For those that have an inclination to writing, or need to improve their skills for their jobs or just because they would like to be better writers, there are many online courses that can be very helpful. You can almost say that there’s a course for every writer there is.
You have free course, paid courses, you have courses that provide feedback on your writing and courses that just give you information, you have courses that include teachers and you have courses that are through videos and audio lectures.
You have a very wide array of choices out there and it can be a bit overwhelming to just pick one. Before you decide to look for a creative writing course, it would be a good idea to be somewhat clear and what you need to focus on, that way you know what you’re looking for.
On this list we’ve put together you will find free and paid courses, and also a variety of styles of courses, so you can review and decide which way you want to go.
Table of Contents
Masterclass
The Masterclass is known for reaching out to some of the best professionals in their respective areas for online courses. For their online creative writing classes, they have rounded up best-selling authors and journalists and have them on video discussing their work and their technique for creating books and articles that excelled.
Writers like James Patterson, R.L. Stine, Bob Woodward and Judy Blume are among the team of writers that are on MasterClass. There’s a free trial available, but after that, you have to pay for each course; but trust me, it is worth every penny.
The Triangle Method of Character CreationWriting
We all know that creating good characters can be very complicated and a lot of a book’s quality and possible success lies in its characters. This course claims that by the time you finish it, your characters will be addictive and will reel your readers in again and again.
It’s made up of twelve videos that include in-depth guidance to topics that will aid you in character development, as well as PDF files that pair with the videos and two hours of instruction time, for $39.
Scribble
This is a 14-week course that is aimed at teaching how to become a good writer, more than it is a creative writing course; but it’s great because it focuses on the value of writing. Things like correct grammar, syntax, topic sentences and research papers will be covered in this course. It comes in video format and it’s free of charge.
The Crafty Writer
An eight-session course specially designed to teach you how to transform your thoughts into words. Mastering characters, developing quality dialogues and points of view are some of the topics studied in this course. The course is free and the material is given on PDF form.
Open University – Write What You Know
This course from Open University focuses the classes on teaching the student to draw upon life experiences, pay attention to detail and use the senses in order to create a fictional world.
Students will learn how authors tend to use personal experiences of their lives to build a foundation for their novels. The materials are both in text form and audio and the course is free.
Creative Writing Now – Endless Story Ideas
The aim of this course is to come up with good ideas that you can then develop into stories. The way it works is that for three days you will receive three emails, and each of these emails is designed to help you develop ideas to write stories. The only bad thing is that they will “also send interesting news and special offers”, however, it is free.
Skillshare – The Creative Writer’s Toolkit
Author Lindsey Summers is behind this course, which consists of five videos that total 28 minutes. These videos contain exercises to boost your creative nerve and a number of different tools to help you in case you get the dreaded writer’s block.
You need to enroll on Skillshare (free membership) to have access to free classes, but for some, you need a Premium Membership that goes for $8 per month for an annual plan or a monthly plan that costs $9.95.
Open University – Creative Writing
Another offer from Open University on creative writing aimed at polishing your writing skills. Through exercises, the students are provided with different strategies that will help them discover their writing voice. It also offers revision and insight from your writing peers.
A tutor will be assigned to you and part of their job will be to keep track of your progress for 32 weeks. You will also have the chance to connect and communicate with other students. This course costs $1.824,83 for 30 credits or $3,649.66 for 60 credits.
Stanford University – Adventures in Writing
This course is of an academic nature and you will learn how to communicate using your writing as a tool. It is made up of five modules and they each contain an exercise that is thought up to fit a specific writing theme. It takes about 4-6 hours to complete. Adventures in Writing is free.
ed2go – Write Fiction Like a Pro
You know how sometimes you have an idea for a book, but don’t really know how to put it together or even start? This course is precisely to untangle that mess and to get you on the right track to writing and completing a book.
You will learn how to structure your novel and understand its vital elements so that you can build the premises for the story. The duration of this course is of 24 hours through a 6 week period. It has set starting dates, so make sure you check those before joining, for a cost of $149.
