About this course

How to Write a Novel is a free eight-lesson course by Stewart Ferris — writer, publisher, and the author of more than fifty books, translated into a dozen languages.

Stewart co-founded Summersdale Publishers, has written for television and radio (including Pokémon and the theme song to Ricky Gervais’s first series), and writes the practical guides writers actually use: How to be a Writer, How to Get Published, Write Your Novel in 30 Days, and Unusual Character Names for Writers. His fiction includes the Ballashiels Mysteries — The Sphinx Scrolls, The Dali Diaries, The Chaplin Conspiracy — as well as Oversleeper and The Reluctant Rescue.

The course is the spine. The specialised jobs — coming up with character names, building a dossier, mapping a plot, testing a first line — already have studios on grok.me. Use both. Then go to stewartferris.com for the handbooks, the novels, and the rest of the desk.