Finish Your Novel
ongoing group with tons of support & accountability
Want to make dramatic progress on your novel … in just six weeks? Finish Your Novel is a small, focused group with loads of hands-on support from me. It runs through my Writers’ Cafe community.
In your first six weeks, you’ll come up with a clear roadmap to finish your novel.
Novel Writers
Six weeks is enough time to get you well on track to finish your novel. Here’s how it works.
We kick things off with:
👉 A workshop session to pin down the major structural moments in your novel
👉 Guided goal-setting so you can make significant progress, broken down into manageable weekly chunks
Then throughout the six weeks, we have:
👉 Weekly check-ins for building sustainable writing habits so you can go the distance (with our support!)
👉 Weekly group calls for direct support from me on anything you’re stuck with
👉 Weekly themes with focused, practical tips from me on different areas of novel-writing
We also have: fellow writers who care about your novel and want to cheer you on, space to submit work for honest, constructive feedback from me and fellow members, and gentle chasing up from me if you don’t check in each week.
We don’t have: a mountain of course material you have to work through, “writing exercises” that have nothing to do with your novel, or lots of waffle!
It costs $150 for the full six weeks (£110 if you prefer GBP) which includes everything. You can pay upfront or split the cost week by week.
What’s Included
Overall Goal Setting
During “Week 0” (just before the six weeks begins), we each set our own individual goal for the six weeks.
That might be something like:
- Write the next 30,000 words of my novel
- Finish my current draft
- Restructure my novel and prepare for Draft 2
We also each share a brief summary of our novel. This doesn’t need to be anything formal like a synopsis! It’s just so other members have a sense of who your characters are and how your story fits together before we dig into detailed feedback during our group calls.
Weekly Group Calls
Our weekly group calls last for 90 minutes. You can come along with any writing question or problem: I’m here to help!
You might want to bring things like:
- An outline of your novel, especially if you need help filling in gaps
- A short draft piece for direct, constructive feedback
- A question about anything you’re stuck on
Each call is recorded, so even if you can’t make it one week, you can catch up afterwards. It’s often really helpful to hear other people’s questions, problems, and feedback on work-in-progress, as you may well find these resonate with you too.
Weekly Accountability Check-In
Each Monday, I post in our group space to ask everyone’s goals for the week. We share our individual targets, e.g. “Write 5,000 words”.
(If you don’t reply by Wednesday, I contact you to check if everything’s going okay and if you need any extra support.)
Each Sunday, I post again to ask how you got on, tagging you and reminding you of your target. We share the progress we made.
About Ali
I write both fiction and non-fiction, and I’ve been making a living writing since 2008.
Over the years, I’ve written fiction around all kinds of situations: a full-time job, alongside studies, as a full-time freelancer, and while raising kids (they’re now 10 and 12). I know how hard it can be sometimes to see a big project like a novel through to “the end”.
During my writing journey so far, I’ve had plenty of high points, like signing a book deal for Publishing Ebooks for Dummies to publishing three novels and a novella.
But I also know the challenges involved in things like getting all the way to “The End” of a draft, wrestling a novel into shape, plucking up the courage to self-publish it or send it out to agents, and struggling to prioritise your writing in the midst of a busy life.
Throughout my whole writing journey, the feedback and support I’ve received from writing tutors, editors, and peers has been hugely valuable to me. I’ve previously offered this to others through one-to-one coaching, but I think it’s especially valuable for novelists to have the encouragement and support of a small group. It also lets you get direct, detailed feedback and advice from me at a fraction of the cost of one-to-one coaching.
Join Us Now
The six-week Finish Your Novel group is just $150 (£110 in GBP).
That covers everything: feedback calls, check-ins, extra resources I create for the group, etc.
There’s no ongoing commitment, though you’re welcome to join us for longer at the end of the six weeks.