Curtis Brown Creative Reviews 

I have now completed two non-selective courses with CBC. They use their own staff to provide very useful materials and feedback. The forums work very well, and the whole online process is smooth and efficient.

I liked how the course was presented with clear weekly instructions; as written presentations and in the form of a videos. Plus the opportunity to download the relevant tasks and resources.
I was also impressed on how the presented 'writing' and ‘illustrating' challenges were delivered on alternative weeks throughout the 10 weeks.
There was also the opportunity to communicate on a Forum with other students and download work carried out and receive feedback, as well as having the opportunity to give feedback to the other students. Excellent course.

I have completed many online Curtis Brown Courses in the past. They are very professional, well structured, easy to follow and I always learn new techniques and approaches. I like the discipline of submitting a piece of work each week and I also like the ability to get feedback on my pieces, or read the feedback of other work, from a professional reader. I've just signed up to my next two. I've just completed two boot camps, and the relationship, showing not telling and dialogue courses.

Your experience will depend on the course you take. I rate the non-competitive courses (I've done a few) more highly than the competitive entry course I did (three months online).

The non-competitive courses range in cost so hopefully you can find something that fits your budget - the online resources are great and the feedback process is okay. Mostly I rate it for the resources - recommend.

The competitive course has very similar resources but more of them and a bit of a 'welcome to your creative calling' vibe. The usefulness of the feedback is extremely dependent on the cohort - some people make the effort, most do not, and fingers crossed you find someone who gets what you're writing. The tutor provides solid feedback, but note you only receive tutor feedback four times throughout a three-month course (actually that's true for your writing overall, most of the course is spent reviewing other people's work). I would have benefitted from feedback over longer pieces - the 3000-word chunks weren't terribly helpful except for copy-editing type issues. I'm still not sure if what I've written is any good or not. The homework exercises were negligible given my better experience of them in the other CBC, cheaper and non-competitive, courses.

There's a course Zoom with an agent - nothing revolutionary there - the advice was all on the CBC website and in their online videos already - and a one-on-one with an agent at the end of the course. The utility of the one-on-one seemed to vary across my group - people who had assistants seemed to receive more helpful feedback - perhaps the more senior agents were too busy to read the excerpts properly? For me, it was the least useful and most uninspiring part of the entire course, which was disappointing.

At the end of the course, they pull together a pack of everyone's openings to share with Agents. After my experience with their agent, I wasn't enthusiastic and still not sure what the point of the process was given I wasn't ready to submit, except that it sounds cool when you're considering whether to apply for the course or not.

Overall, the short non-competitive courses are great. I did like the competitive course overall, but I don't believe the online three-month course version I did was worth the cost (even with a lovely tutor).

The course takes a serious, practical approach to the art of writing. There is no one-to-one tuition (except for a premium, I believe) but the advice is excellent and the collegiate environment particularly beneficial.

For a budget course, this would take some beating.

I took the “Rewrite Doctor” course taught by Anna Davis and if one could give it 6 stars I would. Anna is an extremely talented instructor who has an uncanny ability to provide laser-focused feedback on an individual student’s work. Her precise suggestions on the detailed mechanics of writing were both accurate and helpful. One gets the most out of this course by attending with an open mind, that is, know you are in expert hands and if an editing suggestion is made, you should seriously consider implementing it. This course was well worth the time and the busy day was enhanced by Anna’s excellent time management. From the friendly course coordinators to an expert instructor, this was a superb experience from start to finish.

I took a short course on writing for children and young adults. Very good value for money. The teaching, via pre-recorded videos, was informative. There were weekly tasks. Interaction with other students was encouraged, so we critiqued each other's work. We also got personal feedback on some of our homework from a published writer, which was very helpful and encouraging. Due to the small number of students for this time, we were lucky enough to get several lots of feedback each, but this may not be the norm. At least once is the promise.

Really enjoyed this 6 week course - got lots of helpful information and I liked Vaseem Khan guiding us through. The best bit was the Tasks and seeing the Reader Feedback from published author Dave Marks - he gave really helpful insights and I loved seeing what my fellow participants wrote about. A really thought provoking programme and highly recommended.

I just completed a course on Characterisation which was of a high standard and so helpful. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to develop their writing further.

After a long lapse in regular writing, I needed a way to quickly and easily get started again. The 30-Day Bootcamp was perfect. So perfect, I'm going to sign up for Bootcamp 2.

The Literary Course with Jonny Geller was amazing. I found it so insightful to learn about the industry and to interact with other aspiring writers on the course.

Completing the course has made me feel one giant step closer to achieving my aims of being a published writer.

The bootcamp was really affordable and the teaching was clear and precise. I found the writing exercises ignited my muse and got me back to work on my novel, thank you Curtis Brown and Anna.

Very good web environment, easy to navigate, clean and professional. Materials are useful but pretty basic. You should make clear that this is really a beginners course. Faber Academy are far superior in terms of course content and tutor feedback. If you are a complete beginner then this makes a reasonable value for money option.

Couldn't recommend more. Brilliant courses, whether you've written a lot already or you're starting from scratch. I was given the 30 Day Bootcamp as a birthday present and it's the best gift I've had for years. Great content and comms with the team, accessible and friendly.

A well-structured course that I was able to access at home and therefore fit around my work schedule. The mixture of videos, written material, tasks and the feedback via the forum from colleagues provided a great all-round virtual workshop experience. I've long been a fan of Tessa Hadley's novels and short stories and the way she thinks about writing, so it was a great pleasure to have a virtual TH join my at my desk once a week. The writing tasks and exercises helped me think about my writing in new ways and in ways I had forgotten about through long-held habits. I loved it all.

The learning platform was glitchy and I couldn’t access a lot of it on my laptop as there was a technical issue. Disappointing

The course caused me to focus on writing. I usually write in the 1st person’s POV, but I tried writing from the 3rd person’s POV and found I could do it. Amazing!

I did the Writing a Psychological Thriller course and the material was excellent, plus feedback from Curtis Brown staff and sometimes other students helpful. But you really need to have written a good chunk of your manuscript already to benefit from the course most. I wasn’t able to find time to write 3 opening chapters and a summary to submit because I work full time which meant I missed out on one of the most valuable parts of the course. Suggest they offer a part-time option in future that goes at a slower pace to allow those who want to write a novel but are time poor to get the most out of the course.

The CBC Bootcamp was a great re-boot for me. Having not written anything for years, this has applied the proverbial boot to my backside and I hope to follow up with a couple more specific courses later this year. A really worthwhile month for me - working through the different tasks and taking tips from the videos from Anna. Once I'd started getting and giving feedback that part of the course fell into place too, was great fun and really confidence-building. Absolutely excellent and fantastic value.

I have learnt a lot in three CBC courses i took. I have had a lot of invaluable pieces of advice from the course instructor, Anna Davis and a lot of support from the course participants. The courses are structured really well and the tasks and prompts have opened new avenues for me. Anyone who really wants to improve their writing should take a CBC course. Course participants are encouraged to critique each other's work and do it encouragingly. This is really important. A lot of writers are insecure and the encouraging words can make a lot of difference.