How To … Posts

How to edit your novel – our tips on tackling your structural edit and getting on a firm footing with your rewriting process.

Gytha Lodge is a writer and multi-award-winning playwright who lives in Cambridge. After studying creative writing at UEA, she was shortlisted for the Yeovil Literary Prize and the Arts’ Council England fiction awards. Gytha is represented by Curtis Brown agent Felicity Blunt and her debut novel, She Lies in Wait will be published by Michael Joseph […]

Spring is a perfect time to submit your novel to agents, when they’re all feeling fresh and hungry for new talent. But how do you write the killer pitch-letter? Here are my top 15 tips on how to make your letter stand out from the pack: 1. Write to a specific agent and do your research: Start […]

Finding an agent is a matter of fit. It takes persistence and confidence, remember that publishing is a subjective business, and so what might be a NO for some agents is a YES for others. Catherine Cho, an Associate Agent at Curtis Brown, shares her top tips on how to send a query to a literary agent.

Well-handled dialogue is one of THE essential ingredients of a good novel. And yet it’s something that many writers struggle with and even shy away from. The trick is to make your characters’ speech carry the ring and rhythm of real-life conversations without actually trying to recreate them verbatim, complete with all the er’s, um’s, […]

All of us need to think hard about how to create striking, memorable characters in our novels and stories – so really there should be something for everyone here.  So here goes … We have four separate pieces of writing advice plus writing exercises here. The first three were originally put together for our #WriteCBC Twitter […]

At Curtis Brown and C+W, we like to see a good one-page synopsis as part of your pitch package. Read our 16 tips on how to write a great synopsis for your novel…

Hannah Mary McKinnon took one of our online creative writing courses, and is now a published author with her second novel,  The Neighbours, newly launched in the US, UK – and Canada, where she lives. Hannah has been one of our most positive and persevering students, and she brings these qualities very much to bear […]

We asked the literary agents for their top submission tips for new writers who are trying to find an agent. Here’s a selection of their responses…

Have you resolved to start writing a novel this year? Have you been mulling over a good story idea for a book for years but failing to actually sit down and get it started? Or are you feeling the creative urge but struggling to make it take shape as a coherent story? Writing a novel […]