Q) How much time will I need to spend studying if I take the Creative Writing Programme or Life Writing Programme?

A) We recommend you set aside a minimum of 12 hours a week, which includes class time. This is for preparation and reading for your class, actual class time and follow-up exercises plus any additional reading/writing to consolidate learning. Of course, you can always do more! If you are prepared to sacrifice some of your free time, it’s possible to combine the course with a full-time job. Many of our students do.

Q) What qualifications do I need to study creative writing on the Creative Writing Programme or Life Writing Programme?

R) None at all. You just need the passion to write and the commitment to follow through. Being a keen reader also helps.

Q) Are there interviews as part of the enrolment process on the Creative Writing Programme?

R) This is one of our most common FAQs. No, we don’t conduct interviews for our first-year writers. If you want to join a first-year group all you need to do is enrol. If you want to join a second-year group or our Advanced Writers’ Workshops, you will need to write to us (email cathy@creativewritingprogramme.org.uk) outlining your previous writing experience. If you’re unsure about committing to a two-year programme, we run a ten-week course as an Introduction to Creative Writing, which starts in January and April each year, which will give you a grounding in the craft and help you to decide whether you want to embark on the two-year programme.

Q) When should I apply for the Creative Writing Programme or Life Writing Programme?

R) We open up for enrolment in January every year and you can enrol any time after that. You get a 10% discount from your fees if you enrol by 30th April. Our taster sessions are organised throughout the year so you can try a two-hour workshop to see if the two-year programme is for you. After July our courses fill up and you may not be able to join your first-choice group so it’s better to enrol sooner rather than later.

Q) Is there a lot of reading on the two-year programmes?

R) The focus is on your writing. Your tutor will refer to extracts from novels when explaining technique, but you will not be expected to regularly discuss published novels. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t read. Our advice to all our writers is read, read, read! But we understand that if you are working and taking the programme you will not have a lot of spare time, so instead we ask our writing students to put all their favourite books onto a separate shelf before the course starts so, as they learn about different techniques, they can check how their favourite writers apply them or adapt them. If you don’t have a lot of spare time to read while you’re on the programme, you will certainly have a long list of ‘must read’ books by the time you’ve finished it! The course is run over 25 weeks of the year – roughly the university timetable – so there will be plenty of holiday time to catch up on reading (and writing).

Q) Can I get a bursary or grant to study on your courses? Are there any subsidies?

R) Yes. We want to support writers who face barriers to pursuing their writing careers. This includes writers who are from under-represented communities (BAME, LGBTQ+ and other under-represented groups), isolated, unemployed, have a longterm illness or disability, or who are otherwise struggling to meet the cost of attending writing courses. We offer a very limited number of discounted places – typically worth up to 25% of the course fee – on our courses each year. Email Cathy Hayward at cathy@creativewritingprogramme.org.uk for details.

Even if you don’t receive a bursary, we do offer a university-level course at a fraction of the cost you would pay if you went to a university. You can pay in two instalments over the year to spread the load. This means that when you’ve finished the course it’s all been paid for and you’re not £10,000s in debt. And you could have the first draft of a novel or memoir.

Q) Is there any academic study on the Creative Writing Programme?

R) Most university courses in creative writing are taught in tandem with English studies and the university exam boards insist on there being up to 50% academic subject matter to make it a ‘proper’ subject. That means you might have to take courses in post-colonial theory, the legacy of modernism or medieval poetry. Don’t get us wrong. These are important and interesting subjects, but our experience of teaching in higher education is that most writers want to focus on learning how to write well and that academic study and literary theory can be distracting and actually block the flow of their writing. We would recommend these kinds of university courses to writers who are interested in academic study. If you’re not, be careful! Read the small print and course structure before you commit. On the Creative Writing Programme, we have developed a process-based approach which focuses on ‘doing’, like an art school or music academy. If we use theory we only use it in the context of understanding how to construct compelling, dramatic narrative.

Q) What’s the difference between an MA, MFA or degree level course and the Creative Writing Programme?

R) In terms of tutor feedback and peer group feedback, there’s very little difference. Our Advanced Writing Workshops offer the level of feedback you would expect on an MA or MFA course. In terms of actually learning how to write, in most cases, the Creative Writing Programme offers a lot more. Our courses focus on matching your creativity against the challenge of understanding how narrative works. We have developed a two-year structure based on a helical model (think of the shape of a tornado). You start at the bottom, on first principles: bringing a scene to life on the page, engaging the totality of your reader, generating character etc. and you build upwards, accumulating understanding of the writing process as you go, learning about character interaction and dialogue, before you tackle the complexity of longer narratives: character development, theme, structure, dramatic tension and, of course, finding an ending. Most university courses do not follow this model of continuous writerly development and tend to put too much emphasis on the cerebral and intellectual, forgetting that reading and writing is also a physical and emotional process.

Q) What level is the Creative Writing Programme pitched at?

R) Our two-year programmes are pitched at the same level of the first two years of undergraduate study – they were initially developed within a university context. Our Advanced Poetry Workshops and Advanced Writing Workshops offer the level of feedback that you would expect on an MA or MFA in creative writing.

Q) Where can I take the Creative Writing Programme or Life Writing Programme?

R) You can take an in-person course at our centres in Brighton, Worthing, Eastbourne, East Grinstead, Hastings, London or or an online course from anywhere in the world.

Q) Will the Creative Writing Programme help me get published?

R) We can’t get you published, but yes, we can help. Every year in May/ June we hold a Publishing Day. Publishing Day is available to writers on our programmes along with all alumni. It’s a day of discussion and conversation with our friends from the professional world of publishing aimed at helping our writers promote their own work and plan a path to publishing their work. For writers with finished first drafts we offer market feedback with literary agents from established agencies.

Q) How is the Creative Writing Programme structured?

R) The Creative Writing Programme and the Life Writing Programme are two-year part-time programmes. The autumn term is 10 weeks, the spring/summer term 15 weeks. Taught sessions are 2.5 hours per week. Writers can also take masterclasses twice a year in the Easter and summer holidays. You will usually have two tutors over the two-years. We do this to ensure that your tutors get to know you and your work and are best placed to offer editorial advice. There are four creative submissions over the two years totalling 20,000 words, as well as formative work submitted during each term. For more detailed information on course structure go to Our courses

Q) Do I need to be an experienced writer to take the Creative Writing Programme?

R) No, you don’t. We are a broad church with a wide door. At the beginning of the year, your group will probably have some experienced writers in it as well as some beginners. We think the mix of experience at the beginning of the year is a good thing. Our groups are very supportive and everybody learns from everyone else, regardless of prior experience. We also offer the Introduction to Creative Writing 10-week course, which starts in January or April each year, for those who want to try a shorter course before they commit.

Q) Do I have to be in the UK to take the Creative Writing Programme?

R) No, you can take one of our online courses from anywhere in the world. Our online courses follow exactly the same pedagogic structure as our in-person courses. The only difference is that your in-person experience will be online. We use video conferencing technology Zoom for our online courses, so your taught sessions are always ‘live’ with your tutor and other writers in your group. Some of our masterclasses are held online as well as our student readings. The end-of-year Publishing Day is also online so you can have a full experience as an online student.

Q) How long is the Creative Writing Programme?

R) The Creative Writing Programme and the Life Writing Programme are two-year part-time courses. Each year runs from late September/early October to the end of May. There are 25 weeks in each year. Our Advanced Workshops meet every month for 10 months and our Advanced Poetry Workshops is a 10-week or 20-week course. The Beginners Poetry course is 20 weeks long. Most courses start at the beginning of October apart from The Introduction to Creative Writing course which starts in January or April.

Q) Do I get a qualification at the end of the Creative Writing Programme?

R) There is no official exam board on the Creative Writing Programme. We are an independent writing school, so we cannot offer accredited qualifications – that is one of the ways in which we can ensure our fee structure is so competitive in relation to university courses … and other courses for that matter! At the end of your two years, you will receive a certificate of attendance. Writers from our programmes have successfully used their two years on the Creative Writing Programme as the equivalent of a year out of a university degree through a process called accreditation of prior learning.

Q) What’s the difference between the Creative Writing Programme and a university course?

R) The Creative Writing Programme was designed to be different to university creative writing courses. As a tutor group most of us have had experience of teaching creative writing at university level. We have built the Creative Writing Programme as an alternative. There are many good writers and good courses at UK universities, but we believe that within a university context an academic emphasis makes it difficult to design courses that focus on the creative process and can result in an over-intellectualisation of narrative and literature. Our approach is more akin to that of an art school or music academy. Our priority is the teaching of techniques that are required to write well. We do this by focusing on your writing, building confidence in your evolving style, separating the writer from the critic and engaging the mind and body in the writing process, and encouraging a sensitive awareness of the conventions of narrative.

Q) What’s the difference between asynchronous and synchronous learning?

R) Asynchronous online courses are built out of pre-recorded videos, reading material and questions sheets. They are designed to be taken at a student’s own speed. Synchronous online courses are live and interactive and use video conferencing software. Though asynchronous approaches can be useful in some subject areas, we believe that synchronous teaching is best for a subject like creative writing, where discussion, peer group feedback and shared experience of the topic in real time are essential. That’s why all our courses are taught by synchronous teaching.

Q) Can sessions be recorded if I miss them?

If students cannot make a class for whatever reason, they can catch up using the tutor’s notes on our online learning platform or by chatting to other students before/ after the next class. Recording sessions can make students feel inhibited or stressed, and views shared in the moment can come across differently on a recording. In only very exceptional circumstances, and at the tutor’s discretion, the tutor may record a class. This will only happen if all students give permission in advance of the class – if even one person is uncomfortable with the idea, then recording won’t happen. Students can refuse permission privately to the tutor.  The recording will only be sent to the student(s) who missed the class and only on request. It cannot be uploaded to the Moodle platform. Students who receive the recorded session must agree not to share it, and to permanently delete it once viewed. The recording will be sent via a secure, encrypted platform such as WeTransfer which is free to use. In-person sessions cannot be recorded and students cannot join remotely as this is disruptive.

Q) What’s the optimum size for a creative writing class?

R) On the Creative Writing Programme our groups are a maximum of 15 writers. We will not allow our groups to be bigger than this as we believe these are optimum numbers for a good learning experience. We want to ensure that everybody gets the attention they want or need. Many university groups are much larger than this and writing students are often corralled into lectures of 90+ students. We feel it’s important that all your learning takes place in a fully interactive space where you can ask questions at any time.

Q) What skills does a writer need to have?

R) A difficult, if unanswerable question! Everyone has skills and you should allow the skills you have to determine your individual style. Some writers have a natural ear for dialogue, others have the ability to put the subtlest of thoughts into words. A good writer plays to their strengths. A strong visual imagination and an ability to observe and recall are considered important skills, as is curiosity. On the Creative Writing Programme, we encourage tenacity and commitment. Our experience tells us that it is not always the obviously talented writer who get published. The writers who keep going and take criticism and rejection positively are more often the writers who get the publishing deals. An agent wants to know that you’re in it for the long haul, that you’re dependable and that you’ll be able to make the all-important deadline for your second novel.

Q) Can I teach myself to write?

R) There is an argument that creative writing courses are a distraction from getting down to writing. This is based on a number of misconceptions. People who make this argument often point to famous writers in the past, forgetting they were nearly all wealthy or privileged individuals who had all the time in the world to further their craft. Another misconception is that you’re either a genius or not. If you’re a genius then writing will come naturally. If not, then you’d better move on. This is a complete fallacy. Chekhov, one of the greatest short story writers of all time literally copied stories by Maupassant in order to understand how they were crafted. His early stories are fairly crude and sentimental … but he persevered. Misconceptions aside, the short answer to this question is, yes, you can teach yourself to write BUT it is hard, demanding work. Taking a writing course when you have to earn a living to support yourself makes sense. You can learn with others in a structured, supportive environment under the critical guidance of a tutor/mentor.

Q) What are the best creative writing courses in the UK?

R) Creative writing courses are like restaurants, the quality of the food depends on the chef. Chefs come and go, so do tutors and writers. There are some famous courses in universities in the UK that have become too popular and have sacrificed a writer-centred ethos for the cash register and there are smaller courses taught by inspiring writer/tutors that are brilliant. A word of warning: great writers don’t always make great teachers. Big and famous doesn’t necessarily mean good. The best thing to do is to ask other writers and shop around. Be discerning. Choose courses that offer you lots of detailed information about their courses, tutors, teaching approach and clearly outline what you can expect to achieve. Make sure they give you all the information you need, or provide you with a contact email where you can ask questions and get a thoughtful and honest response.

Q) What’s the point of taking a two-year or three-year creative writing course?

R) There are lots of short, four-week or six-week creative writing courses available. The main problem with them is they are too short. They can focus on some aspect of the writing process, say how to manage and keep on top of a novel while you are writing it, but they are not comprehensive and they are not cumulative. You will feel you are just getting to know people and understand what it is you’re doing when the course ends. A good two or three-year course will teach you all you need to know and ensure that by the time you’ve finished it, you have started a project that will not collapse either under its own weight or because of faulty foundations. Not only that, but working with the same tutor for two years allows them to really get to know your work and writing style and to contribute to your development as a writer more meaningfully. We run a 10-week Introduction to Creative Writing course for those uncertain whether they want to commit to the rigour of a two-year course but we hope that the majority of writers use it as a springboard to the two-year programme.

Q) How important is it to have a good tutor?

R) It’s essential to have a good tutor. On the Creative Writing Programme you will usually work with two tutors over the two years. It’s not always easy and you won’t always agree with them, so it’s important to be prepared to be challenged and ultimately to reserve the right to ignore advice in the understanding that sometimes you’re just not in the right place to hear it and make use of it. Sometimes it can take a year or two for things to ‘click’ and finally see what it is that someone has been telling you about your work. You’ll never find the perfect tutor, because like everyone, a good writer has strengths and weaknesses and this will influence what interests them in your work. They also have a world view that may differ from yours. Regardless of these differences, our focus on the Creative Writing Programme and Life Writing Programme is the impact of the story. Regardless of the subject, genre or style our tutors will offer advice designed to help your writing communicate with and affect your reader, for it to be greater than the sum of its parts.

Q) What are the best books to read if I want to become a writer?

R) The books you love and can’t put down from page one. Treasure them. Put them on a shelf of ‘special books’. Read them at least twice. Three times is better. Go back to them constantly. Scribble notes all over them. Ask questions of them. Mark up paragraphs you love. Copy these sections out. Count the words in the sentences, note the phrasing and cadences, the dramatic heft of each phrase, study the imagery. Force it all through the sieve of your skin so it becomes part of you. Never lend these books to anyone!

Our tutors have also put together a reading list of great books about writing that they turn to again and again.

• Dorothea Brande – Becoming a Writer

• Writing Fiction – Janet Burroway

• Robert Olen Butler –  From Where You Dream

• Life Writing: A Writers’ and Artists’ Companion – Sally Cline and Carole Angier

• Andrew Cowan – The Art of Writing Fiction

• Stephen King – On Writing

• Anne Lamott – Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

• Francine Prose – Reading Like a Writer

• Richard Skinner – Writing A Novel

• Strunk and White – Elements of Style 4th edition

• James Wood – How Fiction Works

• John Yorke – Into the Woods

• Natalie Goldberg – Writing Down the Bones

You can buy all of these from our partner Kemptown Bookshop  

Q) Do I have to be in the UK to take the Creative Writing Programme?

R) No, you can take our online courses from anywhere in the world if you have a good internet connection. Our courses are all taught in English so you will need to have a strong grasp of the language.

Q) What is Life Writing?

R) Life Writing is any writing that is based in some way on lived experience, personal or researched and has a narrator that is not an imagined construct. It includes biography, autobiography, memoir writing, travel writing, blogs, life writing and some forms of ethnographic research. We run a two-year Life Writing Programme, held online, for writers wanting to explore this area.

Q) Do I need to understand literary critical theory if I want to be a successful writer?

R) No. Most writers want to focus on learning how to write well and academic study and literary theory can be distracting and actually block the flow of their writing. On the Creative Writing Programme, we have developed a process-based approach which focuses on ‘doing’, like an art school or music academy. If we use literary theory we only use it in the context of understanding how to construct compelling, dramatic narrative.

Q) What are your top writing tips?

R) Every writer has a different approach. This is the view of our course director Cathy Hayward, also a published author. But you can also hear from our tutors here.

1. Go on a creative writing course. I did the two-year, part-time Creative Writing Programme but there are shorter online courses, and even book-based courses, which are easily accessible. It helps to focus your writing, gives you a structure and really holds your hand along the writing journey. And you meet other writers too as well as great tutors. My writing tutor Rosie Chard, a published author herself, helped me get The Girl in the Maze ready to send to agents and supported me through the submissions process.

2. Write rough. I try not to think too hard when I write, I just get the words down on the page. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think your writing is any good at that stage. Any words are better than no words. You can’t edit a blank page. Once you’ve got a rough first draft, you can go back and hone it. And you might find out that some of the material you’ve written is surprisingly good.

3. Create a writing routine: Find a time where you feel at your most creative. For me, it’s early morning and I’ve written about my routine here but for others to might be during the day or late at night. Finding a writing place can also be helpful in getting those creative juices to flow – it’s as if the writing gods know that when I sit down at this time in this place, I’m there to write.

4. Write what you know. I started writing about a woman dealing with her estranged mother’s death. That story became my debut novel.  It was only several thousand words in that I realised I was writing about me. My mother, who I hadn’t then seen for four years, had died and I was trying to process her death. If you write what you know, it will be true, even when it’s fiction.

5. Write every day, even if it’s only a sentence. The writing muscle is like any other muscle. It gets stronger the more it’s exercised.

Q) I’m dyslexic. Will that stop me being a writer?

R) We have had many dyslexic writers on the Creative Writing Programme over the years. Research suggests that writers with dyslexia have a greater than average ability to combine unusual and interesting ideas, which is clearly going to contribute creatively to the writing process. They also tend to think visually which is an important creative writing skill. There are many famous writers who have had some degree of dyslexia: Scott Fitzgerald, Agatha Christie, WB Yeats, Flaubert, Benjamin Zephaniah, Irvine Welsh and John Irving among them.

Q) I have specific access needs. What adjustments can you make to support me?

We welcome writers with medical conditions, disabilities and additional support needs and will make the necessary adjustments wherever possible. In order that we can create a positive and safe experience for everyone, it is important that we are aware of any medical condition, disability, or access requirements you may have. If you have any specific needs, please discuss with our course director Cathy Hayward cathy@creativewritingprogramme.org.uk who will then share with your tutor, where needed and where you give permission, and arrange for the necessary adjustments. This information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

The Creative Writing Programme is not able to offer professional support for mental health issues. Writers who are dealing with personally difficult subject matter or who are traumatised or psychologically disturbed by the work of other students on the programme are advised to ensure they are properly supported outside the courses.