WIP is really good for learning the craft, redefining how we write and how we make it better i.e. writing with more awareness of different aspects of good writing. The peers are a great bunch of writers. The first session, my tutor put me in a group with two other YA writers to feedback on…

It’s so good to immerse myself not just in my story, but the stories of the other participants. Our stories feel like living, breathing organisms that we’re gradually coaxing into life. Rather like the plants my teenage protagonist is learning to care for in the allotment on his estate.

I have taken the Beginners’ Fiction and Setting courses from Faber Academy, and I have been impressed and grateful at how nurturing and dedicated the Faber Team has been in supporting my ambition to learn — I could not imagine doing this under the aegis of any other writing academy.

I have really enjoyed this course and met some fascinating writers with whom I would like to stay in touch.

This has been an absolutely fantastic group, and I would want to remain in touch. I’ve greatly enjoyed and benefited from working with my fellow students.

The tutor has been a wonderfully astute and I will happily sing his praises to anyone in need of kind but true writing advice. I am so grateful.

The whole point of the course did seem to come together for me. Setting, detail, research, I had been doing this in previous work but this showed me I need to keep this in mind as I write. More importantly (on a personal note) I have started writing again.

The Research course has given my writing a boost and I’ve found the feedback from other members extremely helpful and formative. It’s also great to continue to have contact with the alumni circle of writers.

This is my third short Faber course over the space of roughly a year and using all of my learning from them I’ve started writing short stories and entering them into competitions. I am going to do the same with the final piece I wrote on the Research course, so the questions, queries and tips…

I really appreciated Mr Marsden’s responses to my questions about writing and research. This has been a wonderful course and I have learned plenty.

Thank you so much to our moderator Lucy for all her efforts and endeavours behind the scenes. Everything went so smoothly and I’m sure that was in part thanks to her!

In the light of what we learnt on this course, I made some alterations to my novel to try and draw the reader in.