Our 5-Day Sale was a success and is now officially closed.
Thank you for making this such an amazing event. You can contact Support@Danieldavidwallace.com for questions.

Real writing courses. Real teaching. Prices that make learning possible.

Big Courses on a Budget is a once-a-year event designed for writers who want serious craft education—without the $500+ price tag.

For five days, we feature one substantial course per day, each priced under $100 and available for 24 hours only. This is not a clearance sale, and these are not simplified lessons. These are full courses — dozens of lessons in some cases — offered once a year at prices designed to make proper craft education genuinely accessible.

This sale exists for one reason: to make high-quality writing education accessible.

How It Works

From February 11 to February 16, a new deal is featured each day.
Each deal is available for 24 hours only.
Once the day ends, that offer is gone for good.
To grab multiple deals, be sure to come back each day.

No extensions. No replays.When the day’s deal closes, so does your chance to get it.

Seize the day — grab each offer before it disappears.

Timing & Availability

Each deal:

Opens at 9:00 AM Eastern
Closes at 9:00 AM Eastern the following day

Some days include limited seats or rising prices as spots fill. If you prefer the lowest price, it’s best to arrive early.

GET THIS DEAL: Thursday, Feb 12

Day 1: Writing Great Chapters

Learn how strong chapters are built — and why they work.

This is a multi-section course on chapters, scenes, narration, and momentum. We look closely at how chapters function inside a novel, then apply those ideas through guided prompts and examples.

This is teaching grounded in craft, not formulas.

You’ll work with:

The structural role of chapters
Scene design and pacing
Narrative pressure and release
Practical techniques you can use immediately

Best suited for: novelists at any stage who want clearer, more confident chapters.

What Writers Have Said

I loved Writing Great Chapters and would recommend it to all writers: new and experienced! The lessons were short and with the prompts attached, I was able to apply them immediately. I created about a dozen scenes and two full chapters based on what I learned. I also enhanced a number of other chapters thanks to this course. Great job, Daniel! I look forward to taking some of your other courses! -T. Evans

GET THIS DEAL: Friday, Feb 13

Day 2: Perfect Your Process (Summit Presale)

A four-day reset for how you write — not just what you write.

Perfect Your Process is a live online summit designed to help writers build a writing life that is sustainable, flexible, and genuinely productive.

Rather than offering a single system everyone must follow, this summit brings together a carefully chosen group of experienced writers and teachers to explore how real writers actually work — across drafting, revising, planning, and maintaining momentum over time.

Across four days, you’ll have access to more than twenty thoughtful sessions focused on practical craft, realistic routines, and the inner work of showing up consistently.

You’ll learn about:

Building a writing process that fits your life and energy
Drafting and revising with less resistance
Creating sustainable habits without burnout
Strengthening your relationship to your work

The summit is free to attend live. This offer is for early access to the all‑access pass, which includes full replays, transcripts, and additional learning materials.

Please note: this presale is limited. Once the available seats are filled, the offer will close — even if the 24 hours are not yet complete.

What Writers Have Said

Every one of Daniel's summits has taught me something new! I think this is the third one I've attended, and each one has been so well curated, with top-notch speakers and timely, relevant topics. I really appreciate the professional and respective atmosphere and the ability to connect with other writers.

-H. McGuire Easom

GET THIS DEAL: Saturday, Feb 14

The Quarter System

A calmer, more workable way to draft a novel.

The Quarter System is a focused mini-course designed to simplify the drafting process by breaking a story into four clear stages — or quarters.

Instead of trying to solve everything at once, this approach helps you focus on the right problems at the right time. Each quarter of the story comes with its own priorities, tools, and challenges, along with clear guidance on what deserves your attention — and what can safely be ignored for now.

At every stage of the draft, you’ll know what to work on, why it matters, and how to move forward without getting stuck in overthinking or endless revision.

You’ll learn:

How to divide a story into four manageable stages
What to focus on early — and what to let go of
How your tools and priorities should shift as the draft develops
How to maintain momentum from beginning to end

This is not a rigid system or formula. It’s a flexible framework designed to support real writers doing real work.

Best suited for: writers at any level who want clarity, focus, and steady progress — from beginners starting their first draft to experienced writers looking for a cleaner process.

What Writers Have Said

"The concept allowed me to break a block of how to proceed in the middle of the book. It is a neat tool to have as a writer."

GET THIS DEAL: Sunday, Feb 15

YOUR AI WRITING TEAM

Using AI thoughtfully — in service of your writing, not instead of it.

This course is about clarity and control. You’ll learn how to design focused AI tools that help you think, revise, and explore — while keeping your voice firmly at the centre.

There is no hype here, and no promise that AI will “write the book for you.” That’s not the point.

This mini-course contains—>

Why AI / LLMs might be an important tool for creative people in the future.
Why "just asking ChatGPT" often produces mediocre results.
How to design a custom, one-task AI "helper" with limited, focused instructions
Example AI helpers you can copy and import today.
Ideas for creating your own.
A discussion of the morals of using AI and the best practices for building bots.
A vision of your future creative life.

What Writers Have Said

"Its suggestions have improved my writing more than any other course, book, or conference."

GET THIS DEAL: Monday, Feb 16

Transform your Writing Style

A careful, practical exploration of how style actually works.

Transform Your Writing Style is a course for writers who are ready to move beyond correctness and into control.

Whether you’re working on a novel, essays, or another creative project, this course focuses on how language carries meaning — and how small, deliberate choices at the sentence and paragraph level shape a reader’s experience.

Rather than chasing a single idea of “good prose,” we look at how style emerges from attention, rhythm, and clarity. The aim is not to imitate anyone else, but to help you develop a voice that is distinctly your own.

In this course, we work on:

Writing paragraphs that balance forward motion with texture and grace
Guiding readers through vivid description and complex ideas without losing them
Crafting sentences that are intricate but still readable
Adding lyricism to your language while remaining clear and precise
Bringing settings and landscapes to life with drama and specificity

This is not a grammar course, and it’s not about polishing for polish’s sake. It’s about learning how style functions — so you can make informed, confident choices on the page.

Why writers value this course:

The structure is deliberately flexible. Lessons are short and focused, making it easy to watch a video or two when you have time, then apply the ideas directly to your current project.

Some writers move slowly, working through prompts over the course of a week. Others immerse themselves and revise large sections of a manuscript. Both approaches work.

By the end of the course, most writers report a larger stylistic toolkit, greater confidence in their decisions, and a clearer sense of what their own voice sounds like on the page.

What Writers Have Said

"Daniel Wallace gives smart, clear-headed editorial advice and his services are well worth every penny. Even working with a literary agency, going through rewrites, I had not received this level of attentiveness, this kind of sensitivity to the project at hand. Daniel responded quickly and was generous with feedback.
His suggestions have helped enormously--and he is particularly astute about issues of plotting, and whether the structure is serving the characters and their story. I hope Daniel Wallace is still accepting clients when I finish my next novel, because his service is invaluable."
- Martha Otis

"… with your method, I feel less worried. I am relaxed and enjoying the process. A miracle!
- Billie Tomlinson

Meet Daniel

I'm Daniel David Wallace, an award-winning writer and teacher. I spent four years of a PhD researching new ways to help writers like you tell a great story.

My stories, reviews, and essays have been published in great magazines like Tampa Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Air Schooner, and my writing won me awards like the Toni Brown scholarship and the Hodges prizes.

But when I sent my first novel to the big publishing houses, it was rejected. This was a tough experience! And so I designed a way of teaching storytelling that the younger me would have wanted to find, the "character-first" approach.

I'm grateful that this approach has resonated with so many people: 12,000 writers read my newsletter each week and every year I host three conferences on the craft of writing.

testimonials

Writers like you love these classes

Elizabeth R. Alix

Author of Maple Hill Chronicles

Tannis Laidlaw

Mystery Writer

Quenntin Ashby

Urban Fantasy Writer

"Not all good writers are good teachers, but Daniel David Wallace (a talented, thoughtful writer himself) is a terrific instructor.

Daniel is attentive to plot, structure, character, and other high-level narrative elements, but you’ll appreciate his ability to zoom in closely on language and sentence-level concerns.

If you can take a class with him, do it!"

- Julia Brown, editor and literary author

"With Daniel's scene instruction workshop, I was able to write more quickly and competently.

I wish I had taken a class like this sooner. I would've been a better novelist and my short story production would've been much larger."

- John Vurro

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