Finish Your Draft
Develop the tools, techniques and motivation to complete your novel within nine months.
Level
What do these levels mean?
Location
Length
- Start Date
- Time
- Flexible
- Application Deadline
- Monday 20 Jan 2025
Places available
£1850
£1850
£350 / month for 4 months and a £450.00 deposit
View payment options
The application deadline for this course has now passed.
The structure and support to get you to the final line
This is a flexible but intensive course for the advanced writer, designed to help you hone your editorial eye and get to the end. Within a small, supportive community of fellow writers, you will be pushed to analyse the robustness and effectiveness of your structure, style and other narrative choices, and to stay on track with your word-count.
You can work at your own pace through the monthly lessons and exercises, while always keeping in touch through private class forums, optional monthly video-call sessions and check-ins with your tutor. Submit up to 5,000 words every month for peer feedback and make use of regular self-assessment and reflection opportunities to develop a practice that will carry you through to your next book and the one after that.
Is this the right course for me?
This is an advanced level course designed for those who have already made significant progress with their novel and would benefit from the structure, support and community to get to the end of their first draft.
What ‘significant progress’ means will vary from writer to writer, as will the amount of time you need to devote to writing your novel. By this stage in your practice, you should have some idea of the pace at which you write and edit, so it’s important to be honest with yourself about the feasibility of completing your remaining word count within nine months. If you’re unsure, please get in touch.
Upon successful completion of this course, you will have:
- Written a complete draft of your novel. (Hurrah!)
- Honed your editorial eye and gained the necessary skills to tackle the next draft alone.
- Practised close analysis of a diverse range of published works.
- Learnt to give and receive detailed critical feedback within a structured and caring environment.
- Found a life-long place within a supportive writing community.
- Made a plan for the next steps.
You will also:
- Receive peer feedback on up to 45,000 words of your manuscript.
- Receive tutor feedback on 10,000 words.
- Have two one-to-ones with your tutor.
The course will be delivered in nine sessions, each lasting four weeks.
Course Programme
Session 1
3 February – 2 March
Getting Started...
Session 2
3 March – 30 March
Interrogating Your Instincts...
Session 3
7 April – 4 May
Scene and Chapter Shape...
Tutor
Marcel Theroux
Marcel Theroux is the award winning author of six novels: A Blow to the Heart, A Stranger in the Earth, The Paperchase (winner...
More About This Tutor
Location
Faber Academy's bespoke online classroom has been built from scratch specifically for helping writers develop their craft. Through this platform you will access your weekly sessions, watch video lessons, join Zoom sessions, download class materials and interact with your fellow writers in dedicated forums at a time that suits you. Our online learning model prioritises interaction, lively discussion and workshopping in small groups to help you get the most out of your learning experience.
I feel so lucky to have had a tutor as wonderful as Natasha! She has taught me so much and helped me to become a more confident and considered writer. I really cannot praise her enough.
How to Apply
When applying, you'll be prompted to upload the following documents:
A covering letter
Tell us about your writing experience, any creative writing courses you have been on, and what you are looking to get from the course.
A synopsis of your novel
We'll want to see that you have a good sense of the shape of your story – it doesn't need to be final, but enough that you'll be able to dive into the writing straight away, and be able to deliver the required wordcount each month to really get the most out of this course.
Prose sample (5,000 words)
This should be the first 5,000 words of your novel – it's important that you use the book you're planning to work on during the course.
The Faber Academy Scholarship Programme
There are scholarship places available on this course for writers who otherwise could not afford to attend. We particularly welcome applications from writers of colour, disabled writers and LGBTQ+ writers.
To apply, please submit a 5,000 word prose sample, along with your covering letter and synopsis (both as Word docs or PDFs) to academy@faber.co.uk, with the subject line ‘Scholarship Application: Finish Your Draft – October 2024’. The full terms and conditions and more information about our scholarship programme can be found below.
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