How to prepare your entry to Discoveries 2027
BY Discoveries
29th Sep 2026
Curtis Brown Creative are delighted to be partnering with the Women’s Prize Trust, The Curtis Brown Group and Audible to run Discoveries for a seventh year! This is an annual writing development programme for unpublished women writers currently residing in the UK or Ireland. The prize accepts novels in any genre of adult fiction.
To enter, all you need to do is submit…
- The opening of your novel – up to 10,000 words
- A synopsis detailing the outline of your story – up to 1,000 words
Find out more about Discoveries, the prize packages on offer and how to enter here.
This year's expert panel of judges is chaired by Kate Mosse CBE FRSL, the international bestselling writer and Founder Director of the Women’s Prizes. She is joined by bestselling authors Oyinkan Braithwaite and Ela Lee; Curtis Brown literary agent Ciara Finan; and Founder and Managing Director of Curtis Brown Creative Anna Davis.
When asked to share their top tips for entrants, here’s what the judges said . . .
- ‘Follow your instinct, trust your gut and write. Don’t waste time worrying about what makes sense and what is feasible. Writing can be one hell of an adventure, if you allow it.’ – Oyinkan Braithwaite
- ‘We often talk about the importance of writing a strong opening, but this can be intimidating when you first sit down to write. Allow yourself to start writing into your novel in whatever way is helpful to you – you can revisit it much later in the process, when you’re clearer about where your story really needs to begin.’ – Anna Davis
- ‘Remember that perfectionism kills creativity. If you are just starting out, you need to allow the writing to be bad. It will be bad, but that is where every writer starts! Set a timer for 20 minutes and, without any distractions, commit to just writing for that short span of time. A blank page can be the most daunting thing, but you just need to start and not expect what you write to be a fully formed piece of work.’ – Ciara Finan
- ‘Begin with the truest thing. There’s so much outside noise, comparison and anxiety that often that feels impossible to ignore. How I cut through all the distractions when I need to write is to begin with the truest, most affecting, sober (or not) feelings I have. What nebulous thoughts I keep coming back to, or what I lie awake thinking about at night. I start by trying to distill whatever that is into words, and from there the story flows.’ – Ela Lee
- ‘I’m convinced that regularity – that’s to say, writing something, anything, every day – is the key to getting a novel started (and finished!). It doesn’t have to be much – a description of a woman reading on the bus, a man looking at his watch, a child being pushed on a swing, just get used to putting words down on the page. The more normal writing feels, the more easily the story, ideas and characters will flow.’ – Kate Mosse
So, how do you make sure you’re presenting your story and unique narrative voice in the best way? Here’s our advice on how to perfect your submission to Discoveries.
OPENING
The openings of books are incredibly important; a good opening will hook your reader and compel them to keep turning the pages.
Make your opening 10,000 words the best they can be by:
- Getting quickly into your story. Writers often make the mistake of spending a lot of time on scene-setting or introducing characters one by one with lots of information about their personal histories before they actually start the real action of the story. Move straight into the action to engage the reader fully.
- Remember, openings don’t need to be explosive. An unusual exchange between characters can be as dramatic as a man bursting into a room with a gun. Your opening should set the tone for the novel which follows it.
- Don’t open with clichés. We’d love to see something fresh, new and intriguing. Unless you have a twist on these well-worn tropes, avoid openings with people waking up in the morning, characters staggering around with hangovers or long passages about the weather or rather generic landscape. Start strong with a scene that hook us in immediately – something which makes the reader curious, asks a question that we want to know the answer to or establishes a mystery which must be solved.
- Establish the necessary context quickly. We need to know, rapidly, where we are as readers. If your novel is set in the past, drop some clues very early as to when the action takes place. If you’re writing within a particular genre, we should know this early. Likewise, we should meet your protagonist as soon as possible – avoid describing them at length instead you should show them in action. Help us to settle quickly into your story so that we can lose ourselves in it.
- The most important thing about an opening is that it should be the best point-of-entry to the story. You might have started out by writing a scene, or even many scenes, that felt vital at the time, but which are actually backstory. Perhaps you’ll realise that your story really starts at what is currently Chapter 2 or 3. If your original opening isn’t the right point-of-entry, don’t be afraid to change it.
- Finally, before you press submit. Read over your material. Yes, we do think it’s a good idea to print out your material and sit with a pen in your hand to make edits on the physical page before you type up your changes and enter Discoveries 2027. It’s also a good idea to read your work out loud to yourself to see how it sounds – particularly when you have lots of dialogue.
SYNOPSIS
We do know, of course, that it’s hard to write a great synopsis before you’ve finished writing your novel. But give it your best shot. We’d like to see a good one-page synopsis (up to 1,000 words but do keep it a bit shorter than that if you can – around 500 words should be adequate) to show us where your story is headed.
Here’s what you should include:
- One-line pitch. Start with a sentence which tells us what’s really at the heart of your story – this is, essentially, your one-line pitch. If that’s impossible for the kind of book you’re writing, head your synopsis up with a line from your novel which carries some of its flavour.
- Give us the brushstrokes of your story. We want to know the through-line of your plot. Try to be clear and concise, and don’t drop in lots and lots of character names, settings and minor events. If you have a twist in the tale, it’s up to you as to whether you want to include that in the synopsis, but we should certainly get the arc of your story.
- Discoveries encourages you to submit your unfinished manuscript – we understand that your story may develop and change – we aren’t expecting the synopsis you submit to be followed to the letter just be sure to give us the big picture of your narrative. Should you be long or shortlisted, an updated synopsis won’t affect your chances of winning.
- If possible (and without being too corny about it) try to get some of the tone of your novel into your synopsis so that it reads entertainingly and not like a characterless business document. A synopsis rarely works if it is written from the protagonist’s point of view or written in a first-person perspective. So, we recommend writing it in the third-person.
- Remember – this is an overview of your novel, not a detailed plan. We don’t need full chapter-breakdowns – just the key points of your story.
- Avoid putting in any value judgements about your own work. This isn’t a blurb on a published novel. Don’t tell us it’s going to be the next bestseller or that it’s gripping and moving etc. Frankly, we’ll be the judge of that!
TITLE
Make sure that you give your novel a title. It doesn’t matter if you change it later – it’s still better to have a working title than nothing. A title gives your book an identity. It will also make it much easier for the readers and judges to talk about it.
GENRE
Discoveries welcomes applications across all genres of adult fiction. Our entry form asks you to tick the genres that apply to your novel. Pick one or two genres (a hybrid of genres is welcome). If you can’t see your genre in the selection available in the entry form, don’t worry – pick the closest genre. You can always go on to include the genre in your synopsis. Be careful not to invent a genre that doesn’t exist. If you’re writing something that is difficult to categorise you might want to include a comparison title or two in your synopsis.
PROOFREAD
We’d love it if you could make sure that your work is pleasant for us to read. This is how we’d like you to do it:
- Remember to proofread. Check your spelling, grammar and punctuation.
- Make sure you include paragraph breaks and set your dialogue out correctly with a new line for each new speaker – all of this makes your material easier to read by our judges.
- Check that your word count does not exceed 10,000 words.
Best of luck preparing your submission to Discoveries 2027. We’re so excited to read your work!
Join us for a free Discoveries webinar! Your Novel: How to Get Started
Learn how to write a great opening that will inspire your readers to keep turning pages and uncover what the judges are looking for from submissions. The panel includes three Discoveries 2027 judges: Ciara Finan, a literary agent at Curtis Brown, and bestselling authors Oyinkan Braithwaite and Ela Lee. Jennifer Kerslake, Head of Courses at CBC, will chair the event. Join our free webinar on Thursday 12 November, 7.00pm to 8.30pm (UK time).