Academy
Evening courses

Establish a writing routine, build skills and receive constructive feedback with a live evening course from the National Centre for Writing

Upcoming courses

Master Your Prose Fiction with Ian Nettleton (10-week course)

Join Ian Nettleton for a practical, supportive course to help you refine your manuscript and prepare it for agents with confidence.

Calendar

Monday 21 September

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Writing From the Archives with Elizabeth Lewis Williams (six-week course)

Writing From the Archives with Elizabeth Lewis Williams (six-week course)

Discover how to use archives to craft narratives in this six-week evening course led by writer Elizabeth Lewis Williams.

Calendar

Tuesday 13 October

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Designed to grow your practice, we offer live writing classes to suit a range of writing abilities. Each will see you join a small group of like-minded writers over a set period, led by a skilled tutor, during which you’ll work on your craft and confidence.

Relaxed and engaging, the classes are carefully structured to take you through a series of tutor presentations, practical exercises and group discussion as well as developing new or existing work.

We offer beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of learning throughout the year. Some of our live evening courses take place in person at Dragon Hall in Norwich, while others take place online. Our online classes still take place in real-time online so you can enjoy the feeling of being in a classroom with fellow participants and your tutor from the comfort of your own home – anywhere in the world!

You will have the opportunity to receive feedback on your work – either informally in class, and/or through one workshop session. To ensure that everyone gets a chance to input, we have capped courses to a maximum of 15 people. 

See above for upcoming courses.

Hear from our alumni

‘Every class was engaging and I never lost interest even for a moment.’

— Kim Lusher

‘The tutor is a delightful presence who wears his great learning with lightness and humility. It creates a wonderfully ego free atmosphere.’ 

— Liz Wiggins

How do courses work?

Our evening courses contain a mixture of tutor presentations, practical exercises and group discussion. You will also have some reading and writing time to do in your own time. Click to read more about how courses are structured and what level might be right for you.

We have partnered with digital learning platform Teachable to host our course materials, which contain reading and writing exercises for you to complete in your own time ahead of each live class.

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‘I enjoyed the quality of the feedback on our work. Not just from the tutor but from fellow writers. I also enjoyed the pressure of the exercises — having to create something good in 15 minutes really tests creativity.’

Trevor Walker

NCW Academy Bursary Programme

We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to tell stories, whatever their background. Each year, we offer free places on selected courses and workshops to writers who otherwise could not afford to attend. Please find details of any current bursaries on individual workshop and course listings. Find out how to apply below.

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Got a question?

If you want to find out more about how our courses work and whether a course is right for you, click here.

If you still have questions, get in touch with the learning team by email academy@nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk or phone (+44) 01603 877177 between our working hours of 9am – 5pm BST, Monday to Friday.

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