Introducing the winner of the Scrivener Scholarship
BY Jack Hadley
12th Jan 2018
At Curtis Brown Creative we are committed to offering students of limited financial means the chance to get a place on one of our creative writing courses. Often our funded places will come from incredibly generous author-clients, like Felicia Yap's Yesterday Scholarship from last year. We also get fantastic support from a number of businesses, including the chartered accountants HW Fisher, and the developers of the superb word processing application, Scrivener. Scrivener have been offering a fully funded place on our three-month online course for a number of years now, and we are delighted to announce the latest winner is Lorrie Sprecher, who is based in Syracuse, New York State. The team at CBC were instantly drawn to her caustically witty satire on Trump's America when she applied. We asked Lorrie for her thoughts on scholarship, and what it has meant to her. I have wanted to take a course from Curtis Brown Creative for a long time because it is the only writing program I know that is run by literary agents. Now the Scrivener Scholarship is allowing me to take the three-month online novel-writing course in spite of my limited financial resources. This is the most professional, concise, and practical guidance I have ever received about both the business and the art of novel writing. The people here know what they are talking about; they know exactly what makes a good novel and what it takes for a novel to grab the attention of agents and publishers. I started learning from my tutor, Nikita Lalwani, before the course even began because reading her novels taught me so much, and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to work with her. So far, in just four weeks, my writing has improved in strength and confidence from being in this atmosphere of serious writing with other serious writers. I have taken Ph.D.-level writing workshops, and this one is superior. From the very first day, I was impressed by the professional quality of the lessons and the inspiring writing assignments. The module on openings, for example, was the most useful and brilliant information I’ve ever received all at once on beginning a novel. Everything is clearly presented, and the tutors are very accessible. The professional level of the critiques I am receiving on my own work has astounded me, and I have become a better editor myself. I honestly can’t say enough about this course. I’ve been enjoying every second, and I never want it to end. I definitely recommend it to any serious writers. Applying for the Scrivener Scholarship will stand out as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made concerning my writing, and I believe this course is life-changing. To find out more about Scrivener, click here.