Curtis Brown Creative.

[EllaAlright]

Hi all,

Has anyone had any experience of a creative writing course from Curtis Brown? I’m interested, but it does seem a bit pricey.

Waste of money, targeting people desperate to "be a writer" who haven't got a hope in hell.

They do seem to produce a remarkable number of publishing successes - so clearly not a waste of money for some. But it's hard to know what proportion of aspiring writers ever get further than paying for a course.

Thank you for the replies. I’m going to be undertaking an English and Creative Writing degree in September, so was just after something to give me a better understanding of it.

I looked at the writers bereau but their course is over £400 and I can’t afford that at the moment, so I bought the books as a set from EBay for £18. They’re from 1988 though, but I’m sure it’s still relevant.

If you're about to start a degree you probably don't need to pay for a course in advance.

There's a lot of potentially useful stuff available for free on the Curtis Brown site anyway - though usefulness depends on your own level of experience.

What d'you mean exactly by a better understanding of it?

I haven’t taken any of their courses but CB are my agency, and they’re wonderful - so helpful and really do care about growing writers and helping them to develop long-term careers.

I agree that if you’re about to do a degree, it’s better to focus on that. I’d advise just doing lots of writing in your spare time and maybe enter writing competitions, or send stuff (like short stories, if you write them) to publications? If your long term goal is to get an agent then building up a portfolio will stand you in better stead than a short writing course.

Thank you. By better understating I mean techniques and layouts with regards to writing fiction, structure, grammar, having 3 dimensional characters etc...

I’d like to work in marketing or being a copy writer eventually. We will see though, I’ll be 42 when I finish my degree and all my roles before have been in health care, so I don’t have the advantage of previous experience.

I like the short story idea. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.