Writing Memoir & Narrative Non-Fiction

Write a captivating narrative based on your life or a subject of particular interest.

Hone your non-fiction writing skills in an inspiring and supportive environment. Teaching is hosted on Zoom and our bespoke online learning platform. You’ll join a group of 15 budding writers, all working on personal memoir or narrative non-fiction, for weekly Zoom teaching and workshopping on Wednesday evenings. Over three months Wyl Menmuir, former journalist and award-winning author of novels and non-fiction, will teach on key life-writing topics, including how to map out your story, create compelling characters that are true to life, weave facts into your story, and dramatise scenes from reality to place the reader at the heart of the action. You’ll learn how to strike the right balance between writing from memories and using research to capture the truth.

This course will help you cultivate your craft whether you’re working on a personal memoir like Safiya Sinclair’s How to Say Babylon or Tara Westover’s Educated; nature writing like Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk or Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life; a travel narrative like Chris Broad’s Abroad in Japan or Felicity Cloake’s One More Croissant for the Road; or a professional confessional like Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt.

In addition to the weekly teaching and workshopping you’ll also attend a live industry masterclass on Zoom featuring insights from a top literary agent and non-fiction author. When the course ends, you’ll be given the opportunity to share your work with literary agents from Curtis Brown and C&W.

Over 280 of our students have gone on to become commercially published authors, including Dr Benji Waterhouse, author of the memoir You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here: A Psychiatrist’s Life (Jonathan Cape, May 2024).

Course runs from 1 October 2025 to 11 February 2026.

Read our interview with Wyl

What does this course give you?

• Live teaching sessions on Zoom: Wyl will deliver in-depth teaching sessions on Wednesday evenings (UK-time), tackling a variety of vital topics for memoir and narrative non-fiction writers, including finding your voice, developing a working structure, dramatising material and mastering dialogue (all topics detailed below).
• Writing workshops: Across the course, you’ll get two dedicated workshops with your tutor and the group centring on extracts from your work-in-progress. Workshops will take place on Zoom, with the opportunity to continue the discussion later in the group’s private forum area of our secure, bespoke online learning platform.
• A community of writers: Our selective applications process means that you will be writing your book in a peer group of 15 students working at a high level. Many of our former students have found their trusted readers with us – and form strong working friendships with classmates which go on long after the course is over.
• One-to-one tutorials: You'll get two 30-minute, one-to-one tutorials with Wyl based on 3,000-word extracts from your work-in-progress. Use these tutorials to address your specific concerns about your writing.
• Literary agent masterclass: Join a special Zoom session with a Curtis Brown literary agent and an author where they will talk about writing, editing and the submissions process. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.
• Synopsis & agent letter advice: We’ll draw on our expertise to give you the vital ingredients needed for a great synopsis and the all-important pitch letter. Individual feedback will come from experienced members of the CBC editorial team and/or a Curtis Brown/C&W literary agent.
• End-of-course submission: All students will be invited to submit the 3,000-word opening from their book, plus a synopsis, to be shared with the agent teams at Curtis Brown and C&W. This is not a formal submission but a chance to give the agents a taste of your work at this stage. However, when you are ready to formally submit your memoir to agents from Curtis Brown or C&W – no matter how long after your course has finished – the Curtis Brown Creative team will give you guidance and support with your submission. Full information about this free service is provided during the course.
• Alumni services: At the end of the course, you’ll be given access to a range of exclusive writing services, available only to the alumni of our selective courses. Read more about the opportunities available to our alumni here.

Course schedule & delivery

Wyl will lead weekly Zoom sessions on Wednesday evenings from 7.00pm to 8.45pm (UK time) unless otherwise stated. Please note that precise dates of masterclass sessions and details of course speakers are subject to change.

COURSE FEES

The course fee of £1,850 (inclusive of VAT, please note that additional fees may apply if you’re based in a country with a higher VAT rate than the UK) per student is payable, in full, by bank transfer or debit/credit card before the start of the course. (Please note, card payments will incur an additional transaction fee.) However, if you are unable to pay the full fee upfront, let us know and we can arrange an instalment plan.

READY TO APPLY?

Please apply with the first 3,000 words of the memoir or narrative non-fiction book you’d like to work on during the course, and a synopsis of no more than a page (both need to be in the same document, as you can only upload ONE file in the application below). Our form will also ask you to make a short statement about the type of story you’re working on (e.g., personal memoir, travel writing, nature writing, food writing, professional memoir etc.). Unfortunately, this course is not suitable for those writing medical papers, academic texts, or technical manuals.

The CBC team will select applicants based on the quality of the writing sample provided. We may start reading and responding to applicants ahead of the final deadline and we therefore advise people who are keen to join this course to apply early.

The final deadline for applications is 10am (UK time) on the application deadline date. The date is dependent on which course start date you're applying for. Use the drop down 'select date' toggle to see currently available start dates and their associated deadlines. Be sure that you've selected the right course start date before you click the 'Apply Now' button.

If you encounter any problems during the application process, or have any more questions about the course, please email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk for assistance.