Course description

If you have a story idea and you'd like to turn it into a whole novel, this course takes you from that first idea to a finished first draft, and shows you how to revise it into a book you're proud of.

You start by choosing your genre and readers, reading like a novelist and making a realistic plan for your time. Then you turn your idea into a premise and a one-line pitch, build characters with wants, needs, flaws and arcs, and choose your point of view, tense and voice. You plan your plot in three acts, with a midpoint, rising stakes and subplots, and turn it into scenes and a chapter plan. You bring the book to life with setting, dialogue, pace and theme, then write the whole first draft with a routine, a word count tracker and ways through the middle and through doubt. Finally you revise in layers, from the big picture down to single lines, work with beta readers, and look at next steps: writing groups, competitions, literary agents, self-publishing and copyright basics.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Mabilia, a hospital ward clerk in Stoke-on-Trent who plans every chapter of her mystery Hobb's Lock, and Warin, a retired postman who writes his crime novel without a plan, from their first ideas in January to Mabilia's polished opening chapter in October. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, an answer key and a cheat sheet, plus a premise and pitch worksheet, character profile sheets, a structure planner, scene cards, a chapter plan spreadsheet, a word count tracker spreadsheet, a revision checklist, a glossary and simple line drawings. The final project is a complete novel plan and a polished opening chapter of about 2,500 words, with Mabilia's as a model.

What you'll learn

• Starting your novel: what a novel is, choosing your genre and readers, reading like a novelist, a novel notebook and project folder, and a realistic plan for your time.
• From idea to premise: where novel ideas come from, the what-if question, building a premise with a character, a want, an obstacle and stakes, a one-line pitch, a summary and a working title.
• Characters: wants and needs, flaws, wounds and backstory, character arcs, antagonists and allies, and a cast list with full profiles.
• Point of view and tense: first person, third person close and wider, more than one viewpoint, past or present tense, and finding a narrative voice you can keep steady.
• Plot and structure: plot as a chain of causes and choices, the three-act shape, the midpoint and rising stakes, subplots, and planning ahead or writing to discover.
• Scenes and chapters: goal, conflict and outcome, scene and sequel, chapter breaks and endings, your opening chapter, and a full chapter plan.
• Setting, dialogue, pace and theme: setting and world, research worn lightly, dialogue with subtext, pace and tension, and theme in plain terms.
• Writing the first draft: permission to be rough, routines and word targets, getting through the middle, dealing with doubt, and keeping notes all the way to the end.
• Revising your novel: resting and reading the whole draft, big picture revision, scene by scene revision, line editing and proofreading, and working with beta readers.
• Next steps and your final project: writing groups and competitions, literary agents and self-publishing described neutrally, copyright basics from GOV.UK, a complete novel plan and a polished opening chapter.

Who it's for

Adults with a story idea who want to plan and write a full novel, in any genre. You don't need to have written a novel before. If you're new to creative writing, Creative Writing for Beginners: Find Your Voice in Stories, Poems and Short Pieces is a gentle first step, and this course is the natural next one.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a novel writing course. It makes no promises about publication, prizes or income: the goal it sets is a finished draft you're proud of. The lines on copyright are based on GOV.UK, but the course isn't legal advice. Mabilia, Warin and every other person in the course are fictional, and every example passage is original to the course.

What will I learn?

• Choose your genre and readers, read like a novelist and make a realistic plan for writing a novel
• Turn an idea into a premise with a character, a want, an obstacle and stakes, and a one-line pitch
• Build characters with wants, needs, flaws, wounds and arcs, with an antagonist, allies and a cast list
• Choose a point of view, tense and narrative voice, and keep them consistent
• Plan a plot in three acts with a midpoint, rising stakes and subplots, as a planner or a discovery writer
• Plan scenes with a goal, conflict and outcome, shape chapters and build a full chapter plan
• Use setting, research, dialogue, pace, tension and theme to bring a novel to life
• Write a whole first draft with a routine, word targets and ways through the middle and through doubt
• Revise in layers, from the big picture to line editing and proofreading, and work with beta readers
• Understand next steps, from writing groups and competitions to literary agents, self-publishing and copyright basics, and complete a novel plan and a polished opening chapter

Frequently asked questions