Are Creative Writing Courses Worth the Money?

Do you need to complete a writing course to land a book deal? It’s a question I often come across in the various writer groups I’m part of. The straight-forward answer is no, you absolutely don’t. Writers who’ve never completed creative writing courses get book deals every day, and some would argue that writing is not something that can be taught. You either have the gift of writing or you don’t. I personally don’t agree with this viewpoint. You may have a gift for storytelling, a way with words or a vivid imagination, but I believe honing the craft of writing is a lifelong pursuit, and everyone has much still to learn.

Back in 2021, I found myself asking this very question. I’d landed my first book deal in 2018, been traditionally published in 2019, and like most debut authors had been elated, believing my career as a professional writer had finally begun. I naively thought, I’d soon be able to quit the day job and support myself as a fulltime novelist.

The World Turned Upside Down and Digital Only Deals became a Thing

Ah, the folly of youth. My debut novel, Home to Cavendish, didn’t exactly set the world alight. Spoiler alert for all of you yet to be published, debut novels rarely do. I laboured through a second novel but as I handed in edits to my publisher, Covid hit, and my publisher began to float the idea that my second book would be published in digital format only. I balked. Having experienced the high of seeing my debut on bookshop shelves, alongside some of my favourite writers, the prospect of digital-only felt like a letdown. I now see that digital is every bit as important as print, perhaps more so, if your aim is to live off your writing, but that’s a whole other topic of discussion for another day.

I suppose it’s only fair to add here, that I was also going through a very tough time personally, and dealing with some mental health issues, so perhaps not in the best place to make big decisions. Going with my gut, as I usually do, I parted ways with my publisher and set about finding a new home for my second novel. I will be writing about how that panned out in future newsletters (not so good, 75 rejections over two years, finally an offer of publication, followed by an all-round disappointing publishing experience).

Then I Quit Writing

After that, I quit, forever, and really meant it but six months passed and then a year, and every so often I’d think about writing. My very lovely husband kept telling me to go back to it. Do it for the joy of doing it, not to get published. He’s a smart man and little by little I began to consider a come-back.

Like most writers, I pay particular attention to the acknowledgements sections of books I love, and it felt like every acknowledgement I read was thanking the Curtis Brown Creative (CBC) Team. CBC is the teaching arm of the behemoth literary agency that is Curtis Brown. In book after book that I read, authors were mentioned CBC and so I began to explore.

I’d always discounted doing a writing course because of the cost and as I suspected, any of the longer courses advertised on the CBC website were expensive. I’d also left my cushy job in Ireland by then and was freelancing as a business writer so money wasn’t exactly in plentiful supply. However, I did have a birthday approaching and the same lovely husband offered to pay for the course of my choice, as my birthday gift.

The 3 Month Curtis Brown Creative Write Your Novel Course, taught by the wonderful Susannah Dunn changed my life and transformed my writing. It opened me up to new ways of writing and made me consider things I’d never considered before. Without sounding like an infomercial for CBC, I highly recommend this course and absolutely credit it for my securing a literary agent for the first time ever.

Completing a creative writing course worked for me but that’s not to say everyone will have the same results. But here’s what I can say, if you view your writing as a career that is going to involve continuous learning, basically until the day you depart for the big library in the sky, and you remain open to every means available to foster that learning, whether that’s listening to podcasts, reading books on how to improve your writing, scraping the minds of other writers to glean everything you can from them, and reading, reading, reading – a creative writing course might just be another great tool to help you on your way.

If you’d like to share your thoughts or experiences of writing courses, good or bad, please do. I’d love to hear them. Also,some courses offer scholarships for low-income writers and others facing barriers to entry such as here https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/breakthrough-scholarsh...

In the meantime, here’s a list of some other great resources to boost your writing and help you navigate the world of traditional publishing.

Some Great Resources for Honing your Writing Skills

https://www.thenovelry.com/

https://jerichowriters.com/creative-writing-courses/

https://www.masterclass.com/categories/writing-3

And One Amazing Podcast – Writer Unleashed by Nanci Panuccio, including hundreds of back episodes providing amazing advice on honing the craft of writing fiction.

Don’t forget if you’ve any writing related questions, send them through on the Contact section of my website and I’ll do my best to answer them in an upcoming newsletter. Also feel free to share The Writing Mentor on your Social Media accounts so your writer friends can sign-up and gain access to the Agent Query letter that won me 3 offers of representation.