Joanna Briscoe

For your application, just be yourself. You don’t need to fret or procrastinate or keep re-writing either your letter or your prose submission. We can always immediately spot potential – and we’re just as interested in the real human behind the letter as we are your achievements. Relax into it, and we look forward to welcoming you on the course.

Richard T. Kelly

The novel is such a beautiful form, and once you know there’s a novel you must write then it’s a precious thing to commit to that. On top of your talent, you need space, consideration, and a guide through the woods. That’s what this course offers, and it means a great deal to all of us that so many writers have found the process stimulating, rewarding, even life-changing.

Shelley Weiner

Are you on the brink of applying for our Writing A Novel course but can’t quite get yourself to take the plunge? ‘Stop thinking about it,’ says Sophie, who recently completed the course. ‘If you really want it, life will make space. Novels are like babies. There is never a rational time to create one.’

I had asked Sophie and her peers to recall the moment they pressed ‘send’ on their application – what precipitated that moment and how, six months later, they feel about it.

For Paul, it was the loneliness of the long-distance writer. ‘To embark on a novel is daunting. A solo voyage into the unknown. The  Faber course made that unknown knowable and made each of us feel far from alone on our journey. That is invaluable.’

Julie agrees. She wanted ‘a defined structure and supportive space’ to explore the strengths and weaknesses of her writing. And she found it: ‘Travelling to The Bindery became the highlight of my week. Exploring storytelling and my desire to write was heavenly, all the while surrounded by books in a working publishing house.’

For Tebby, who says she wanted to write a novel for ‘so long’ but had no idea how or where to start, the moment arose when applications were closing and she realised it was now or never. She has no regrets. On the contrary: ‘Faber was the perfect place. I got exactly what I needed to begin and follow through writing my novel, along with an amazing community of new writers all at different stages and all equally committed to the process.’

Nikesh Shukla

What always makes me sit up when I’m reading an application is when a writer has a sense of what they’re hoping the course will give them that they wouldn’t otherwise have. What is the difference we can make for you? What do you hope to learn from the tutors or gain from the camaraderie of a cohort? Because when all’s said and done, every book published in the UK with an ISBN ends up in the British Library, forever. These are forever projects. They will exist in the archives of the British Library long after we’re all gone. How can this course help you work on your forever project?

Sarah May

I want to understand the relationship between you and your story. And why you feel that now is the time to tell this story.

Sabrina Broadbent

‘Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. You will need discipline, love, luck, endurance.’ (James Baldwin).

Your Faber writing group provides the first two . . .