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best mooc creative writing

Lower left image by wocintechchat.com , cropped.

The IWP's massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer opportunities for interactive learning in creative writing and literature to unlimited numbers of participants around the world. MOOCs offer prerecorded video lectures provided by contributing authors, including IWP Fall Residents and University of Iowa professors; live and asynchronous discussion-based instruction provided by highly qualified teaching teams; reading and writing assignments; and inclusive community-based feedback. Supported by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the University of Iowa, each IWP MOOC is designed to provide global access to creative writing education and cultural exchange. The IWP's MOOCs have enrolled over 47,000 participants from 197 countries.

DIgital learning mooc-pack library

In order to support access to education for all, every time we create a MOOC, we also create a MOOC-Pack. A MOOC-Pack provides a MOOC’s core content, packaged with a how-to guide and extra instructional materials. Using a MOOC-Pack, anyone can lead a writing class or a study group.

The course materials for the following MOOCs are available for free for self-guided use (or browse the MOOC-Packs through our  Digital Learning MOOC-Pack Library website ):

MOOC – Hidden Meanings: Creative Fiction, Non-Fiction & Facts

MOOC – Stories of Place: Writing and the Natural World (Nov. 2018)

MOOC – Moving the Margins: Fiction and Inclusion (Sept. 2018)

MOOC in Spanish:  Cómo los escritores escriben ficción: Mujeres en la narración (a translation from  How Writers Write Fiction: Storied Women , MOOC in English from Fall 2016)

MOOC – Power of the Pen: Identities and Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction (May 2017)

MOOC – Power of the Pen: Identities and Social Issues in Poetry and Plays (July 2017)

MOOC – #Flashwrite Teen Poetry MOOC (Spring 2016)

MOOC – Whitman's Civil War: Writing and Imaging Loss, Death, and Disaster (Summer 2016)

MOOC – How Writers Write Fiction 2016: Storied Women (Fall 2016)

MOOC – How Writers Write Poetry 2015 (Spring 2015)

MOOC – How Writers Write Fiction 2015 (Fall 2015)

MOOC – Every Atom: Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" (Spring 2014)

MOOC – How Writers Write Poetry 2014 (Summer 2014)

MOOC – How Writers Write Fiction 2014 (Fall 2014)

Past MOOC course materials are available for free at:  http://www.distancelearningiwp.org

No MOOCs are planned for 2021, but when offered through the IWP, MOOCs are available free of charge; there are no registration fees or application requirements. An entirely *optional* Certificate of Completion may be purchased at the end of the course for 60 USD, if desired.  To join our mailing list to receive notifications regarding future opportunities, please fill out the sign-up form here .

For inquiries about our MOOCs or other online programming, please email us by selecting "Digital Learning courses"  from the drop-down menu on our contact form here >

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Ranjit Hoskote ’s speech at the 2024 Goa Literary Festival addresses the current situation in Gaza.

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“I went to [Ayodhya] to think about what it means to be an Indian and a Hindu... ”  A new essay by critic and novelist Chandrahas Choudhury .

In the January 2024 iteration of the French/English non-fiction site Frictions, T J Benson writes about “Riding Afrobeats Across the World.” Also new, a next installment in the bilingual series featuring work by students from Paris VIII’s Creative Writing program and the University of Iowa’s NFW program.

in NYTimes , Sanam Maher examines a new book about women defending themselves when the justice system in their country won’t.

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Compare The Best Creative Writing Courses

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best creative writing course for most people is Masterclass : Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing or Coursera : Creative Writing Specialization.

Creative writing courses help develop your writing skills, build conscious writing habits, and teach you how to build a professional portfolio for your writing career. Most creative writing courses offer educational and practical assignments that help you advance your creative writing abilities. 

Whether you’re a complete beginner or just want to sharpen your creative writing tools, the courses below have you covered.

The Top 5 Best Creative Writing Courses 

  • Masterclass : Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing – Best for writing development
  • Coursera : Creative Writing Specialization – Best for experiential learning
  • Udemy : Complete Creative Writing Course – Best for portfolio creation
  • Gotham Writers : Creative Writing 101 – Best for building a writing habit
  • Reedsy Learning : Understanding Point of View – Best for beginners 

How to choose the best creative writing course. Quicksprout.com's methodology for reviewing creative writing courses.

Continue reading for our in-depth reviews on the five best creative writing courses to help you become a better writer today. 

Masterclass: Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing – Best for Writing Development 

MasterClass logo

If you’re an experienced writer looking to develop your writing abilities, the Masterclass course Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing is an excellent option for you. 

This course compiles advanced material that Atwood simplifies with 23 slow-paced video lessons that span across about four hours. 

Author of The Handmaid’s Tale and instructor of this creative writing course, Atwood takes you on a journey of the creative writing process from getting started to getting published. Her first-ever online class will teach you to develop your writing with advanced material and personal advice. 

Masterclass: Margaret Atwood teaches creative writing signup page.

Whether you already have a first draft or a half-written book, this in-depth course teaches all about core writing elements. Atwood discusses how to write a compelling story, create structure, develop nuanced characters, keep your readers interested, and how to stay motivated while writing—helping you turn your work into a masterpiece. 

The best part about this specific creative writing course is how participatory it is. You get access to a class workbook that includes additional writing assignments you can complete after each lesson, as well as helpful resources for writers. 

The course also comes with a community hub for all students to interact with each other. The community page gives you a place to discuss lessons, share your work, get feedback, and network—creating a sense of classroom-like community. 

The structure of the Masterclass course is easy to navigate, with all 23 lessons being split into three to five sections and are around 10 minutes long each. 

Lessons one through 16 are about the general elements of writing, like story and plot, structure, characters, and point of view. Lessons 17 through 23 discuss the business side of writing, including getting published and working within different genres. 

Masterclass offers one membership fee to receive access to every class on its website. The fee is $10 per month, billed at $120 per year.

A Masterclass membership gives you access to more than 180 classes, audio-only lessons, offline viewing, downloadable instructor guides, and new classes added every month. 

Masterclass also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all subscriptions.

Coursera: Creative Writing Specialization – Best for Experiential Learning 

Coursera logo

Not every creative writing course offers practical and interactive assessments, but the Creative Writing Specialization courses offered by Wesleyan University for Coursera stands out because of its experiential learning experience. This is a set of five courses within one larger specialization, all leading to a capstone project.

As a creative writing course with extensive hands-on projects, each specialization will teach you how to master a different writing technique that successful writers use in the three major writing genres. 

There are more than 113,000 students already enrolled in this set of courses, and for a good reason. The course structure has helped many people understand the short story, narrative essay, and memoir genre. 

Coursera: creative writing specialization signup page.

What makes this course so experiential is during the last lesson, where you have the chance to write and edit your own original story. 

Using the elements and techniques you learn throughout the five courses taught by different instructors, you will draft a short story, narrative essay, or memoir. With the help of your peer readers and instructors, you will revise, rewrite, and complete the story in whichever genre you choose. 

Each course within the overall Specialization focuses on a different element for each genre. During this course, you will learn the craft of plot (course one), crafting characters (course two), settings and descriptions (course three), and style (course four) before you put these skills to the test and write your story in course five. 

Even though this Specialization is more in-depth, it’s still flexible, as you can take each of the first four courses in any order (ending with the course five capstone). It’s also 100% online, so you don’t need to show up to a classroom, and you can access all course material via a desktop or mobile device. 

The Creative Writing Specialization currently takes one month to complete at 10 hours a week, which you should keep in mind. However, Coursera lets you set and maintain flexible deadlines, even though you cannot change the course duration to be any shorter than it already is. 

Currently, Write-Bros, Scrivener, and Scribophile are sponsors of the Creative Writing Specialization course and are offering discounts for all students who complete their assessments.

Upon completing your first assignment, you receive an 80% discount from Write-Bros, a 30% discount on your first purchase from Scrivener, and a 30% off membership pricing for Scribophile’s online writing community. 

You can enroll in the course for free to read and view the course content. However, if you want access to all courses in the Specialization and receive a certificate upon completion, you need to sign up for Coursera Plus. Coursera Plus offers both monthly and annual subscriptions. The cost is $59 per month or $399 per year with a 14-day money-back guarantee.

With each Specialization course, you get access to shareable course certificates, course videos and readings, practice quizzes, graded assignments with feedback, graded quizzes with feedback, and graded programming assignments. 

Coursera also offers financial aid and a seven-day free trial of Coursera Plus.

Udemy: Complete Creative Writing – Best for Portfolio Creation 

Udemy logo

If you want to learn about the four writing genres and create a strong portfolio with your writing samples, the Complete Creative Writing course by Udemy is an excellent option. 

Creating an outstanding portfolio can be difficult for many writers, especially beginners, but this course will help you create a digital portfolio in just five concise sections. 

Instructed by teacher and author Trace Crawford, this course delves deep into the world of fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction. In the fifth and final section, you’ll learn how to create a digital portfolio.

Udemy: Complete creative writing signup page.

Including the introduction, the course has 162 lectures and a running time of about 12 hours. By the end of this course, you will understand the ins and outs of all things creative writing. 

Crawford breaks down the course into four subsections: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Creative Non-Fiction. You will receive a writing journal prompt for every lesson, 145 downloadable resources, and a certificate of completion. Each subsection offers between 20-50 lectures that range between one and four hours in length in total.

The final course section focuses only on the digital portfolio. Many creative writing courses don’t touch on portfolio creation, even though it’s an essential aspect of a writer’s career. These lectures will leave you feeling ready to pursue a career in writing. 

This course is also flexible, as you can complete it at your own pace and receive lifetime access for one price. If you have the time, you can complete this course within a day or two, which is helpful to retain as much information as possible. 

The course comes with 37 online quizzes, 145 downloadable resources, and journal prompts. You also receive a daily writing assignment, a lesson covering the course content, and a practical application project. 

Crawford aims to further develop and perfect your voice by teaching you about the four genres. You will also learn about writing techniques, writing concepts, how to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your writing projects, and of course, you will build a portfolio. 

The regular price is $109.99 for the Complete Creative Writing course, and Udemy often has discounts throughout the year. This specific course usually goes on sale each month, so look out for this. 

Udemy also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

Gotham Writers: Creative Writing 101 – Best for Building a Writing Habit 

Gotham Writers logo

Are you struggling to build a writing habit and don’t know where to start? The Creative Writing 101 six-week course by Gotham Writers is an excellent place to start. 

This level one online six-week class focuses on slowly building a writing habit while teaching you about the show and tell of writing, individuality, fiction, nonfiction, and how to get better at the craft. 

This course is unique because each class size is limited for students to get enough personal attention from the instructor. There are a maximum of 16 students in each Creative Writing 101 class, which is 100% online. 

Gotham writers: creative writing 101 homepage.

Creative Writing 101 helps you slowly build a writing habit by encouraging you to complete daily observation exercises and free writing. These writing activities help stimulate the brain and create a way to write freely without the burden of writer’s block. 

The course also offers weekly writing assignments that the instructor grades and provides feedback for, which will help you feel more confident about your writing abilities as you progress through the course. 

Because this course is online, Gotham Writers provides the Lounge feature for all students to meet weekly for a one-hour live chat. The Lounge is open 24/7 for all students to chat and get to know each other, network, and discuss feedback. 

You also get access to a weekly planner, class roster, guidelines, and syllabus. The notebook, booth, library, and blackboard are other essential features that store lectures, assignments, resources, and student feedback.  

The course layout is the most similar to an online classroom, especially for collaboration purposes, making it easy to navigate and complete tasks. Each class session lasts for a week, and you have the flexibility to complete tasks at any time of day during the week. 

Gotham Writers offers this course online, on Zoom, or one-on-one (either in NYC or long distance) for different prices. 

  • Online: $319 
  • Zoom: $319 
  • One-on-One: $1,195

There is also a $25 registration fee that you pay once per term. All course dates are listed on the website and are subject to availability.

Reedsy Learning: Understanding Point of View – Best for Beginners 

Reedsy logo

Beginners need to start somewhere, and there’s no better place to start than enrolling in the free Reedsy Learning course, Understanding Point of View. 

Taught by TEDx speaker and author Gabriela Pereira, this course focuses on the technical element of point of view, which challenges many writers in the beginning stage. If this sounds like you, you will be delighted to hear that this course is free and gets delivered to your inbox every morning for 10 days. 

This is a quick and easy 10-day course. Each lesson is just five minutes, and Pereira takes you on an immersive journey through the challenges of establishing the correct point of view in your creative writing. 

Reedsy Learning: understanding point of view signup page.

This course will familiarize you with each primary POV, including first, second, and third person. With the help of practical writing exercises, you will complete the course understanding how to master each point of view within your writing. 

During this course, you will also learn: 

  • The differences between third-person limited and third-person omniscient 
  • The strengths and weaknesses of second person 
  • How to work with multiple points of view
  • Epistolary and Journal forms 

To enroll, include your name, email address, and time zone so that Pereira can deliver each lecture to your inbox on time. You can start each morning on the right foot by completing a quick five-minute lesson and go about your day, making it a simple course for the complete beginner to follow and get used to writing each day. 

Reedsy Learning offers this and many other free online courses to help you establish your career and transform your writing skills. 

How to Find The Best Creative Writing Course For You 

There are a few factors that go into finding the best creative writing course for you. Sometimes it can be challenging to choose the right course, especially since there are many different goals you may want to achieve. So we put together this methodology of the three most essential elements to consider before investing in a creative writing course. 

Schedule and Flexibility

The first thing to consider before investing in a creative writing course is the flexibility of your schedule. Consider the duration of each writing course, as some can go for days, weeks, or even months. 

The Complete Creative Writing Course by Udemy is a flexible option, as it allows you to go at your own pace and offers 12 hours of content you can complete in as little as a day or two.

However, some courses aren’t as flexible with timing, such as the Creative Writing Specialization by Coursera and Wesleyan University—which takes one month to complete. 

Make sure you check whether the timing is flexible, or you might need to change your schedule to fit in with your studies. 

Payment Method

Each course offers different prices depending on the duration, topic, and how in-depth the content is. Some writing courses have a subscription-based payment method, while others are one-off payments for lifetime access. 

It’s crucial to look for lifetime access, as you don’t want to invest in a course that will expire, and you lose all access to the materials. The course Understanding Point of View by Reedsy Learning is a free course perfect for beginners or anyone who isn’t sure where to start. 

You can enroll in a free course to learn the ropes of online studying, or you can choose one that offers a one-off payment, as most of the courses on this list. We wouldn’t recommend paying for a subscription unless you are dedicating a few months to learning or are interested in multiple courses from the same company. 

Learning Community 

A learning hub or community page can help you reinforce the learning materials, network, and build on your overall learning experience. Courses like Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing by Masterclass and Creative Writing 101 by Gotham Writers offer community hubs or lounges for students to interact and connect. 

Although not required, a central hub is essential for building a community and connecting with other writers. It can make your learning experience feel more like a classroom, even when it’s online. 

You might even complete the course with a few fellow writer friends along with the knowledge you obtained from the writing course. 

The Top Creative Writing Courses in Summary 

Overall, the Masterclass and Coursera courses are our top two recommendations for the best creative writing courses on the market today. 

With workbooks, learning hubs, video content, and downloadable resources, you can learn how to become a successful and confident writer using the courses reviewed in this guide.

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597 Best Creative Writing Classes in 2024

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This directory of creative writing courses will help you find the right class for you. Simply filter by genre, price, and location to find the writing class that best fits your needs.

Best of luck! If you run a writing course and would like to get in touch with us about your class, contact us here .

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Advanced Weekend Fiction Intensive: Make It Work with Alexandra Kleeman

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Every writer has a piece or two lingering in their drawer that they've set aside because it "doesn't work.” In this workshop, we'll center difficult elements from our own pieces and ask what would happen if we were to revise in support of these features rather than against them.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Location: Denver

Categories: Book, Fiction

Class size: Limited

Price: $810.00

Start date: June, 2024

Website: https://lighthousewriters.org/workshop/advanced-weekend-f...

Complicating the Characters

In her seminal piece, “Complicating the Narrative,” the journalist Amanda Ripley urges storytellers to find and include details that don’t fit the narrative—on purpose. In this three-hour workshop, we’ll apply this principle to our own writing.

Categories: Fiction, Book, Memoir, Nonfiction, Short Story

Price: $75.00

Start date: May, 2024

Website: https://lighthousewriters.org/workshop/complicating-chara...

Everything You Need To Know About Writing Nonfiction Picture Books (From Those Who Do It)

The Writing Barn

In this fast and fun, 90 minute event we will cover every facet of the creation process from research and ideas to creating and selling your book. Above all, you will discover how to take known facts and transform them into a true story that is uniquely yours.

Location: Austin

Categories: Book, Nonfiction

Course length: 6 (1.5 hours)

Class size: 100

Price: $35.00

Start date: March, 2024

Website: https://thewritingbarn.com/class/everything-you-need-to-k...

best mooc creative writing

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Revising and Publishing Flash Fiction and Nonfiction

Alberto Giacometti famously said, “only beauty in imperfection.” How then do we approach revision, in such a way to emphasize not a perceived lack of flaws, but a celebration of imperfection? This workshop will explore that question but focusing on strategies for revising flash fiction and nonfiction.

Location: Houston

Categories: Fiction, Book, Nonfiction, Publishing

Course length: 1 (3 hours)

Class size: 15

Price: $85.00

Website: https://www.writespacehouston.org/creative-writing.html

The Said and the Unsaid: Writing Your Characters Through Dialogue

In this class, we will examine prose conversations and explore dialogue as a tool for getting to know our characters. We will observe the many ways humans communicate and translate gestures and facial expressions into engaging written descriptions.

Location: Online

Categories: Fiction, Book, Short Story

Price: $51.00

Website: https://www.porchtn.org/class/the-said-and-the-unsaid-wri...

Elementary Writing: Animal Stories

Brave Writer

In this five-week course, each student will conceive and draft a short story of up to 1,200 words. We will begin with a triggering image and build from there, reading examples, working with myths and fairy tales, drafting and revising, and exploring how to begin and how to end.

Categories: Kids, Fiction, Short Story

Level: Beginner

Class size: 25

Price: $279.00

Start date: April, 2024

Website: https://bravewriter.com/online-classes/writing-the-short-...

Using Time as a Narrative Tool

Writing for the theatre is a time-based art form. In this session we’ll explore various ways of observing how time operates dramatically, approaches for making deliberate choices about time, and how those narrative choices effect the audience’s experience of story. Come ready to write and play.

Categories: Fiction, Playwriting

Price: £36.00

Website: https://theatre503.com/whats-on/twp-spring-24-using-time/

8-week Personal Essay & Memoir II/III (intermediate & advanced)

Sackett Street Writers

Through group discussion of student work, plus that of published authors, writers in this workshop will examine the art and craft of creative nonfiction. The focus will be on learning to understand and use a full range of literary techniques in order to tell a truly compelling nonfiction story.

Categories: Essay, Nonfiction, Memoir

Class size: 10

Price: $800.00

Website: https://sackettworkshop.com/writing/2023/12/30/8-week-per...

Storyweaving: Adding Subplots to Your Novel

Rosemont Writers' Studio

Take your story to the next level by learning how to enhance theme, increase characterization, and flesh out the journey with subplots. We will look at general plotting and subplotting techniques, analyze structure of popular subplots, and weave these subplots into your hero's journey.

Location: Philadelphia

Categories: Fiction, Book

Price: $450.00

Website: https://www.rosemont.edu/academics/graduate/creative-writ...

Self-Publishing 101

This course will guide you in a step-by-step fashion how to take a manuscript and turn it into a book. We will cover all the bases from editing to formatting to self-marketing.

Categories: Fiction, Publishing, Book, Nonfiction

Level: Intermediate

Formatting Your Script Like a Pro

UCLA Extension

In this course, you learn not only how to properly format scene headings, action lines, characters, dialogue, parentheticals and transitions, but why these are industry standards. Even with screenwriting software, writers still struggle with the intricacies of formatting as it relates to clarity, succinctness and the reader’s emotional experience.

Categories: Fiction, Screenplay

Price: $325.00

Website: https://www.uclaextension.edu/writing-journalism/screenwr...

Once Upon a Time: Fairy Tale Writing With Anca Szilágyi

Atlas Obscura

In this four-part seminar, delve into the genre of fairy tales—reading and dissecting modern retellings before sharing and workshopping a draft of your own.

Categories: Book, Fantasy, Fiction

Class size: 30

Price: $225.00

Website: https://www.atlasobscura.com/experiences/fairy-tales-onli...

What are the 5 best creative writing classes?

Congratulations! Deciding to learn how to creative write is often the hardest step of all. Now it's time for a choice that's almost just as difficult: picking which creative writing class you want to take in a market that's getting more crowded by the day.  

That’s why we built this directory of the best creative writing courses — so that you can more easily filter through all of the selections out there. But in case you don't have time to dive into them all, here are five of the best creative writing classes for you to take a look at. 

1. Reedsy Learning

💲 Cost: Free 👨‍🏫 Type: Email lessons

If you’re struggling to find time for creative writing classes, Reedsy Learning is for you. These bite-sized lessons are emailed to you once a day for ten days and can be read in five minutes or less. But don’t let their compact size fool you — each lesson is packed with practical tips, links to additional resources, and enough exercises to keep your skills sharp. There are also courses on editing, marketing, and publishing for when you’re ready to take your creative writing to the next level.

2. Gotham Writers’ Workshop

💲 Cost: $165 - $409 (plus registration fees) 👨‍🏫 Type: Video lectures, live Zoom classes, assignments, critique

The largest adult-education writing school in the US, Gotham Writers has been helping budding authors hone their skills since the 1990s. Based in New York City, they offer in-person classes as well as a variety of online options for students all over the globe. With self-paced courses, live Zoom lectures, write-ins, and several free events per term, Gotham Writers emulates the university feel wherever possible.

💲 Cost: $0 - $109 👨‍🏫 Type: Lectures (videos, slides, and text)

Founded in 2010, Udemy is a massive online open course (MOOC) platform, created to provide an alternative to in-person, university learning. Their primary audience is made up of professionals and students — some of their courses even offer credit toward technical certifications. Their creative writing courses are broad and geared mainly toward beginners, through there are some intermediate courses that get into specific niches.

💲 Cost: $0 - $998 👨‍🏫 Type: Video lectures, online assignments

Another MOOC, edX was started as a collaboration between Harvard and MIT, but these days boasts classes from a wide variety of respected universities. Like Udemy, some of their courses also offer college credits. edX’s courses are weekly, consisting of short videos, interactive learning exercises, and online discussion groups. Their writing courses cover everything from novels to stand-up comedy to digital content. There are also related courses in journalism, composition, and grammar, among other specializations.

5. Coursera

💲 Cost: Free (Creative Writing Specialization) 👨‍🏫 Type: Video lectures, online assignments

One last MOOC for our list, this time founded by several Computer Science professors from Stanford University. But don’t let its history fool you — Coursera offers humanities classes as much as science and technology. In addition to general courses, Coursera also offers specializations, a series of courses that work together much like what you’d find in a university.

I have a long list of creative writing courses. Now what?

If you've narrowed down a list of writing classes in English you like, then it's time to commit to one of them. But how do you know which is the right fit for your needs and lifestyle?

Before committing to one of them, we recommend considering some of these questions.

  • What skill levels does the writing course cover?
  • What’s the price of the writing course? Does it match your budget?
  • How long does the writing course run for?
  • Who is the instructor of the course? Can you verify their credentials?
  • Is the writing course remote or in-person?

More creative writing resources

Whether you’re a new or established author, there are always evergreen resources out there to how to get a headstart on creative writing! 

Free online materials

  • Creative Writing Prompts (resource)
  • Book Title Generator (resource)
  • Character Name Generator (resource)
  • Plot Generator (resource)
  • How to Write a Novel (blog post)
  • How to Write a Book Proposal (blog post)
  • How to Edit a Book (blog post)

Recommended books

  • For writers in the UK:  Writers' & Artists' Yearbook  
  • For writers in the US:  Writer’s Market 2020

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  • Creative Writing

Learn creative writing

What is creative writing.

Writing has many different purposes. Some writing informs the audience, such as technical or academic writing. Other writers, like journalists, report the news. Some writing, however, exists to tell a story or express an idea that falls outside of the rules-based academic or technical world. Creative writing involves any writing that stretches the boundaries of journalism or technical writing, inhabiting a world where the story is precious. Creative writing has many forms. Literature and poetry are well-known, but writing that expands narrative traditions and develops through characters could also be considered creative.

Creative writers often have an excellent command of language and can translate that into a variety of disciplines. Learning the basics of creative writing could give learners writing and communication skills that can be applied to fields ranging from entertainment to business to politics.

Creative Writing | Introduction Image

Browse online Creative Writing courses

Stand out in your field, learn at your own pace, earn a valuable credential, creative writing course curriculum.

Online writing classes can unlock creativity and improve learners’ writing technique. For example, a class that focuses on writing novels can teach individuals how to ideate, outline, and execute on a large project. Learners can study different forms of writing, such as American poetry, long-form journalism, and English literature, which can even be a prerequisite for many BFA and MFA programs. From creating fully realized characters to editing drafts, there are many skills to learn in creative writing classes.

Careers in creative writing

Learning character development, prompt writing, and other skills in this field helps learners think in new ways. Creative nonfiction classes can help writers build communication skills. Classes on the short story can teach professionals how to make their point in a concise manner. A background in creative writing could help prepare individuals for many careers, including as an:

Communications professional

Screenwriter

Explore how online courses in creative writing can advance your career and begin your learning journey today with edX. 

More opportunities for you to learn

We've added 500+ learning opportunities to create one of the world's most comprehensive free-to-degree online learning platforms.

Executive Education

Master's degrees, bachelor's degrees.

Last updated December 2022

The Writing University

Menu drawer options, free online course material: creative writing mooc-packs.

These deliverable online creative writing courses are free, ready to use out-of-the-box & available immediately

As many schools pivoted to online learning during COVID, the University of Iowa provided resources and teaching materials for instructors to use immediately for creative writing courses everywhere. The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa has been creating free Creative Writing MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) for several years, and has accumulated a rich archive of these online courses, offered as "MOOC-Packs."

These MOOC-Packs are deliverable online creative writing courses, ready to use out-of-the-box, available immediately , for all teachers and students who need to transition to online courses. A MOOC-Pack provides a MOOC’s core content, packaged with a how-to guide and extra instructional materials. Using a MOOC-Pack, anyone can lead a writing class or a study group.

You can access all free MOOC-Packs on the IWP Distance Learning website .

ACCESS MOOC-PACK COURSES

MOOC-Packs Available

  • Hidden Meanings : Creative Fiction, Non-fiction, and Facts  
  • Stories of Place : Writing and the Natural World  
  • Moving the Margins : Fiction and Inclusion  
  • Power of the Pen : Identities and Social Issues in Poetry and Plays  
  • Power of the Pen : Identities and Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction  
  • Fiction: Storied Women MOOC-Pack (Arabic) كيف تكتب الكاتبات القصص: نساء حاكيات  
  • Fiction: Storied Women MOOC-Pack (Spanish) Cómo los escritores escriben ficción: Mujeres en la narración Este MOOC-Pack lo guiará a través de un estudio progresivo de cómo los autores de todas partes del mundo abordan los diferentes aspectos de la escritura de ficción, desde la voz y el diálogo, hasta la trama y la estructura narrativa  
  • Whitman's Civil War : Writing and Imaging Loss, Death, and Disaster  
  • #Flashwrite Teen Poetry MOOC  
  • How Writers Write Fiction I  
  • How Writers Write Fiction II  
  • How Writers Write Poetry I  
  • How Writers Write Poetry II  
  • Every Atom: Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself"  

All teachers and students of creative writing worldwide can access these free classes and implement the lessons into their coursework immediately. Updates and new material will be posted ongoing here as well.

For questions, contact the IWP Distance Learning staff .

Additional Resources

We will be updating this page and website with more online teaching resources. For an actively edited creative writing resources list, you can also view this co-authored and rapidly evolving resource, Teaching in the Context of Coronavirus , with contributors including: Jacqueline Wernimont and Cathy N. Davidson.

  • International Writing Program

Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

Key Information

About the content.

In this course aspiring writers will be introduced to perhaps the most elemental and often the most challenging element of story: plot. We will learn what keeps it moving, how it manipulates our feelings, expectations, and desires. We will examine the choices storytellers make to snag our imaginations, drag them into a fictional world, and keep them there. We will learn how to outline and structure a plot, discuss narrative arc, pacing and reversals and reveal the inevitable surprise: connecting the beginning, middle and end.

  • Week 1 - Plotting a Course In this module, we'll learn essentials about plot definitions and mechanics. What is plot? How does plot shape a narrative? What makes a strong plot? How is plot different from a story? We'll also discuss how plot works in actual books you're probably familiar...
  • Week 2 - The Power of Structure In this module we're going to learn what story structure is and how by understanding structure you can learn how to sequence the events in your plot to help maximize your own storytelling abilities.We'll talk about Freytag's pyramid, the five act structure, ho...
  • Week 3 - A Scene in Motion Scenes are the building blocks of storytelling. But what is a scene? And how does a scene move plot forward? In this module we'll learn about the difference between telling and showing, the five key elements each scene should have, offer some examples of effec...
  • Week 4 - Cut It Out This modules deals with the specifics of editing and revising your work. This process of revision starts with the first draft (which will now become your second draft) and continues until the manuscript’s ready to send to an agent. Included here are a twenty-o...

Instructors

Brando Skyhorse Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing English

Content Designer

Coursera is a digital company offering massive open online course founded by computer teachers Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California. 

Coursera works with top universities and organizations to make some of their courses available online, and offers courses in many subjects, including: physics, engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, data science, and other subjects.

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COMMENTS

  1. Best Creative Writing Courses Online with Certificates [2024]

    The Creative Writing courses we offer cater to both aspiring professionals and personal storytellers, equipping you with the skills to craft compelling narratives and characters for literary publishing, screenwriting, or your own creative expression. Filter by Credit Eligible ( 17) Subject Business ( 163) Computer Science ( 123)

  2. Creative Writing MOOC and Free Online Courses

    Creative Writing: The Craft of Setting and Description (Coursera) In this course aspiring writers will be introduced to the techniques that masters of fiction use to ground a story in a concrete world. From the most realist settings to the most fantastical, writers will learn how to describe the physical world in sharp, sensory detail.

  3. MOOCs

    MOOCs offer prerecorded video lectures provided by contributing authors, including IWP Fall Residents and University of Iowa professors; live and asynchronous discussion-based instruction provided by highly qualified teaching teams; reading and writing assignments; and inclusive community-based feedback.

  4. Top 5 Best Creative Writing Courses

    The best creative writing course for most people is Masterclass: Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing or Coursera: Creative Writing Specialization. Creative writing courses help develop your writing skills, build conscious writing habits, and teach you how to build a professional portfolio for your writing career.

  5. The Ultimate List of 597 Writing Classes in 2024

    597 Best Creative Writing Classes in 2024 Showing writing courses curated by Reedsy. ... Another MOOC, edX was started as a collaboration between Harvard and MIT, but these days boasts classes from a wide variety of respected universities. Like Udemy, some of their courses also offer college credits. edX's courses are weekly, consisting of ...

  6. 10 Best Creative Writing Courses for 2024

    Fabio Dantas Apr 12th, 2023 Url 0 Creative writing is a skill that can be learned and practiced, just like any other. Although it's traditionally been associated with literature, it's increasingly being used in other types of writing to captivate readers.

  7. Best Online Creative Writing Courses and Programs

    Home Creative Writing Learn creative writing Creative writing combines strong communication skills with innovation, empathy, and storytelling. Learn more with online creative writing courses delivered through edX. What is creative writing? Browse online creative writing courses Careers in creative writing Search edX courses

  8. The Best Free Online Writing Courses for Creative Writers, Fiction, and

    The Best Free Online Writing Courses for Creative Writers, Fiction, and Nonfiction - TCK Publishing The Best Free Online Writing Courses for Creative Writers, Fiction, and Nonfiction by Tom Corson-Knowles | 63 comments All of us want to improve our writing skills, hone our craft, and get ahead in our writing careers.

  9. Free Online Course Material: Creative Writing MOOC-Packs

    The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa has been creating free Creative Writing MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) for several years, and has accumulated a rich archive of these online courses, offered as "MOOC-Packs." These MOOC-Packs are deliverable online creative writing courses, ready to use out-of-the-box, available ...

  10. Creative Writing: The Craft of Setting and Description

    10 Best Creative Writing Courses; 1700 Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FREE; 250 Top FREE Coursera Courses of All Time; Massive List of MOOC-based Microcredentials Reviews. 3.6 rating, based on 12 Class Central reviews 4.7 rating at Coursera based on 1336 ratings

  11. [2024] 180 Free Online Writing Courses to Improve Your Skills

    Jan 30th, 2024 Becoming a better writer can help you achieve professional and personal goals. Whether you're preparing for university studies, drafting résumés and cover letters, writing sales copy, or trying to preserve your own memories, you need to be able to communicate through writing.

  12. 11 free online writing courses

    2. Creative writing: The craft of plot (Wesleyan University) This short course can be completed in one day and is one of five modules in Wesleyan University's Creative Writing offerings. In this ...

  13. Creative Writing: The Craft of Style

    There are 4 modules in this course. Your style is as unique and distinctive as your face, your voice, except that you can choose it, you can can work on it, enhance it. In this course we will introduce aspiring writers to the art of putting pressure on written language. We will study the use of metaphor and imagery, and demonstrate how clarity ...

  14. Creative Writing: The Craft of Style

    Week 1 - Meaning, Sense, and Clarity. Here in the first module we focus on putting pressure on your words so that they mean what you intend. We balance abstraction with the need to make good sense. And we discuss the first and last stylistic difficulty of any prose writer, being clear. Week 2 - Writing with Nouns and Verbs.

  15. Best Writing Courses Online with Certificates [2024]

    In summary, here are 10 of our most popular writing courses. Good with Words: Writing and Editing: University of Michigan. Creative Writing: Wesleyan University. Academic English: Writing: University of California, Irvine. Write Your First Novel: Michigan State University.

  16. MOOC-Pack Library

    Whitman's Civil War: Writing and Imaging Loss, Death, and Disaster. This MOOC-Pack offers a multi-genre examination of war and reconciliation - past and present - through the lens of Walt Whitman's Civil War writings, examined by Professors Ed Folsom and Christopher Merrill and collected on the IWP's WhitmanWeb.

  17. Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

    In this course aspiring writers will be introduced to perhaps the most elemental and often the most challenging element of story: plot. We will learn what keeps it moving, how it manipulates our feelings, expectations, and desires. We will examine the choices storytellers make to snag our imaginations, drag them into a fictional world, and keep ...

  18. Creative Writing: The Craft of Style

    10 Best Creative Writing Courses; 1700 Coursera Courses That Are Still Completely FREE; 250 Top FREE Coursera Courses of All Time; Massive List of MOOC-based Microcredentials Reviews. 3.8 rating, based on 8 Class Central reviews 4.7 rating at Coursera based on 1126 ratings

  19. Creating Creative Writing MOOCs for the World

    When it comes to outreach, I organize live programs for our MOOCs. For example, earlier this year, I worked to set up a few live workshops around the world for our poetry writing MOOC--most successfully we had an English Language Fellow in Kazakhstan run a workshop for around 20 students in the city of Pavlodar, which ran for seven weeks."

  20. Writing MOOC and Free Online Courses

    Beginner Self-Paced 5-10 Hours/Week 114.00 EUR English English Princípios básicos da publicidade em mídias sociais (Coursera) Este curso examina detalhadamente a publicidade paga nas mídias sociais. Saiba como começar a fazer propaganda em plataformas como Facebook e Instagram por meio de anúncios eficazes.

  21. The Art of Creative Writing (OpenLearning)

    Module 1: Finding the right idea -Students can get inspiration for story ideas and/or think of story ideas -Students can find their writing style Module 2: The Blind Amnesic (creating a setting) -Students can create and describe a setting Module 3: Who are you? -Students can create interesting characters

  22. Free Course: Start Writing Fiction from The Open University

    Best of All Time; Best of the Year 2022; Best of the Year 2021; Most Popular Courses. Most Popular of All Time; ... 10 Best Creative Writing Courses; Massive List of MOOC-based Microcredentials; 100+ FutureLearn Courses That Still Offer Free Certificates Reviews. 4.1 rating, based on 21 Class Central reviews