Writing a Novel: the first 15,000 online course

Your tutor will introduce you to the skills and techniques that will help you test your novel idea, plan your story and chapters, and guide you as you start writing.

As you work through the sessions, you’ll develop the first 15,000 words of your novel while working within a supportive community of fellow writers keen to share their experiences with you.

You’ll learn in Faber Academy’s online classroom, which is open 24/7 so you can balance your learning around your work, family and friends. You’ll work in a small group of fellow learners so you can discuss ideas, ask questions and share your writing as you progress through the sessions.

As this is an advanced course, each group is limited to 15 students or fewer.

You’ll learn from:

• Videos, podcasts and reading suggestions from course director, Tom Bromley
• Exclusive videos from masters of novel writing and fiction
• Practical writing exercises to help you experiment and practise your skills as you work on your novel
• One-to-one tutor discussions over phone or Skype
• Guided discussions with your group
• Live chatroom sessions with your group and tutor
• The opportunity to share your work and give and receive feedback from fellow writers
• Detailed tutor feedback report at the end of the course

You’ll need:

• 5-7 hours per week to work through the course
• A notebook and pen or pencil, if you like to make notes by hand
• A laptop or computer* with:
  • A reliable broadband internet connection
  • Speakers or headphones
  • The latest version of Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, or Safari
  • Microsoft Word. If you don’t have this you can download Open Office free
  • Adobe Reader, latest version. Download free
  • QuickTime Player, latest version. Download free
  • Adobe Flash Player 10 or higher

*You can access the course from a tablet or smartphone, but we recommend using a laptop or computer, as this makes it easier to share your work files with your writing group.

Join the Faber Academy alumni

After your course, you can join the online alumni where you’ll meet the growing network of past Faber Academy students. The alumni is a friendly group of writers who support each other as they continue to explore and develop their writing.

Within the online alumni area you can:

• Rejoin your classmates on a private forum, together with access to an archived version of your course materials and forum posts
• Meet alumni from other Faber Academy courses and groups and share your writing for feedback
• Join discussions about reading, writing and ideas
• Retain access to the online resources area, which we constantly update with interesting and informative links
• Chat with other people in the online alumni chatroom
• Benefit from live chats with guest authors, agents, editors and publishers
• Contribute to an anthology of student work sent out to literary agents (Novel and Work in Progress courses only)

Taking things further

If you would like to continue on to another Faber Academy course, you'll receive a discount. Please contact us for more details.

This is an advanced course and we want you to get the best learning experience, so you’ll need to apply for your place. This helps us to assign you to the right group, so that you’re all working together at the same level.

This is a Faber Academy course, so you’ll need to book through their website. You’ll need to send them:

• An example of your fictional prose writing (approximately 1,000 words). This does not have to be from your proposed novel
• A brief outline of your novel idea (250-750 words) — include details about character, setting and events, and a working title if you have one
• The title of the novel you’d recommend to another writer, and why (approximately 200 words)

You can also include a cover note, detailing your writing experience, and what you hope to gain from the course.