Our courses start this week so it feels appropriate to share this quote from the inspirational Stephen King. Whether you’re a returning second year writer, or starting on a creative writing course, the life writing programme or poetry, welcome and welcome back. We’re so excited to be teaching again after the long summer break.

Elaine is a novelist, short story writer and English teacher. She is the author of a novel and a short story collection. She teaches on the two-year Creative Writing Programme. Here she talks about her writing life.

Laura Wilkinson is a tutor on the two-year Creative Writing Programme in Brighton and runs the Advanced Writing Workshops. She has published seven novels for adults (two under a pseudonym) and numerous short stories. Here she offers her top writing tips.

The short answer is no. There are many successful authors who never went to university. Having letters after your name, or spending years in a university’s hallowed halls, does not necessarily make you a writer. Becoming a writer is all about learning the craft of writing and actually sitting down and writing.

Life Writing Programme alumna Carole Aubree-Dumont won the Emerging Authors prize at this year’s Brighton Book Festival with a reading from her memoir Dumb. Here she talks about her writing journey.

Mick Jackson’s first novel, The Underground Man, was shortlisted for The Booker Prize. He has since published a further three novels and three collections of stories, all with Faber and Faber. He teaches on the Brighton-based Creative Writing Programme. Here are his top writing tips.

It’s a difficult, if unanswerable, question. A strong visual imagination and an ability to observe and recall are important skills, as is curiosity. Some writers have a natural ear for dialogue. Others have the ability to put the subtlest of thoughts into words. Others can paint a scene in a few strokes of the keyboard. But writing is just not about the practical skills you can learn.

Ruth Figgest is a novelist and short story writer and teaches on the Creative Writing Programme at the Towner Eastbourne which starts in October. Here she offers her top tips for writing.

Beth Miller is the author of six novels, including the bestselling The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright. She teaches on the Creative Writing Programme based in Worthing on Friday mornings. Here she offers her top writing tips.

Good creative writing is about writing itself—not following rigid templates or academic constraints, but embracing the artistic process.

Are you interested in becoming a writer? Our brilliant tutors have put together a list of their go-to books about writing.

You want to be a writer – but should you take a creative writing course or learn ‘on the job’?

The start of the year is always a time for new year’s resolutions, and setting (or resetting) a regular writing habit is likely to be near the top of the list for many of us writers and poets.

Here poet and CWP tutor John McCullough offers his top writing tips to keep you maintaining your writing practice through the festive season. They’re relevant to both poets and prose writers.

Here novelist, short story writer, playwright and CWP tutor Hannah Vincent offers her top five writing tips.

If you’re an aspiring writer, should you do a degree, or an MA or MFA in creative writing? There are now hundreds of creative writing courses, undergraduate degrees, MFA’s and MA’s being offered by American and English universities. Are they worth the money? Is it worth getting qualified as a writer?