A COURSE for budding novelists is to be offered for free by a new Edinburgh literary company.

Writers' Essentials, run by creative director Sarah Hull, is to offer a free creative writing programme that will cover how to plan, write and edit a novel.

The classes begin in May as the company celebrates its third year of trading and will take place monthly, for a full year.

Ms Hull has been working with writers for years, working on plot, structure and character.

The free course, which will be held in a room that can hold 60 people at the White Horse Bar in Edinburgh, will feature 12 free writing classes.

More than a dozen writers have already signed up for the course.

She said: "Since establishing Writers' Essentials in 2013, I've worked on many manuscripts ranging from Shetland folklore to South American history, and from gritty dramas to heart-warming romances.

"And I've found the same problems occur again and again.

"While everybody's writing is different, there are some principles that hold true for all."

The course will be called 'Novel Writing: pages 1 to 384' .

Writers' Essentials was set up in 2013, to "provide encouragement, support and feedback to aspiring writers."