This course consists of 32 x Wednesday evening sessions, 5.30 pm – 7.30 pm AEST/AEDT. An additional evening session dedicated to the Faber Writing Anthology will be run in 2027.
2026 Dates
Stage One: Finding the Way
with Rebecca Giggs
Session 1: Wednesday, 22 July
Course introduction. Creative nonfiction techniques appear in many different genres of nonfiction writing. In this framing session, we begin by identifying the shared toolkit of creative nonfiction writers. What are the unique capacities of book-length nonfiction vis-à-vis other ‘documentary’ artforms? Meet your course coordinator and instructor for Stage One, Rebecca Giggs, and get to know your peers.
Session 2: Wednesday, 29 July
Commitment, Routine and Planning. Whether you’ve entered the course with a partial draft underway or only have your central idea and a handful of notes, we’ll take the time to consider goal-setting and how to take stock of your progress. We’ll make a close study of the various stages of drafting, and help you find a balance between a committed writing practice and making space to respond to surprise and intuition in the work as it grows.
Session 3: Wednesday, 5 August
Instigating Incident. No nonfiction project is an immaculate conception; something has to have happened to set the author on their path, whether that ‘something’ is intrinsic to the author’s own life or if it took place in the public sphere. In this class, we look at the ‘instigating incident’, the event (subtle or dramatic) out of which your book project has germinated. As part of this conversation, we’ll also consider timeliness: the why now of your book. The second hour of this class sees the first of our peer/instructor workshops. A maximum of two students will submit 2000 words from their work-in-progress for constructive feedback from the group. Your instructor will guide the discussion.
Session 4: Wednesday, 12 August
Internal design. Creative nonfiction is propelled by questions with consequences for the writer, the reader, and their shared world. A book needs the architecture of big, overarching questions, as well as smaller ones that can be answered at the level of the chapter. How do you develop insightful, interesting questions, and then chain them together? Where do good questions come from? The second hour of this class sees the second of our peer/instructor workshops.
Session 5: Wednesday, 19 August
Originality. Whether or not one has something new to say is frequently a preoccupation and a worry for creative nonfiction authors. How should we think about originality, in terms of our book’s core concept, our approach to gathering and organising information, and the voice or style of the writing? The second hour of this class sees the third of our peer/instructor workshops.
Session 6: Wednesday, 26 August
Research. If a common note given to fiction writers is ‘write what you know’, the inverse is true for nonfiction writers: ‘write to find out!’ This session begins a theme that will be further explored by instructor Sam Twyford-Moore later in the course: doing research for creative nonfiction. What do you need to know for your book’s inquiry to deepen, and where might you go to find out? The second hour of this class sees the fourth of our peer/instructor workshops.
Session 7: Wednesday, 2 September
Who is the storyteller? This session will be a wide-ranging exploration of narration and your particular book’s narrator. Will you be midmost in the story, or do you intend to foreground the true stories of others? What qualities of voice do you want to enact? The second hour of this class sees the fifth of our peer/instructor workshops.
Session 8: Wednesday, 9 September
Visit from an industry guest with expertise in the early phase of researching a nonfiction book, plus a discussion of how students will use the course break. The second hour of this class sees our sixth and final peer/instructor workshop for this first stage of the course.
COURSE BREAK [one-on-one consultations with Rebecca Giggs]
Stage Two: Stakes, Structure and Style
with Sam Twyford-Moore
Session 9: Wednesday, 21 October
Writing about others, casting a true story: This session will help develop the technical skills required for writing other people’s stories. If you have a subject, but not yet a shape or narrative for your book, how should you set about identifying the right people to voice different perspectives, or the best case-studies to unpack big ideas? Together with instructor Sam Twyford-Moore, you will learn about bringing real life ‘characters’ to life on the page. As we shall see, when it comes to telling the true stories of others, tips and tricks shared by biographers and journalists can be applied just as readily to other nonfiction genres.
Session 10: Wednesday, 28 October
Memory: Where does ‘memory’ fit into ‘creative’ nonfiction? A nonfiction writer’s use of memory is not limited to the recounting of individual events – you will also call on your memory of texts, artefacts and sites. We will explore navigating the collective memory – how an individual story might fit into a broader historical moment.
Session 11: Wednesday, 4 November
The Truth of the Matter: A guest speaker joins us to talk about ethics and truth in creative nonfiction. The second hour of this class sees the first of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Two of the course.
Session 12: Wednesday, 11 November
Using archives: Archives are all around us, and you can find them in unexpected places. From private caches of diaries, photographs and letters, to public troves of documents, official court transcripts, art collections, scientific findings and specimens, and digital collections; this class dives deep into the work of archive analysis. Navigating archives requires specific skills, but once unlocked they can bring incredible lifelong pleasures for the nonfiction writer. The second hour of this class sees the second of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Two of the course.
Session 13: Wednesday, 18 November
Stakes. This session centres on stakes; how your own stake in the journey or outcome of your book might differ from that of your reader; how to grow the stakes across the length of a book; how to troubleshoot the common problem of having stakes that deflate or peter out. The second hour of this class sees the third of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Two of the course.
Session 14: Wednesday, 25 November
Openings and Endings. The first few paragraphs and pages of your book are crucial to hooking your reader and establishing the tone of your narration. Should you start with a scene or the backstory? Would it be better to come in through a case study, or a memorable statistic? Some authors begin already knowing what their ending will be, but for those who don’t, what sorts of moves can a writer make to close the emotional and intellectual journey of a book? This class is focused on making decisions around how you begin and end. The second hour of this class sees the fourth of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Two of the course.
Session 15: Wednesday, 2 December
Experimental nonfiction. In this session we will look at nonfiction works that span several generations, yet all share the same feature of resisting convention and complacency, finding new ways of responding to changes in society and culture. Are there more experimental elements of narration, structure or style that might serve the story you’re working on telling? The second hour of this class sees the fifth of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Two of the course.
Session 16: Wednesday, 9 December
The reader. We turn to examine several approaches to thinking about who you’re writing towards, where you meet them in their life, and how your book will leave them. Plus, in this last session before the major course break, we will review your projects and writing processes. As we move toward a new phase of manuscript development in Stage 2, we’ll explore ways of building writing stamina, endurance, self-mastery and resilience. The second hour of this class sees the sixth and final of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Two of the course.
COURSE BREAK [One-on-one consultations with Sam Twyford-Moore]
2027 Dates
Stage Three: Editing & Revision
with Ingrid Horrocks
Session 17: Wednesday, 3 February
Review of projects. Looking at the way forward and reporting on your writing over the break. Meet your instructor for Stage Three, Ingrid Horrocks, and renew your focus for 2027.
Session 18: Wednesday, 10 February
Sculpting Time, Shaping Space. This week offers an invitation to think more deeply about the narrative, intellectual and/or emotional trajectory of your book. We’ll discuss pacing, contrasting scenes with exposition, chronology and the control of time/tense, using repeating motifs to link together sections or arguments, and managing high-and-low points through the middle and later parts of a book.
Session 19: Wednesday, 17 February
Prose Style. In this session we will explore the features of different prose styles, seeking to answer these questions: is your prose style the right one for your project? If not, how might your style be changed? For those whose prose style has evolved during the course, how should earlier drafts be brought into harmony with later ones? The second hour of this class sees the first of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Three of the course.
Session 20: Wednesday, 24 February
Detail. This session will explore the power and potential of detail – censored, overlooked, intimate, dismissed detail – to throw fresh, revelatory light on the ‘big’ stories of history, society, or of our own lives. We will consider how details can become powerful images or motifs as a manuscript develops. The second hour of this class sees the second of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Three of the course.
Session 21: Wednesday, 3 March
Turning Points, Climactic Moments, Big Pivots. This session will focus on building tension and insight. Working closely with the material you have produced, we will revisit our questions about the narrator and narratorial voice of your book, and the story they are telling. The second hour of this class sees the third of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Three of the course.
Session 22: Wednesday, 10 March
What to keep and what to cut. This session focuses on what to do once you have written a draft and have decisions to make about what to develop and what to cut, ranging from questions of ethics to those of readability and audience. The second hour of this class sees the fourth of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Three of the course.
Session 23: Wednesday, 17 March
Structure in Editing. In this session, we will have the opportunity to meet and explore the subject of editing with our guest editor, including a particular focus on ‘structural editing’. The second hour of this class sees the fifth of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Three of the course.
Session 24: Wednesday, 24 March
Close-Editing. This session will walk you through the concept of the line or copy edit. We take a zoomed-in look at the draft you have developed, and consider more granular changes. The second hour of this class sees the sixth and final of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Three of the course.
COURSE BREAK [One-on-one consultations – Ingrid Horrocks]
Stage Four: Polishing and Meeting the Outside World
with Rebecca Giggs
Session 25: Wednesday, 28 April
Taking Stock: What Actually Happens in Your Book
At this point in the course, we pause to assess what is on the page with your returning instructor Rebecca Giggs. This session focuses on diagnosing narrative gaps, pressure points, and areas of avoidance, and on understanding what the book is becoming. If you’ve been circling your way towards an important scene or revelation, but haven’t managed yet to land it, let’s take a look at how to meet that moment of hesitation.
Session 26: Wednesday, 5 May
The Final Polish
You’ve engaged in a structural edit, and a line edit. Now that we’ve considered what the book is actually about, we’ll discuss the final touches you’ll need to give your book before sending it out to an agent or publisher. The second hour of this class sees the first of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Four of the course. During this round you will submit a 1000 word synopsis or shorter written pitch.
Session 27: Wednesday, 12 May
Blurb, Synopsis, Pitch. How do we persuasively and entertainingly describe our work to other people, particularly industry professionals? This session will discuss the features and functions of the blurb, the synopsis, and the pitch, and how to approach each of them without losing what is important to you about your work. The second hour of this class sees the second of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Four of the course.
Session 28: Wednesday, 19 May
Literary Agents. This session, we will host a literary agent who will speak to you about the publishing industry and their role in it, and their relationships with their clients. The second hour of this class sees the third and final of our peer/instructor workshops for Stage Four of the course.
Session 29: Wednesday, 26 May
Speaking About Your Project. In this session, you will meet a skilled acting coach who will teach you performance skills for presentations, readings, and pitching. We will also discuss approaches to being interviewed, as well as how to contribute meaningfully to panel discussions in public settings.
Session 30: Wednesday, 2 June
Publishers. At this session, we will be joined by a guest publisher. Having refined and practised your pitches, each student will formally present theirs to the publisher, who will then offer constructive feedback. You may also take this opportunity to ask other questions of the publisher.
Session 31: Wednesday, 9 June
Promoting your work. How do you organise a book tour? What promotion is expected of an author, a publicist and a publisher in 2027? How do you plan a career beyond the first book? We’ll tackle these questions and more at our penultimate class.
Session 32: Wednesday, 16 June
Wrap Up. We will review your achievements and discuss the distances you have travelled in your work, as well as discuss ways of maintaining your writing practice and remaining part of a supportive group of fellow writers.
All sessions are held online on Zoom and Wet Ink. Zoom classes are not recorded.
The exact course content could be adjusted according to the experience and concerns of the group and availability of guest writers. The detail of the course is at the discretion of the tutor and Faber Writing Academy at Allen & Unwin.
