04 June 2020

#WriteCBC tip and task from Hazel Barkworth

by Anna Davis Events, From Our Students, Writing Tips

It’s that time again – and the latest edition of our Twitter writing competition features a writing tip and task from the wonderful Hazel Barkworth, whose gorgeous debut Heatstroke was published last week by Headline Review. If you haven’t taken part in #WriteCBC before, we’re delighted to have you join us  – and you can […]

03 June 2020

Lisa Bradley: ‘I let the story guide me in the right direction’

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

Lisa Bradley took a three-month online Writing YA & Children’s Fiction course in 2015. Now she has a two-book deal with Quercus and her debut novel Paper Dolls comes out this August. We found out more about Lisa’s time on the course – where she learnt to follow the writing ‘rules’ and know when to break them – and […]

01 June 2020

Ten authors share their best writing advice

by Hannah Mary McKinnon From Our Students, Writing Tips

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favour of writing. Hannah took our Six-Month Online Novel-Writing in 2014, and is now the author of four novels. Sister Dear is Hannah Mary’s fourth novel. […]

29 May 2020

We’re hiring a Team Assistant

by Katie Smart Events

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Team Assistant at Curtis Brown Creative, the UK’s only agent-led creative-writing school.  This role centres around assisting the running and marketing of all our creative-writing courses.  We are looking for a smart newcomer to join our small team, which provides high-quality creative writing courses to aspiring novelists, online and […]

28 May 2020

Meet Elliot Agyemang, our latest HW Fisher Novel-Writing Scholar

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

We’re pleased to announce that Elliot Agyemang has been awarded the HW Fisher Novel-Writing Scholarship for his novel-in-progress Where the Rain Gods Go. Elliot has won a fully-funded place on our Three-Month Online Novel-Writing course taught by Lisa O’Donnell. Elliot is the ninth talented writer of limited financial means to be offered a scholarship on one of our selective […]

21 May 2020

Write From Home Twitter writing events

by Katie Smart Events, Writing Tips

As we adjust to the ‘new normal’, we’re keen to increase our support for our writing community by offering a range of free and discounted programmes. As part of our ‘Write From Home’ initiative, we launched our free Weekly Writing Workout in March, and it now has over 7,000 subscribers! And most recently we announced […]

19 May 2020

Three-book deal for CBC’s first writing duo

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

Barney Thompson and Christopher Rickaby met on our first-ever novel-writing course in 2011. Now they’re a writing duo and they have gained an exciting three-book deal with Welbeck for their jointly-penned ‘Revol Rossel’ thriller series. We caught up with Barney and Chris to discuss their time studying with us and what inspired them to become […]

13 May 2020

Jennifer Harvey: ‘Persevere. It can be a very long journey from writing to publication…’

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

Jennifer Harvey was a student on our popular six-week online Starting to Write Your Novel course in 2016. Now she has a three-book deal with Bookouture! Read on to find out more about Jennifer’s time studying online with CBC and her debut novel Someone Else’s Daughter … You took our online Starting to Write Your Novel course in […]

07 May 2020

#WriteCBC tip and task from Clare Pooley

by Anna Davis Events, Writing Tips

Welcome to our second anniversary edition of #WriteCBC, we launched the Twitter competition in May 2018 as a seven day challenge in honour of our seventh birthday. This week CBC celebrated it’s ninth birthday and the team threw a virtual party with cake (read more about our ninth birthday here). We hope you’re all safe […]

07 May 2020

Viola Hayden: ‘Give your manuscript to people you trust to read’

by Katie Smart From the Agents, Writing Tips

Viola Hayden joined Curtis Brown as an associate agent in Jonny Geller’s office after working in publishing at Cornerstone, Michael Joseph and most recently as a commissioning editor at Sphere, an imprint of Little, Brown. We caught up with Viola to find out more about her love of books, how she’s adapted to working from […]