Discoveries Writing Development Course
We're keen to help the talented writers longlisted for Discoveries hone their skills and make real progress on their writing journeys. To help them develop their novels we've designed a special two-week online course to take place 26 June to 7 July 2023 with expert tuition from author Charlotte Mendelson. All 16 writers longlisted for Discoveries 2023 will be invited to take part for free.
Tutor
Charlotte Mendelson
Charlotte Mendelson is the author of five highly acclaimed novels, most recently The Exhibitionist. Her books have been longlisted and shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the Booker Prize. She also won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award, among others. She worked in publishing for twenty years and now teaches creative writing widely, and is Gardening Correspondent for the New Yorker.
- Course Content: The Discoveries Writing Development Course will be hosted on our learning platform, where the group of 16 writers will have a secure forum space to discuss their work and access to writing resources. The forum will be moderated by the Curtis Brown Creative team – and will be a safe space for the longlisted writers to interact with each other and their tutor Charlotte Mendelson. This is a course designed with flexibility in mind. The writers will be encouraged to work through the materials at times that suit them. Any set times of the course will be confirmed in advance and will take place in the evening, outside of usual working hours.
- Zoom teaching: On Monday 26 June and Monday 3 July Charlotte will lead live 1 hour 45 minute live teaching sessions on Zoom, both sessions to run from 7.00pm to 8.45pm. Charlotte will deal with topics relating to the novel-writing process such as pacing, plotting and characterisation (topics to be confirmed closer to the start time of the course). Each session will include a live writing task to help the students put the lessons into practice.
- Weekly homework: Students will be asked to complete the homework writing task (which will relate to their novels in-progress) and post it up on the forum during the week following the class. Charlotte will give brief written feedback on everyone’s tasks in both weeks. Students will be encouraged to discuss the task and give written feedback to each other in the forum space.
- One-to-one tutorial: All students will be offered a 30-minute one-to-one tutorial with Charlotte, conducted via Zoom or phone, based on the opening 3,000-word section from their novel-in-progress plus one-page synopsis (or note to indicate where the novel is headed).
- Literary Agent Q&A: The course will culminate with a special 1 hour 45 minute Zoom session with Curtis Brown agents Viola Hayden and Ciara Finan, hosted by a member of Curtis Brown Creative, taking place from 4.30pm to 5.45pm on Friday 7 July. The longlisted writers will be invited to ask questions about the role of the agent and how to submit their novel when it is ready. They will also be able to practising pitching their novels to the agents and will receive live feedback on their pitch.
