Writing Your Memoir – Three Months

Select Date

Applications

Start Date

14th Oct 2026

End Date

29th Jan 2027

Application Deadline

21st Sep 2026

Applicant Notification

25th Sep 2026

Price on Acceptance

£1850

Apply Now

Writing Your Memoir – Three Months

Zoom lessons

Length

3 months

Location

Online,Zoom

Writing Goal

Develop your writing

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Writing Your Memoir – Three Months

Turn your life experience into a captivating narrative, with expert teaching from an award-winning author.

Tutor

Claire Lynch

Length

3 months

Location

Online,Zoom

Writing Goal

Develop your writing

Zoom teaching and tutorials from the award-winning author.

Zoom lessons

I enjoyed everything about the course. It was all useful and I feel my memoir has come on in leaps and bounds.

Louise Walsh

Hone your memoir 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, for weekly Zoom teaching and workshopping on Wednesday evenings. Over three months, Claire Lynch, critically acclaimed author of Small: On Motherhoods, will teach on key life-writing topics, including how to plan and plot out your story, find your authentic voice, capture emotional experiences and memories on the page, and dramatise scenes and conversations from reality to place the reader at the heart of the action. You’ll also learn about the importance of redrafting and how best to edit your memoir, and at what stage.

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; 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 memoir 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 300 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).

Tutor

Claire Lynch

Claire Lynch's memoir, Small: On Motherhoods was published by Brazen in 2019. Claire is the author of several academic books, chapters, and journal articles. Her narrative non-fiction work can be found in places such as as LitHub, The Washington Post and on BBC Radio 4. Claire holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and is an honorary Professor of English and Creative Writing at Brunel, University of London. Claire’s debut novel A Family Matter was published in 2025 by Chatto & Windus in the UK and Scribner in the US. The novel won the Nero Book Awards Gold Prize Book of the Year 2025 and was a Read With Jenna bookclub pick.

What does this course give you?

Live teaching sessions on Zoom: Your tutor will deliver in-depth teaching sessions on Wednesday evenings (UK-time), tackling a variety of vital topics for memoir 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 your tutor 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 1,000-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.

Throughout the course, the tutor will share examples from published memoirs to help illustrate topics such as voice, structure, and dialogue. Extracts relating to the homework task will be provided via the Learning Forum but students may want to sample some of these texts when developing their own work.

MASTERCLASS SPEAKERS

Guest literary agent speaker and author TBA.

Course schedule & delivery

Your tutor 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.

WEEK 1 – ORIENTATION & SETTING GOALS
Weds 14 Oct, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 2 – BEGINNINGS
Weds 21 Oct, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 3 – THE AUTHOR
Weds 28 Oct, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 4 – STRUCTURE
Weds 4 Nov, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 5 – SYNOPSIS
Mon 9 Nov – Sun 15 Nov
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WEEK 6 – VOICE
Weds 18 Nov, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 7 – EMOTION
Weds 25 Nov, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 8 – OTHER PEOPLE
Weds 2 Dec, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 9 – DIALOGUE & SCENES
Weds 9 Dec, 7 – 8.45pm
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WEEK 10 – ENDINGS
Weds 16 Dec, 7–8.45pm
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WINTER BREAK
No teaching until the new year
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WEEK 11 – AGENT LETTER WORKSHOP
Mon 4 Jan – Sun 10 Jan
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WEEK 12 – EDITING
Weds 13 Jan, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 13 – CLINIC
Weds 20 Jan, 7–8.45pm
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WEEK 14 – COURSE CONCLUSION & NEXT STEPS
Weds 27 Jan, 7–8.45pm
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END OF COURSE SUBMISSION
Mon 15 Feb
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COURSE FEES

The course fee of £1,850 (inclusive of VAT) per student is payable, in full, by bank transfer or debit/credit card before the start of the course. 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.

Select Date

Applications

Start Date

14th Oct 2026

End Date

29th Jan 2027

Application Deadline

21st Sep 2026

Applicant Notification

25th Sep 2026

Price on Acceptance

£1850

Apply Now

300+

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95%

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