Writing Your Novel – Six Months (Online)

Select Date

Applications

Start Date

7th Sep 2026

End Date

1st Mar 2027

Application Deadline

3rd Aug 2026

Applicant Notification

7th Aug 2026

Price on Acceptance

£2900

Apply Now

Writing Your Novel – Six Months

Flagship

Length

6 months

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Develop your writing

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Writing Your Novel – Six Months

Dedicate six months to your novel on our flagship online course with expert tuition from top authors and publishing professionals. Instalment plan available.

Tutor

Laura Barnett

Tutor

Maame Blue

Length

6 months

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Develop your writing

Our biggest online novel-writing course – taught by two renowned novelists.

Flagship

Our flagship online Writing Your Novel course is designed for writers who are serious about developing their novel to its full potential.

The impact was immense. [From] learning to read as a writer, acquiring a toolbox of skills to manage an ever-changing plot, characters and narrative, [to] seeing how other students worked and gaining confidence in my ability . . . it reshaped my approach to my book.

Alex McCarthy
Author of The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone

With weekly teaching and workshopping on our interactive online platform, plus one-to-one tutorials, and advice from publishing industry experts during live Zoom sessions, this course will help you hone your craft and make real progress with your story. It’s ideal for those looking for a practical online alternative to a postgraduate creative writing course.

Join a group of 15 talented writers taught by experienced creative writing tutors who have won awards for their books. Learn how to create a strong narrative arc and convincing characters, and study key techniques that will help you bring your story to life, from dialogue to description, tone and style.

In addition to the weekly teaching and workshopping, which is flexibly timed so you can take part at times that suit you, you’ll also attend six lively Zoom sessions during the course. These will include introduction and conclusion sessions with your tutor, a lesson from a special guest tutor and three industry masterclasses from authors, agents and publishers. 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 Bonnie Garmus, author of the multi-million copy bestseller, Lessons in Chemistry. Previous students of our six-month online course include Stacey Thomas (The Revels), Anna Bailey (Tall Bones), Elizabeth Lee (Cunning Women) and Alex McCarthy (The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone). Whether you're in the early stages of writing, halfway through a first draft or embarking on a major rewrite – this course will give you the push you need to get the most out of your novel.

Tutors

Laura Barnett

Laura’s first novel, The Versions of Us (2015) was a number-one bestseller, it has been translated into 24 languages, and was shortlisted for Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards. She’s had three further books out since then: Greatest Hits (2017), which features an accompanying musical soundtrack by Kathryn Williams; Gifts (2021), a novel in short stories; and This Beating Heart (2022). Her fifth novel, Births, Deaths and Marriages was published in June 2025. She delivered a TedX talk on originality in fiction, and worked as a writing mentor for the charity Arts Emergency. She is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Writing School. Laura has taught many novel-writing courses for CBC in London and online.

Maame Blue

Maame Blue is the author of two novels; Bad Love, which won the 2021 Betty Trask Award, and The Rest Of You, shortlisted for the 2025 Jhalak Prose Prize. Her short stories have appeared in four anthologies, including 2025’s Be Gay, Do Crime. She writes for multiple publications including The Bookseller, Writers Mosaic and Arts Hub Australia. She regularly mentors emerging writers working on their debut novels and is a manuscript assessment editor for The Literary Consultancy, Kill Your Darlings and Writing New South Wales in Australia. Maame has also been a reader for multiple short story competitions including The Commonwealth Prize and The Brick Lane Short Story Prize, and in 2024 she judged the John Florio Translation Prize. She regularly runs creative writing workshops and teaches for many places including The Stinging Fly, Arvon and City Lit. She splits her time between London and Melbourne.

What does this course give you?

Flexible study: Teaching for this course is entirely online, meaning that you can take part from anywhere in the world, largely at times that suit you (though see below for details of special live Zoom sessions). Each week your tutor will post teaching notes and lead discussions on a variety of novel-writing topics on our interactive forum. These discussions are lively and insightful, and homework tasks will be shared to further your learning.
Teaching videos: Alongside the weekly forum posts from your tutor, each module includes exclusive videos and notes covering a range of topics such as plotting, characterisation, point-of-view and editing – all written and delivered by our expert tutor team (see featured video speakers below). These videos form the foundational spine to your learning and cover the fundamentals of writing a novel.
Additional live online teaching via Zoom: You will attend a welcome Zoom session with your tutor and group, an in-depth teaching session with your guest tutor midway through the course, and a conclusion session at the end, which will give you the opportunity to ask your tutor questions about next steps.
3 guest speaker masterclasses: These special events are also delivered via Zoom. Leading literary agents, authors and publishers will help to demystify the publishing process, answering your questions about writing, editing and the submissions process, as well as sharing real-life publication journeys. Timings of Zoom sessions will always be confirmed in advance.
Writing workshops: Your work will be workshopped by the group twice during the course. Workshops centre on 3,000-word extracts from your novel-in-progress, and discussion takes place on our learning platform with students and the tutor posting written comments across the week. These sessions offer in-depth feedback from your student group and tutor and are also designed to help develop your self-editing skills.
1-to-1 tutorials: You'll get three 45-minute tutorials (via Zoom) during the course. Two tutorials will take place with your lead tutor and one with your guest tutor. Tutorials will be based on 3,000-word extracts of your novel-in-progress and will address your specific concerns and questions.
Industry tutorial: To help you prepare for the next stages of the writing and pitching process, all students will have a 45-minute one-to-one with an experienced CBC editor or member of the Curtis Brown/C&W agenting team. The editor/agent will read and provide feedback on up to 6,000 words from your novel-in-progress plus your synopsis.
A community of writers: Our selective applications process means that you will be writing your novel in a peer group of 15 students working at a high level. Many of our former students have found trusted readers with us and formed strong working friendships that go on long after the course is over.
Synopsis & agent letter advice: We’ll give you the vital ingredients needed for a great synopsis and pitch letter. Individual feedback will come from experienced members of the CBC editorial team and/or a Curtis Brown/C&W literary agent – delivered via the learning platform.
End-of-course submission: All students will be invited to submit their 3,000-word novel opening, plus a synopsis, to be shared with the agent teams at Curtis Brown and C&W as well as a select group of agents from other UK-based agencies. This is not a formal submission but a chance to give the agents a taste of what you’re working on. When you are ready to submit formally – no matter how long after your course has finished – the CBC team will provide guidance and support with your submission to the Curtis Brown and C&W agents.
Alumni services: At the end of your course, you’ll be given access to a range of services, available only to the alumni of our selective courses. These services include help submitting your book to Curtis Brown and C&W literary agents, a free month of access to our membership programme the Writing Studio and other exclusive discounts.

VIDEO SPEAKERS

Course modules include exclusive pre-recorded teaching videos from these expert author-tutors.

Anna Davis, CBC's founder and Discoveries judge

Anna DavisRead bio →

Simon IngsRead bio →

Laura BarnettRead bio →

Nikita LalwaniRead bio →

Andrew Michael HurleyRead bio →

Suzannah DunnRead bio →

Christopher WaklingRead bio →

Masterclass Speakers

You'll attend three live masterclass sessions with leading publishing professionals, literary agents and authors. Speakers TBA.

COURSE SCHEDULE & DELIVERY

This course is ideal for people seeking flexibility, so they can write and study at times that suit them. Please note that precise dates of live Zoom teaching and masterclass sessions and details of course speakers are subject to change. They will always be confirmed with students in advance.

MODULE 1 – INSPIRATION & READING AS WRITERS
Mon 7 Sept – Sun 13 Sept
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MODULE 2 – OPENINGS
Mon 14 Sept – Sun 20 Sept
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MODULE 3 – WRITING FROM LIFE
Mon 21 Sept – Sun 27 Sept
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MODULE 4 – STORY, PLOTTING & PLANNING
Mon 28 Sept – Sun 11 Oct
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MODULE 5 – VOICE AND NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Mon 12 Oct – Sun 18 Oct
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MODULE 6 – PLACE AND SETTING
Mon 19 Oct – Sun 25 Oct
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GUEST TUTOR TUTORIALS
Mon 19 Oct – Fri 13 Nov
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MODULE 7 – SYNOPSIS + GUEST TUTOR POST
Mon 26 Oct – Sun 1 Nov
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GUEST TUTOR ZOOM SESSION
Weds 4 Nov, 7–8:30pm
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GUEST TUTOR HOMEWORK TASK
Mon 9 Nov – Sun 15 Nov
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MODULE 8 – CHARACTERISATION
Mon 16 Nov – Sun 29 Nov
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MODULE 9 – DESCRIPTION, TONE & STYLE
Mon 30 Nov – Sun 29 Nov
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MODULE 10 – DIALOGUE
Mon 7 Dec – Sun 13 Dec
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WINTER BREAK
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MODULE 11 – BUILDING SUSPENSE
Mon 4 Jan – Sun 10 Jan
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MODULE 12 – ENDINGS
Mon 11 Jan – Sun 24 Jan
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INDUSTRY TUTORIALS
Mon 18 Jan – Fri 29 Jan
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MODULE 13 – EDITING AND REWRITING
Mon 25 Jan – Sun 31 Jan
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MODULE 14 – AGENT LETTER/PITCH WORKSHOP
Mon 1 Feb – Sun 7 Feb
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MODULE 15 – FINAL QUESTIONS
Mon 8 Feb – Sun 14 Feb
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MODULE 16 – END OF COURSE SUBMISSION
Monday 1 March
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Course fees

The course fee of £2,900 (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. Funds must reach our bank account before the course begins. 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 novel 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).

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.

Still deciding?

If you’re thinking about applying for this course and want to know if it’s the right fit, book a free 15-minute phone consultation to discuss your needs.

Consultations will take place on Tuesday afternoons (14.00 to 17.00) or Friday mornings (10.00 to 13.00). Times listed are UK times.

Book now