30 July 2020

Tessa Hadley: ‘There’s nothing unpolitical about intimate stories of family life’

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, Writing Tips

Tessa Hadley is the author of seven highly acclaimed novels and three short story collections. In 2016 she was awarded the Windham Campbell Prize and the Hawthornden Prize, and she won the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for her collection Bad Dreams in 2018. Her stories appear regularly in The New Yorker, Granta and other magazines. We’re thrilled that Tessa […]

28 July 2020

Cynthia Murphy: ‘I knew that I wanted to write something scary but also fun’

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, From Our Students, Writing Tips

We’re over the moon to share the news that Cynthia Murphy is our 100th former student with a major publishing deal. In honour of this huge milestone, we’ve got lots of exciting celebratory content coming your way, so please join us on social media by following the hashtag: #CBC100Authors! (Twitter @cbcreative and Instagram @curtisbrowncreative) Cynthia […]

22 July 2020

Ten step guide to planning your novel

by Discoveries Discoveries, Writing Tips

Every author will ultimately develop their own approach to planning and writing a novel and there’s certainly no one-size-fits-all solution. Nor is there a consensus among the professionals. If you’re wondering how to plan your own novel, here are ten steps to get you started.

21 July 2020

Erin Kelly: ‘The only thing all published writers have in common is that they finished writing their books’

by Emmanuel Omodeinde Author Interviews, Writing Tips

Our brand new six-week online course, Writing a Psychological Thriller, led by bestselling novelist Erin Kelly is open now for enrolment. Erin’s first novel The Poison Tree became a major ITV drama and a Richard and Judy bestseller, and she has since written six novels including the Sunday Times bestseller, He Said/She Said and the […]

15 July 2020

Meet Rachel Driscoll, our Write From Home Scholar

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, Course News, From Our Students

We’re pleased to announce that Rachel Driscoll has been awarded the Write From Home Scholarship for her novel-in-progress His Name is Oskar. Rachel has won a fully-funded place on our Three-Month Online Novel-Writing course taught by Andrew Michael Hurley. At CBC we were captivated by Rachel’s unique narrator – Darkness itself. We’re thrilled to have her on board for […]

09 July 2020

Philippa Swan: ‘Write about something that intrigues or confuses you’

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, From Our Students, Writing Tips

We talk to former Edit & Pitch Your Novel student Philippa Swan about writing routines and her debut novel The Night of All Souls.

08 July 2020

Ten ways to approach the first draft of your novel

by Discoveries Discoveries, Writing Tips

CBC and Curtis Brown are proud to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust and NatWest to launch Discoveries, a writing development programme that will offer aspiring female authors of all ages and backgrounds encouragement and support at the beginning of their creative journeys. Regular readers of this blog will already know Anna Davis, author and managing director […]

02 July 2020

Photography by Steve Burton, Smartpicsuk

#WriteCBC tip and task from Kirsty Eyre

by Anna Davis Events, From Our Students, Writing Tips

Inject humour into your writing with this #WriteCBC tip and task from Kirsty Eyre, author of the Comedy Women In Print prize-winning novel Cow Girl.

30 June 2020

Meet our new Team Assistant Emmanuel Omodeinde

by Katie Smart Events

We’re delighted to announce a new joiner at CBC. Emmanuel Omodeinde joins us as Team Assistant after recently completing an internship at 4th Estate and William Collins.

26 June 2020

Michael Mann: ‘I wanted to write a book with a mixed-race hero, who was half-something, like I am’

by Katie Smart Author Interviews, From Our Students, Writing Tips

Michael Mann took online Writing YA & Children’s Fiction course in 2018. After taking the course he became a client of Curtis Brown agent Stephanie Thwaites and now he has an exciting book deal with Hachette Children’s for his debut middle grade novel Ghostcloud. Read on to find out about Michael’s ‘messy’ excel spreadsheet (used […]