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Writing Your Novel – Three Months

Deep-dive into your novel with expert tuition, a strong peer group and advice from literary agents. All online, and with flexible scheduling.

COURSE DATES

Apr 19 2021 - Jul 26 2021

Apply by 21st March, 2021

Online

Take this course from anywhere in the world

Selective Entry

We offer places to the most talented applicants

Course Fee £1,800

Work on your novel with the experts

Overview

We’ve designed this online course to provide an experience that’s as close to our successful London-based courses as we can make it. You’ll receive direct engagement with industry professionals, including a one-to-one tutorial at course end with either an agent from Curtis Brown or C&W, or a CBC editor with substantial publishing experience, based on 6,000 words from your work-in-progress. This is a course for people who are serious about writing a novel. As well as being packed with useful content, it’s flexible so you can write and study at times to suit you.

You will join a group of 15 writers tutored by an experienced tutor. We’ll be running two student groups led by acclaimed authors. One group will be taught by Suzannah Dunn and the other group will be taught by Chris Wakling.

If you are selected to take part, we’ll assign you to the tutor group we feel will work best for you and your novel – however if you have a strong preference for one of the tutors, you can indicate this in the form and we will try to take this into consideration.

Your tutor will give direct feedback to students on their novels-in-progress via weekly workshops on our bespoke online forum, targeted writing exercises, and one-to-one tutorials via Zoom. You’ll also get access to teaching videos, notes and resources from our CBC tutor team (listed below) on our online learning platform.

You’ll take part in a Zoom Webinar with a top literary agent from Curtis Brown/C&W – and a literary agent will offer in-depth written advice on your agent letter and elevator pitch. Then at the end of the course, students get to share the opening of their novels informally with the agent teams at Curtis Brown and C&W.

In the nine years since we first launched Curtis Brown Creative, over 110 of our former students have gone on to get major publishing deals for their novels. We’ve had some fantastic success stories across all genres, including online course students Rachel Marks (Saturdays at Noon), Jane Harper (The Dry) and Nicholas Searle (The Good Liar) and soon to be published Polly Crosby (The Illustrated Child). You can read more about our online course success stories here.

While we can’t guarantee publication or representation, we lavish our expertise on our students. The agents of Curtis Brown and C&W are hungry for new authors and will be actively looking for clients among our writers.

‘Suzannah is a fantastic mentor; she brings you out as it were, gets you to talk about yourself and your novel – where it’s going, where it’s not going, what you’re happy about, what you don’t feel you’re managing well.’
Fynvola Le Hunte Ward, CBC alumna

‘Chris was very generous with his time, and provided me with some extremely constructive feedback. He also made the forum discussions fun and guided them so that the feedback was useful. I thought he was an excellent tutor and will refer back to his advice as I write in the future.’

Melissa Echalier, CBC alumna

Tutor

Christopher Wakling, Author

Christopher's six acclaimed novels include What I Did, The Devil's Mask, and On Cape Three Points. Born in 1970, he read English at Oxford, then worked as a farm hand, teacher and lawyer, before turning to writing full-time in 2001. As well as writing fiction, Christopher is a travel writer for The Independent. He has tutored numerous creative-writing courses for Curtis Brown Creative and The Arvon Foundation.

Suzannah Dunn, Author

Suzannah Dunn is the author of thirteen books. She was picked alongside Robert Harris, Edward St Aubyn and Helen Simpson, in response to Granta’s first ‘Best Under 40’ list in 1993. She wrote six critically acclaimed contemporary novels and a short story collection before her first historical novel, The Queen of Subtleties, was published in 2004. It has been followed by five more Tudor novels including The Confession of Katherine Howard and The Lady of Misrule. She has sold over a quarter of a million copies of her historical novels in the UK alone. Her latest historical novel The Testimony of Alys Twist is set to be published September 2020 by Little, Brown. Suzannah was Director of the MA in Novel Writing at Manchester University for six years and has taught many courses for the Arvon Foundation. She is a popular speaker at literary festivals and events including the Bristol Festival of Ideas and has given talks at several beautiful Tudor National Trust buildings including Newark Park in Gloucestershire and Ightham Mote in Kent.

WHAT DOES THIS COURSE GIVE YOU?

Editing on a computer

Teaching Videos & Tasks

Advice on key topics from our tutor team

The course takes a new topic each week. You'll get teaching videos and notes from our team, and your tutor will add their thoughts on each module and set tasks for the group - writing exercises or discussion. Topics tackled include plotting, characterisation, point-of-view and rewriting. 

Curtis Brown Creative learning portal

Writing Workshops

Led by your tutor

You'll get two dedicated workshops centring on material from your novel-in-progress with your tutor and the group (Extracts of 3000 words, each time). These sessions offer in-depth written feedback and are also designed to help develop your editing skills.

Curtis Brown Creative learning platform forum

Student Forum

The hub of our online courses - find your writing community

We have developed a bespoke learning platform exclusively for our students. Here you can give and receive workshop feedback, and discuss the week’s topics with your fellow students and tutor.

One-to-One Tutorials

Extracts of your novel will be closely reviewed by your tutor

You'll get two 45 minute, one-to-one tutorials with your tutor, conducted via Zoom or phone, based on 3,000 word sections of your novel-in-progress. Use these tutorials to address your specific concerns about your writing.

Tutorial with industry professional

Intensive one-to-one discussion of your novel-in-progress

Near the end of the course all students will get a 45-minute one-to-one on Zoom/phone with an experienced CBC editor or a Curtis Brown/C&W literary agent. They will read a 6,000-word extract from your novel-in-progress plus your synopsis. They will provide detailed feedback and publishing industry advice.

Editing Your Novel

Synopsis Advice

Expert critique of the dreaded synopsis

We'll draw on our agenting expertise to give you the vital ingredients of a great synopsis - then you'll write one, and get individual feedback from an experienced member of the CBC editor team.

Handwriting your novel

Pitch Workshop

Agent feedback on your letter & elevator pitch

We'll give you the vital dos and don'ts of agent pitch letters and elevator pitches - you'll then write your own and get in-depth written feedback on both the letter and the short pitch from a Curtis Brown/C&W literary agent.

Webinar with a Literary Agent

Join a live video chat with a top UK literary agent

Students will take part in a special 60 minute Zoom webinar with a top Curtis Brown/C&W literary agent. They will discuss what literary agents do and answer your questions about publishing.

End of Course Submission

Share your opening with the Curtis Brown and C&W agents

At the end of the course all students will be invited to submit the 3,000 word opening of their novel, plus a synopsis, to be shared with the agent teams at CB and C&W. This is not a formal submission to the agency but a chance to give the agents a taste of your work at this stage.

WORKING WITH OTHER WRITERS

We pride ourselves on the tightly-knit writing communities that are established on our courses. As well as getting feedback on extracts from your own novel during the course, we’ll be asking you to read the work of your 14 fellow students week by week, and provide constructive written comments in our online discussion space. We find this process helps students develop their own inner editor and has a hugely positive impact on their own writing. Each week three students will submit 3,000-word extracts from their novels-in-progress to be workshopped by the rest of the group and the tutor. It’ll be your turn to get the group’s dedicated workshop attention two times across the course.

EXCLUSIVE ALUMNI SERVICES

By popular request we have now launched a range of exclusive writing services, available only to the alumni of our selective courses, which you’ll be able to access after your course finishes. These services include individual mentoring from some of our most experienced tutors (you get to choose your supervisor from the available tutors), a five-day intensive zoom/online alumni summer school, editorial reports on your completed novel, submission reports on your ‘pitch package’ and coaching from experienced practitioners. If you’d like further details about these services, and current prices, before applying to this course, you can email us on cbccourses@curtisbrown.co.uk .

Additionally, any students from our selective course who want to formally submit their novels to agents from Curtis Brown or C&W will be given advice and support from the Curtis Brown Creative team with their submission. Full information about this free service is provided during the course.

Editing your novel

Guest Sessions

This course offers in-depth engagement with literary agents at Curtis Brown and C&W. You’ll also get teaching videos from your tutor and from the author-tutors on our team:

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Anna Davis

Anna is the Founder and Director of Curtis Brown Creative. She is the author of five novels, published around the world in 20 languages: The Dinner, Melting, Cheet, The Shoe Queen and most recently The Jewel Box. A former Guardian columnist, Anna has been the recipient of the Arts Council of England’s Clarissa Luard Award (2001) and an h.Club 100 award – presented to the most influential, innovative and interesting people in the creative and media industries. Anna has worked for Curtis Brown for more than a decade as a book agent and has served on the management committee of the Association of Authors' Agents.  Previously she was a lecturer on Manchester University’s MA in Novel-Writing, and has also led many other writing workshops for organizations that include the Cheltenham Literary Festival and Ty Newydd.

Anna Davis


Author and CBC Managing Director
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Christopher Wakling

Christopher’'s six acclaimed novels include What I Did, The Devil'’s Mask, and On Cape Three Points. Born in 1970, he read English at Oxford, then worked as a farm hand, teacher and lawyer, before turning to writing full-time in 2001. As well as writing fiction, Christopher is a travel writer for The Independent. He is also the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Bristol University and has tutored numerous creative-writing courses for Curtis Brown Creative and The Arvon Foundation.

Christopher Wakling


Author
Jake Arnott, Author
Jake Arnott, Author

Jake Arnott

Jake is the author of six highly acclaimed novels. The Long Firm was the bestselling debut novel of 1999, and was followed by He Kills Coppers, Truecrime, Johnny Come Home, The Devil'’s Paintbrush and, in 2013, The House of Rumour. In 2006, The Long Firm was made into a four-part, BAFTA-nominated series for BBC 2 starring Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Strong. In 2008, He Kills Coppers was made into a three-part series for ITV1, starring Rafe Spall and Kelly Reilly. Jake has previously taught creative-writing courses for the Arvon Foundation.

Jake Arnott


Author
Lisa O'Donnell, Author and Creative Writing Tutor
Lisa O'Donnell, Author and Creative Writing Tutor

Lisa O’Donnell

Having returned to her native Scotland after working as a screenwriter in LA, Lisa O’Donnell sat down to write her first novel The Death of Bees, which was published by Windmill in 2012. The book, a razor-sharp black comedy about family values that follows the orphaned children of two Glasgow drug addicts as they rebuild their lives with the help of a caring neighbour, won the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2013. Her second novel, Closed Doors, is another tale of lost innocence set during the 1980s on the author’s childhood home island of Rothesay. She is currently working on her third novel.

Lisa O'Donnell


Author
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Nikita Lalwani

Nikita Lalwani's first novel Gifted was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. It has translated into 16 languages. In 2008, Nikita won the Desmond Elliot Prize for New Fiction and donated it to human rights organisation Liberty. Her second novel The Village was published by Viking UK in June 2012 and was awarded the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. Nikita was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff. She was a judge for the book section of the Orwell Prize in 2013. Nikita is a lecturer on the MA and BA in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University. She has Also taught at Goldsmiths University, Oxford University and the Arvon Foundation. She was writer-in-residence at University College London from 2007-2008.

Nikita Lalwani


Author
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Clare Conville

Listed by The Observer as one of the top 50 players in the world of books, Clare previously worked as an editor at Random House, before co-founding our sister agency Conville & Walsh in 2000. She specialises in literary and commercial fiction, general non-fiction, and children's writers. Between them, Clare's clients have won or been nominated for nearly every major literary prize. These include the Man Booker Prize, the Bollinger Everyman Woodhouse Award, the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Commonwealth Writers Best First Novel Award, the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Prix Femina, the John Llewllyn Rhys Memorial Prize, the Arthur C Clarke Award, The PG Wodehouse Award for Comic Fiction, the Guardian First Book Award, the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Orwell Prize, the Blue Peter Book of the Year and the W. Somerset Maugham Award.

Clare Conville


Agent

Jennifer Kerslake

Jennifer is Senior Manager for Courses and Operations at Curtis Brown Creative. She was previously an editor at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, the literary imprint of the Orion Publishing Group. In her time there, she worked with authors including Costa-shortlisted Elisa Lodato, Stella Prize-winning Heather Rose, Leila Aboulela, Francesca Jakobi, Chloë Mayer, Shannon Leone Fowler and Haleh Agar. She is passionate about nurturing new voices and excited to be part of CBC’s creative and dynamic team.

Jennifer Kerslake


CBC Senior Manager

Application Process

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 their trusted readers with us – and form strong working friendships with class-mates which go on long after the course is over.

The course fee of £1,800 (inc VAT) per student is payable, in full, by bank transfer or cheque. 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 discuss a payment plan.

Please upload your application via the form at the end of this page. If you encounter any problems during the application process, or have any more questions about the course, please email cbccourses@curtisbrown.co.uk for assistance.

Course Schedule

WEEK 1

Inspiration and Reading as Writers

Monday 19 April – Sunday 25 April

With videos from Anna Davis and Chris Wakling

see more

WEEK 2

Openings

Monday 26 April – Sunday 2 May

With videos from Lisa O’Donnell

see more

WEEK 3

Writing from Life

Tuesday 4 May – Sunday 9 May

With videos from Nikita Lalwani

see more

WEEK 4

Story, Plotting & Planning

Monday 10 May – Sunday 16 May

With videos from Chris Wakling

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WEEK 5

Voice and Narrative Point of View

Monday 17 May – Sunday 23 May

With videos from Nikita Lalwani

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WEEK 6

Characterisation

Monday 24 May – Sunday 30 May

With videos from Suzannah Dunn

see more

WEEK 7

Synopsis

Monday 31 May – Sunday 6 June

With videos from Anna Davis and a synopsis workshop with an expert CBC editor

 

see more

WEEK 8

Description, Tone & Style

Monday 7 June – Sunday 13 June

With videos from Erin Kelly

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WEEK 9

Dialogue

Monday 14 June – Sunday 20 June

With videos from Suzannah Dunn

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WEEK 10

Building Suspense

Monday 21 June – Sunday 27 June

With videos from Erin Kelly

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WEEK 11

Endings

Monday 28 June – Sunday 4 July

With videos from Lisa O’Donnell

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WEEK 12

Editing and Rewriting

Monday 5 July – Sunday 11 July

With videos from Jake Arnott

see more

WEEK 13

Agent Pitch Workshop

Monday 12 July – Sunday 18 July

With videos and individual feedback from agents at Curtis Brown and/or C&W.

see more

WEEK 14

Course Conclusions

Monday 19 July – Sunday 25 July

A chance for the group and tutor to share the discoveries you’ve made on this course and to ask final questions.

see more

WEEK 15

End of Course Submission

Monday 26 July

Students to submit 3,000 word opening and one-page synopsis to be read by the Curtis Brown and C&W literary agents

see more

Application Process

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. The deadline for applications is midnight, end of day Sunday 21 March, and we will respond to applicants by Thursday 25 March.

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  • Contact Details

    Please provide some essential details so we can get in touch with you about your application. We won't share this data.
  • eg. name@domain.com
  • Please include country code if applicable

  • About You and Your Writing

    We'd like to learn a bit about you and your writing. Don’t worry if you haven’t done much writing before, please fill out in as much detail as possible. We won't share this data.
  • Date Format: DD slash MM slash YYYY
  • No more than 150 words please.
  • We'd like to hear about any jobs or studies that you feel may be of interest and/or relevant to your application
    Please note, the CBC team will take into consideration your choice when we assign tutors based on who we think is best suited to help you get the most out of your work-in-progress.
  • Accepted file types: pdf, txt, doc, rtf, docx.
    Please upload your synopsis and opening 3,000 words in one document. Only PDF, TXT and DOC files accepted, file size must be less than 8mb