Our courses
Expert support for writing non-fiction, novels and memoirs. Specialist mentorship.
Journalistic writing and research skills. Sex tips for science and academic writers. Selling your words – and yourself.
Mentoring - nonfiction
Develop and refine your non-fiction writing skills with one-to-one mentoring. This can be done over the course of one or two years, or by arrangement. There will be six hour-long meetings on Zoom or in person, with a further six hours for your mentor to read your work and prepare written feedback.
Dates: These begin, and continue, by mutual agreement.
Requirements:
5,000 words of your project to be submitted in application.Price:
£2,400Course leader:
Louise FoxcroftNext course:
Nonfiction writing group
The group will meet to discuss members’ ongoing work and writing process. We will discuss voice, flow, structure, narrative, the use of humour, illustrations, editing, finding an agent, and more. Up to six writers and the tutor will meet for two hours on Zoom, once a month over a six-month period.
Requirements:
5,000 words of your project to be submitted in application.Price:
£1,200Course leaders:
Louise Foxcroft
John NaishNext course:
Nonfiction journo ninja
Requirements:
5,000 words of your project to be submitted in application.Price:
£1,000Course leader:
John NaishNext course:
Literary prostitution
Dostoyevsky said a book should start selling itself from the day you begin writing. The literary world might pretend commerce is grubby, but it’s what our biz is all about: selling your work – and yourself.
The course covers choosing and developing stories to fit trends, suit markets and attract agents and publishers, all the while keeping your integrity. Then there’s the out-there work of pitching, getting publicity… just selling your writerly self.
Six weekly two-hour zoom for groups of up to eight people. 7.15pm – 9.15pm
Requirements:
5,000 words of your project to be submitted in application.Price:
£1,000Course leader:
John NaishNext course:
Pop science, steamy academia
Requirements:
5,000 words of your project to be submitted in application.Price:
£1,600Course leaders:
John NaishLouise FoxcroftNext course:
Life writing
Writers have turned their pens to their own lives for millennia. There are numerous reasons you might want to record your own story.
This could be for posterity; a legacy for generations to come. It could be hoping for publication. It could be that you lived through unusual events or have a cache of revealing documents. It could be, or could become, a sort of creative therapy.
In writing a memoir there are joys and pitfalls but also some technical challenges: what will you include, what will you leave out? How can you find the right structure?
Is it primarily that you want to record your experiences or do you want to make it irresistibly readable?
Successful memoirs are all about the quality of writing. Together we can discuss the best way to tell your personal story.
Weekend course, Saturday and Sunday 10.30 – 5.30, in person at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.
Accommodation is available at Lucy Cavendish College, if required. Room rates are £64 per night, with en-suite, wifi and parking. The college is 15 minutes’ walk from the city centre, but away from its bustle.
Mentoring fiction or poetry
For a writer with a work in progress I offer one-to-one mentoring to provide feedback and discuss ideas, challenges and give practical encouragement when things seem to flag.
I’ve written four novels, which have been published in the UK and US and in several languages and I sold my TV rights to my first one. I also have two short stories in anthologies so I understand the uneven path to completing a work and the enormous satisfaction that brings.
Poetry is my great love and I have had successes in major prizes and publication.
For either fiction or poetry I’d want to see some work in progress (see Requirements) to make sure I can be of help and we could then discuss your project on Zoom to see if you feel this would be a useful process and how you’d like it to go.
Dates: These begin and continue by mutual agreement.
Price:
Mentoring fiction can be done over one or two years, or by arrangement. There will be six hour-long meetings on Zoom or in person, with a further six hours for your mentor to read your work and prepare written feedback. £2,400
Mentoring poetry is priced at an hourly rate of £175, the number of sessions to be arranged with each applicant.
Requirements:
Share work in progress: up to 1,500 words for fiction, or a representative selection of poems.Price:
See textCourse leader:
Elizabeth SpellerNext course:
Writing group: Fiction
This group will meet to create and discuss fiction writing. It will be kept small so that full attention can be given to all the participants. The sessions will be a mixture of short seminars, workshops for work in progress, and discussion.
We’ll explore the nuts and bolts of fiction: structure, voice, dialogue, pace, and sense of place. During our time we’ll consider the best form to bring each individual idea to fruition; the pros and cons of focusing on one point of view or several and, crucially, how to keep writing and finish a project.
A short, voluntary reading list will be provided as will short extracts to illustrate interesting literary techniques. Prompts will be provided for short exercises between meetings for those who would like this.
Up to six writers and the tutor will meet for two hours once a month on Zoom over a six-month period. It should be a friendly, thought-provoking process as we explore new ideas.
Dates: January 17th – March 7th 2023, 7.15 – 9.15pm