Novel Group” in the subject line. We’ll send you a link to our organizational Zoom videoconference on Aug. 11.