Creative Writing for Beginners
The four-week online writing course that helps you explore your Writer's World and find your voice. With our guidance you'll gain confidence and put pen to paper.
COURSE DATES
Apr 15 2021 - May 27 2021
Creative Writing
Explore your Writer's World
Online
Hosted on our bespoke learning platform
Course Fee £120
+ £125 for a 500-word report
OVERVIEW
Tap into your imagination and personal experience, explore your Writer’s World and start writing with confidence on this brand-new course.
Are you looking for a course to help you connect with your creativity and start your writing journey? Or perhaps you’re limbering up for a bigger writing project, and want to get some basics under your belt to begin on a sure-footing? Join us for a wealth of expert advice and practical writing exercises which build on each other to help you write creative prose with flair and fluency. Find out what you’re capable of when you put pen to paper.
Across four teaching weeks, Anna Davis – founder and director of Curtis Brown Creative, former literary agent, university lecturer and author of five published novels – will share a host of techniques and inspiring insights derived from her deep experience of writing and of working with writers.
At the heart of the course is the exploration of your individual ‘Writer’s World’ – the creative space in which your experience, dreams, ideas, interests, passions and sensibility as a reader fuel your imagination and empower you to define who you are as a writer.
This course offers a great starting point for your writing journey. By the end of the four weeks, you’ll have built up sufficient material to write a short story or embark on a longer form project whether that’s a novel, memoir or work of narrative non-fiction. The course makes an ideal first step before progressing to one of our genre-specific six-week online courses such as: Starting to Write Your Novel, Writing a Memoir, Writing Short Stories, Writing Historical Fiction or Writing a Psychological Thriller. All of our online courses are designed for flexible study – you can take part at times to suit you and from wherever in the world you are.
‘Anna Davis is brilliant. She gives solid, empathetic advice… She got me out of the abyss…’
Bonnie Garmus, Former CBC student and author of Lessons in Chemistry, a major international debut for 2021
Tutor
Anna Davis, CBC Founder & Director
Anna is the founder and Director of the Curtis Brown Creative writing school. She is the author of five acclaimed novels which have been published in twenty languages. She has been a journalist and Guardian columnist, as well as a Curtis Brown literary agent. She taught creative writing at the University of Manchester and in many other settings before founding Curtis Brown Creative in 2011.
WHAT DOES THIS COURSE GIVE YOU?
Weekly Teaching Modules
From blank page to transcribing your Writer's World
Work through four weekly modules comprising teaching videos and substantial notes by Anna Davis. Topics range from how to create a sense of place to building characters and planning stories.
Dedicated Teaching Videos
CBC's Founder Anna Davis guides you through the course
Watch specially filmed, informative teaching videos, presented by Anna Davis, offering a practical and friendly approach to help you put pen to paper and find your writer's voice. Each weekly module includes at least three videos.
Resources & Notes
Comprehensive teaching notes and reference materials which are yours to keep
You’ll get extensive teaching notes - and additional resources, including writing prompts and extra writing tasks, plus examples to illustrate teaching topics.
Student Forum
The hub of our online courses, find your writing community
Upload your completed writing tasks, give and receive feedback, and discuss the week’s topics with your fellow students and the CBC team.
Writing Tasks
Tailor-made tasks help you put the lessons into practice
Two writing tasks per week will help you explore and understand the teaching topics as you progress on your writing journey. Forum posts to the group from Anna Davis will reinforce these lessons.
Reading Check-Ins
Learn how what you read can impact the way you write
Your taste and choices as a reader help to shape who you are as a writer. Each week, Anna will ask you to post in the forum about what you are currently reading – and to reflect on how the week’s teaching topic is handled in that book.
Feedback
Get feedback from your peers and an expert CBC editor
Sharpen your editorial eye through offering comment on other students' work and get their feedback on yours. An expert CBC editor will give brief written comments on several of the students' practical assignments each week, with all students receiving feedback on a task at some stage of the course.
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
A range of tasks will help you put the teaching to practice, stretch your writing muscles and get writing – and at the end of the course, you’ll have an additional week to further develop one of the short pieces of writing you’ve produced – to a maximum of 3,000 words.
Each week you’ll be able to share your writing tasks with fellow students for encouragement and support, and at least once during the course you’ll receive written feedback from one of our experienced course editors.
NB: if you’re looking for more in-depth feedback (including tutor-led writing workshops and ongoing one-to-one support) as part of a writing course, do take a look at our longer, selective applications writing courses (3-months or 6-months).
ADDITIONAL SERVICES
In addition to the feedback you’ll be given on a writing task by our expert author-editor during the course, you also have the option to purchase the following additional services.
- CBC report: For an additional fee of £125, you can obtain a detailed 500-word report on your work (of up to 3,000 words, with an optional note of up to 200 words explaining more about the writing project) from one of our CBC tutor/editors (a published author with relevant teaching/editorial experience).
- CBC report + tutorial: For an additional fee of £200, you can obtain a 500-word report from one of our CBC tutor/editors and have a 30-minute video or telephone tutorial with them to discuss your work.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Each week students will gain access to a new module based on a practical writing topic. Our bespoke learning platform features separate forum spaces for all four teaching topics, arranged in a clear structure that’s easy to use. Our online learning space allows students to quickly find and take part in discussions and to easily locate task materials they’d like to refer back to.
WEEK 1
Discovering your Writer’s World
Find out what fires up your imagination and use timed writing prompts to learn to write without procrastination.
WEEK 2
Finding the Words
Learn how to establish atmosphere and setting in your writing. And free yourself up from the lessons of school to define your own taste in prose-writing, and to sharpen your style.
WEEK 3
Looking Out Through Different Eyes
Shape your characters, understand their motivations and construct character arcs – experience the world through their eyes.
WEEK 4
Mining for Story
How to shape ideas into compelling stories, plus what makes a great first page. Bring together everything you’ve learned on this course in a final, longer piece of writing.
READY TO ENROL?
We’re excited to have you join our community of writers.
Choose your preferred option from the right-hand-side and click the ‘Pay & Enrol’ button by 12 April 2021 (Midnight, end of day). Make sure that you agree to the Terms and Conditions. If you have a discount code you can input the details at payment. You will be shown a secure credit card form for payment. Once you have paid you will receive an email confirming your enrolment.
