Curtis Brown Creative Reviews 

Fantastic psychological thriller course - Erin Kelly shares deep insights into everything you need to know to construct a twisty and satisfying read. Feedback from other course members and from a course tutor were helpful, as was reading and giving feedback on others' work.

The 30-Day Writing Bootcamp was exactly what I needed to jump start new material and jump back into stories that needed freshening up. The teaching was top notch, and the participants were engaged and wonderful at giving and receiving feedback. I highly recommend it.

Great value for money. Insightful, educational and a great way to meet fellow writers...experience a varied range of genres and gain feedback.

I had an amazing experience working with the team at Curtis Brown Creative. I was offered a place on the Breakthrough Writers Scheme.

It's safe to say it's been life changing for my confidence and creativity. Highly recommend working with this amazing, passionate and enthusiastic team.

I had finished my umpteenth draft of my novel and took the 1 day course. I started the day feeling overwhelmed with a manuscript that was unwieldy and with Anna's feedback I felt that I was given the tools to start my edit with confidence and purpose. She also gave feedback on everyone's work which was really useful and encouraging and brutally honest, which is what we needed to prevent us wasting time. I think this in itself is worth the price.

As a passionate writer, who has already written two novels, this was a brilliant move on my part to take the longer Curtis Brown Creative “Writing Your Novel” course (3-months). I’d already tried the 6-week “Writing a Romance Novel” course and really enjoyed using the online learning platform. Each week there were videos on a new topic and then an interactive forum for e-meeting other writers, where I read lots of fabulous excerpts from a diverse range of book ideas. The longer 3-month course was more intense and required us to read longer pieces and do more in-depth discussion and critique into each module topic. It’s a selected course so you know everyone there is motivated and will turn up and give their best to help each other’s work improve. That peer-to-peer learning was really useful to me and I really wish I had found this school years ago - definitely two book attempts ago. Imagine fifteen different talented writers take apart your first 3,000 words? Often people picked up on the same snags and this helped polish up the opening. If I can get past 15 writers, chances are higher an agent will read all the way to the end of my submission.
If I had found this school earlier, it would also have saved me many drafts and rewrites. I’m now writing book three, and I can already see how much easier the process is. How much more confident I am as a writer. How many tools I bring with me to the drafting table. My only regret is that I didn’t do the six-month course as these few months have flown by and I can’t believe it’s over - I literally sent off my agent pitch, biography, and first 3,000 words to the Curtis Brown Creative Team this afternoon.
So if you want to get better at your craft, I recommend booking a course. I’ve also finished the 5-week David Nicholls course alongside the final month of the “Writing your Novel” course and this was really insightful. He was very open about how he wrote each book including his strategy for writing One Day - which I really enjoyed reading. I’m actually going to pinch his technique for my second novel that’s been sitting in my laptop for two years doing nothing. To kick that off, I’m going do the 30-day writing challenge with Anna Davis which is only £30 and then I’m booked to do the “Edit & Pitch”. I also want to do the rewrite doctor day and well, all of ‘em. 😂 (I turned 40 this year and asked for Curtis Brown vouchers as a present. If you’re reading this, do the same since Christmas is coming up!).
Lastly, the most exciting part, aside from the Zoom drinks my group had, is knowing soon I get professional feedback on my submission package and maybe, just maybe, an agent sees my work and likes it. Living the dream!
But at a minimum, it’s got me back in love with my writing and this - after having two kids - is priceless. If you are like me and really enjoy the craft and get lost in the worlds you create, then definitely take a look at the courses on offer. It will be time well spent.

This course went above and beyond my expectations - and I had pretty high expectations with CBC’s glowing reputation!

The course material is awesome. The insights gained from the workshops have been so illuminating, and my tutor's feedback has been nothing short of epic. She’s helped lift my confidence and steer my focus; making me much clearer on my story going forward.

Each module was structured in a way to build a solid foundation on story craft and writing, but what I loved in particular about his course, was discovering how this knowledge relates directly to my own writing.

It's not just a course about writing a novel, it's a course that helps write your own novel, allowing you to discover plot holes and writing ticks you might not be aware of. It also helps you focus on digging deeper into your character dimensions and layers of your story.

Without a doubt, my WIP is 100% stronger from taking this course and my vision is crystal clear.

I couldn't be happier. I didn't want it to ever end!

I have just finished a 5 week creative writing "Inside Story" course with Curtis Brown Creative. It has been so enjoyable, with interesting modules, writing prompts and weekly tasks. The feedback from fellow cohort members and the course reader was insightful and helpful. I'm impressed by the overall quality and would definitely recommend.

Informative and well thought out course. The teachers (I have done 2 so far) are knowledgeable, talented and excellent at passing in their skills. I was amazed how easy it is to be taught online rather than face to face. Constructive analysis of your writing each week and great support from the others on the forum. Really like the end of course report. Can’t recommend highly enough!

The course was good quality, well taught, with helpful professional feedback. They were also easy to get in touch with if I had a problem and responded promptly.

I have taken a number of CBC courses in the past and found them all invaluable. My current experience relates to the Character Development Course and I have found this to be particularly excellent. The materials provided are comprehensive and include clear guidance for how the suggestions can be incorporated into your own work. The forum works really well as a means to connect with other writers, receiving and giving feedback - and it is here that the tutor also provides some feedback to a couple of writers each week. Anthony, the tutor on the course I am on at present, provides reassurance and always gives points which are specifically actionable. I could see an immediate difference in my writing after taking his points on board. I would highly recommend CBC to anyone who is serious about improving their own writing.

Great course, would highly recommend. I learnt so much, made new friends and will be taking another as soon as I can fit it in.

Despite hearing glowing reviews of Curtis Brown Creative, I wasn't sure how well a long online course would work. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to get selected, and it was excellent. Very well structured, very thorough in the ground it covered, and brilliant at creating a really active and supportive forum where the 15 participants shared their work. The development of a community between the 15 writers is the course's most important contribution to participants.... but I have to give a shout out to our two tutors. Simon Ings brought brilliant insights, humour, and technical expertise to his management of our workshops, and to the one on one tutorials. Lisa O'Donnel was amazing, with her encyclopaedic knowledge of storytelling across novels, films and TV, and was very generous with her thoughts, advice and time. There were a few admin hiccups and I feel that forums should be monitored a bit more closely for questions, but that's a minor quibble and overall I thought this course delivered all it said it would and much more. I am still in touch with all the writers and a tutor, which says a lot for its lasting impact.

I'd really recommend the Curtis Brown Creative online courses. I recently completed Creative Writing for Beginners. It's a great way to 'dip your toe in the water of online courses' without a costly commitment of money and time.

What I love most about the experience is the opportunity to work with my peers while learning. The readers also make a sterling contribution. Without those two factors, this would be like learning from a fairly good textbook with some video lectures to back it up. With them, this becomes something much more useful.

Great courses, great resources, excellent feedback. If you are thinking about it, stop and sign up. You absolutely will not regret it.

Enjoyable and engaging poetry course with great tech back up to resolve any minor issues.

The videos and written advice are very helpful - but it is the interaction with your fellow writers in the group that provides the best feedback. The only issue is that you cannot offer constructive criticism (only positive) - and I would have preferred others to be honest about my work. (rather than tell me how good I was!)
There is little or no interaction with the people who run the course which is a huge let down. I often wondered if they even existed - I phoned and emailed Curtis Browne half a dozen times and they only replied to one of my queries.
They also shut down the course / closed our forum without warning.
I was considering taking a further, more expensive course with them as I'd like to take my writing to the next stage - but if the feedback and one to one advice is not there then I really need to find another creative writing company.

Brilliant course. Fellow students and CBC readers were so encouraging and completely non-threatening. The tasks enabled me to work on my unfinished MS and it is now almost finished. Thoroughly recommend them.

Notwithstanding that the tutor was different from the course creator, the number of participants exceeded 25 despite advertising group limits of 15 and no actual commentary from the tutor, not even once in my case, (indicating a highly selective approach), the individual participants' responses were hugely encouraging and delightful. Despite the title "historical fiction", the teaching material was fairly standard creative writing material - not bad as such - with the word "historic" included and little, if any, particular reference to historical writing as a creative writing speciality.