Writing Fiction with Marian Keyes

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Writing Fiction with Marian Keyes

Writing toolkit

Length

5 weeks

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Develop your writing

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Writing Fiction with Marian Keyes

Write the story you’d love to read – with inspiring advice from one of our best-loved authors.

Tutor

Marian Keyes

Length

5 weeks

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Develop your writing

Exclusive video lessons from the 35-million-copy bestelling author.

Writing toolkit

Marian Keyes, Ireland’s biggest-selling author, gives her unique take on how to find your authentic writing voice and have a beautiful time working on your novel.

Marian is so entertaining, it's like she's in the room with me, really kept me writing.

Julia Eastwood
Former Writing Fiction with Marian Keyes student

Marian’s novels are known and loved for their unforgettable characters, and for their unique way of tackling serious issues with humour, warmth, romance and the lightest of touches. Across five weeks, Marian reveals her writing secrets in refreshingly frank terms – from the importance of writing for yourself and ‘digging for truth’ – to how to give your readers a ‘smooth experience’ – and the imperative of keeping going until it comes right. ‘If your novel drives into the sand – if it stops being interesting to you and you lose faith in it, does that mean you should abandon it and start writing something new? No! This is where the work begins. Shit just got real.’

Whether you’re writing a novel or shorter fiction, this course will help you develop engaging characters that readers will want to revisit, find your individual style, face your fears and keep writing.

Tutor

This course features pre-recorded teaching videos from the tutor, alongside written tasks and resources to support your learning. Please note you will receive feedback on your writing from the course editor rather than your tutor.

Marian Keyes

Marian Keyes is one of the most successful Irish novelists of all time. Her debut novel Watermelon was published in Ireland in 1995, where it was an immediate runaway success. Marian went on to write further books on the Walsh family, such as the iconic Rachel's Holiday as well as a host of other novels including Anybody Out There and Grown Ups. Marian's multi-million copy, internationally bestselling works have been translated into 33 languages. Photo by Dean Chalkley.

Editor

Each week, the course editor will provide brief written feedback on several students’ practical assignments. All students who post in the forum will receive feedback on one writing task during the course. Editors listed may change. All CBC editors are experienced authors and/or publishing professionals.

Clare Swatman

Clare Swatman is the best-selling author of 11 contemporary fiction novels including Before You Go, The Lost Letters of Evelyn Wright and Before We Grow Old. Her latest, The Garden of Shared Stories, is out now with Boldwood Books. Her next book, as yet untitled, will be released in late 2026. Clare also writes psychological thrillers under the name CL Swatman. Clare lives in Hertfordshire in the UK with her husband and two boys.

WHAT DOES THIS COURSE GIVE YOU?

Video modules: Work through five modules of exclusive teaching videos from Marian on topics including how to find your voice, the necessity of a good writing routine, and how to create characters that readers will fall in love with.
Writing tasks: Weekly writing tasks will help you experiment with the ideas discussed by Marian and see how they relate to your own work.
Resources & notes: You’ll get comprehensive teaching notes to accompany the videos, plus additional resources to go deeper into the topics being explored.
Professional feedback: An expert CBC editor will give brief written feedback to each student on one writing task during the course, with several students receiving feedback in each week. Students are also given the option to purchase additional end-of-course feedback from our expert editors.
Student forum: Find your writing community in our private student forum. Upload your completed writing tasks, give and receive peer-to-peer feedback, and discuss the week’s topics with your group (maximum of 30 students) and the CBC team.

COURSE SCHEDULE & DELIVERY

Follow the course at your own pace. 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. To get the best out of it, we recommend spending four-six hours on the coursework, and to be progressing your own novel or story throughout the five weeks.

Week 1
Writing for yourself
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Week 2
Getting started
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Week 3
Starting with character
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Week 4
Keeping going
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Week 5
What comes next?
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Additional feedback

All students will be given the option to purchase feedback on their final task from a CBC editor.

CBC report: For an additional fee of £155, you can obtain a detailed 500-word report on your work (of up to 3,000 words) from one of our CBC editors.
CBC report + tutorial: For an additional fee of £260, you can obtain a 500-word report from one of our CBC editors and have a 30-minute video or telephone tutorial with them to discuss your work.

Do you want to know more about the contents of our end-of-course reader reports? Click the button below to download and read an example report.

View Example Report

GIFT THIS COURSE

Encourage your friend or loved one to get creative! We have £190 digital gift vouchers available, enabling you to buy any five-week online course as a present.

Buy Voucher

Start Date

Package

Learn more about reports, tutorials and editorial services

Refund guaranteed if requested before course starts

300+

former students with publishing deals

95%

of students would recommend us to a friend

rated Excellent on Trustpilot