Writing a Romance Novel

Start Date

Package

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Refund guaranteed if requested before course starts

Writing a Romance Novel

Genre focus

Length

6 weeks

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Start writing

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Writing a Romance Novel

Create a heartfelt romance that readers won’t be able to resist.

Tutor

Jenny Colgan

Length

6 weeks

Location

Online

Writing Goal

Start writing

Exclusive video lessons from the 15-million-copy bestselling author.

Genre focus

Are you looking to set readers’ hearts on fire with a heart-warming romantic comedy, a cosy small-town love story, an enemies-to-lovers romantasy or a steamy sports romance?

The Writing a Romance Novel course was brilliant. I had so many ‘ah ha’ moments listening to Jenny’s practical wisdom.

Steph Vizard
Author of The Love Contract

Across six weeks, bestselling novelist Jenny Colgan will explore the world of romantic fiction. Whether you have the germ of an idea or are already halfway through, you'll discover how to make this genre your own. You’ll learn what makes a page-turning, swoon-worthy romance novel by drawing on popular examples of the genre, identifying the beloved tropes of romantic fiction and highlighting key techniques that you can bring to your own writing.

Romance is for everyone – whoever takes centre stage in your story and whatever kind of love you want to explore in your novel, Jenny will equip you with all the tools you’ll need to make your readers’ hearts leap and flutter.

Tutor

This course features pre-recorded teaching videos from the tutor, alongside written tasks and resources to support your learning. Please note you will receive feedback on your writing from the course editor rather than your tutor.

Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling novels and has won various awards for her writing, including the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award and the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year Award. Her books have sold more than fifteen million copies worldwide and have been published in thirty-six territories, and in 2015 she was inducted into the Love Stories Hall of Fame. Jenny is married with three children and lives in Scotland.

Editor

Each week, the course editor will provide brief written feedback on several students’ practical assignments. All students who post in the forum will receive feedback on one writing task during the course. Editors listed may change. All CBC editors are experienced authors and/or publishing professionals.

Rachel Marks

Rachel Marks studied English at Exeter University before becoming a primary school teacher. Despite always loving to write, it wasn’t until she gained a place on the 2016 Curtis Brown Creative online novel writing course that she started to believe it could be anything more than just a much-loved hobby. Her inspiration for her first novel came from the challenges she faced with her eldest son, testing and fascinating in equal measure. When she discovered Pathological Demand Avoidance, a poorly understood Autism Spectrum Disorder, she could finally make sense of her son’s behavior, and the idea for the first novel fell into place. Rachel's latest book, One December Day, was published by Penguin in October 2023.

Anna Bell

Anna Bell is an author of uplifting, romantic fiction. She started her writing career self-publishing and her third self-published romantic comedy Don’t Tell the Groom became a digital bestseller and was later published in paperback by Quercus. She has had nine subsequent novels published in the UK and her books have been translated into nine languages. Her biggest seller to date was the romantic comedy The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart which spent six months in the Kindle Top 100 and was a Spiegel bestseller in Germany. Her latest novel Virtually Yours was published by Bedford Square Publishers in January 2026.

WHAT DOES THIS COURSE GIVE YOU?

Video modules: Work through six weekly modules comprising teaching videos, substantial notes and tasks from Jenny Colgan. Topics range from finding the focus for your romantic novel, creating romantic leads that your readers will fall in love with and understanding the building blocks of story, to invaluable tips about editing your novel.
Writing tasks: Weekly tasks will help you explore and understand the teaching topics as you progress your novel.
Resources & notes: You’ll get access to comprehensive teaching notes and reference materials, including extracts from Jenny’s own popular romance novels and a guide to help you bring your characters to life.
Professional feedback: An expert CBC editor will give brief written feedback on several of the students' practical assignments every week, with all students receiving feedback on one of their writing tasks. Students are also given the option to purchase additional end-of-course feedback from our expert editors.
Student forum: Find your writing community on our private student forums. Upload your completed writing tasks, give and receive peer-to-peer feedback, and discuss the week’s topics with your fellow students and the CBC team.

COURSE SCHEDULE & DELIVERY

Our online courses are designed for flexible learning. Allocate your own study time and take part from wherever you are in the world. Each week, we recommend spending at least four hours on the course. It’s also important to be planning and working on your novel throughout the six weeks.

WEEK 1
Getting down to work
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WEEK 2
Your romantic leads
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WEEK 3
Constructing your story
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WEEK 4
The heart of it all
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WEEK 5
The edit
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WEEK 6
Next steps
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ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK

All students will be given the option to purchase feedback on their final task from a CBC editor.

CBC report: For an additional fee of £155, you can obtain a detailed 500-word report on your work (of up to 3,000 words) from one of our CBC editors.
CBC report + tutorial: For an additional fee of £260, you can obtain a 500-word report from one of our editors and have a 30-minute video or telephone tutorial with them to discuss your work.

Do you want to know more about the contents of our end-of-course reader reports? Click the button below to download and read an example report.

View Example Report

GIFT THIS COURSE

Encourage your writerly friend or loved one to get creative! We have £230 digital gift vouchers available, enabling you to buy any six-week online course as a present.

Buy Voucher

Start Date

Package

Learn more about reports, tutorials and editorial services

Refund guaranteed if requested before course starts

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