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530 Best Creative Writing Classes in 2024

Showing 530 courses that match your search.

This course offers a year-long writing project with mentorship from established authors, focusing on novel writing, creative nonfiction, and memoir. Participants engage in rigorous writing and revision, attend workshops, and receive guidance to make their manuscripts submission-ready. Further details, including pricing, will be provided later in the Fall.

Website: https://loft.org/

Categories: Fiction, Memoir, and Nonfiction

Start date:

January, 2025

Price:

Free

Online course

Level: Any

Length: 12 months

Class size: Limited

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

This craft seminar focuses on writing and selling a book. It covers queries, proposals, drafting, editing, and project planning to help complete a book while maintaining sanity. Participants receive templates and personalized project plans.

Website: https://lighthousewriters.org/workshop/lets-get-practical...

Categories: Publishing

Start date:

December, 2024

Price:

$75.00

Online course

Level: Any

Length: 1 session (2 hours)

Class size: 26

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

This workshop explores the intersection of poetry and picture books through collaborative study and practical tools. Participants learn to make their picture book texts more lyrical and enhance the visual appeal of their poetry.

Website: https://literary-arts.org/event/poem-or-picture-book-writ...

Categories: Publishing and Poetry

Start date:

February, 2025

Price:

$85.00

Based in Portland

Level: Intermediate

Length: 1 session, 3 hours (10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.)

Class size: 8 spots available

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

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This workshop focuses on overcoming writing resistance, offering tools for time organization, daily writing routines, and establishing support networks. It is applicable to various genres including blog, essay, memoir, nonfiction, novel, poetry, screenplay, and TV pilot.

Website: https://writingpad.com/classes/online-resistance-smackdow...

Categories: Book, Fiction, and Publishing

Start date:

December, 2024

Price:

$95.00

Based in Los Angeles

Level: Any

Length: 1 session (3 hours)

Class size: 25 seats max

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

This course provides a platform for new writers or those seeking inspiration to generate new writing projects through engaging prompts. Participants will connect with peers and learn about further writing opportunities.

Website: https://grubstreet.org/seminar/create-free-draft-generato...

Categories: Fiction, Short Story, Essay, Memoir, Nonfiction, and Poetry

Start date:

December, 2024

Price:

Free

Based in Boston

Level: Beginner

Length: 1 hour

Class size: 100

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Intro to Fiction and Poetry

The Writers Studio

This course introduces students to the philosophy of The Writers Studio, focusing on persona writing. Weekly exercises based on published works help students explore various literary styles and improve their writing techniques through peer critiques and instructor feedback.

Website: https://courses.writerstudio.com/courses/online-level-1-i...

Categories: Fiction and Poetry

Start date:

January, 2025

Price:

$435.00

Based in New York

Level: Any

Length: 8 weeks (weekly 2-hour sessions)

Class size: Unlimited

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

This course helps writers identify the core narrative of their memoirs through reflective prompts and guided exercises. Participants explore various memoirs to understand how to build a cohesive structure around their memories.

Website: https://grubstreet.org/seminar/how-to-get-published-in-an...

Categories: Publishing

Start date:

December, 2024

Price:

$85.00

Online course

Level: Any

Length: 3 hours

Class size: 12

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Written Gifts

Denver Writes

Writers craft stories and poems intended as holiday gifts. It fosters creativity in a supportive environment, ideal for young writers.

Website: http://www.denverwrites.org/workshops/

Categories: Fiction and Poetry

Start date:

December, 2024

Price:

$25.00

Based in Denver

Level: Beginner

Length: 3 hours

Class size: 10

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Collaborative workshop focusing on transforming poetry into picture books and enhancing the lyrical quality of picture book texts. Emphasis on language, perspective, page turns, and visual storytelling.

Website: https://literary-arts.org/event/poem-or-picture-book-writ...

Categories: Kids and Poetry

Start date:

February, 2025

Price:

$85.00

Online course

Level: Intermediate

Length: 1 session, 3 hours

Class size: 8

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Podcast PitchFest

Pandemic University

A two-part virtual event offering pitch training for audio journalists. Participants pitch their projects to industry leaders, receive a handbook with submission guidelines, and engage in breakout sessions.

Website: https://pandemicuniversity.com/podcast-pitchfest/

Categories: Nonfiction, Adult, and Essay

Start date:

November, 2024

Price:

$100.00

Online course

Level: Any

Length: 2 sessions November 1 (5:45 PM - 7:30 PM EST), November 14 (12 PM - 5 PM EST).

Class size: Limited

Story Mapping

The Writing Salon

This two-part online class helps writers organize their ideas into a structured story. Participants learn about story structure, character development, pacing, and the importance of knowing the story's ending.

Website: https://www.writingsalons.com/event/story-mapping-fall-2024/

Categories: Book and Fiction

Start date:

December, 2024

Price:

$145.00

Online course

Level: Any

Length: 2 classes (2.5 hours each)

Class size: 14

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Dreaming-Writing

The Porch

This course explores the intersection of dreams and writing. Participants will keep dream journals, develop personal dream lexicons, and engage in collaborative practices to generate new writing.

Website: https://www.porchtn.org/class/dreaming-writing

Categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry

Start date:

October, 2024

Price:

$230.00

Online course

Level: Any

Length: Oct 30 to Nov 20, 6:30 - 8:30 PM CT

Class size: Unlimited

What is creative writing?

Creative writing is often best understood through a description of what it’s not: it is not business, journalistic, academic, or technical writing. 

Here is what creative writing is: it is the art of telling stories through written mediums. To many people, the novel is the most obvious form of creative writing, but it can also be found in essays, screenplays, poetry, memoirs, and much more. 

As you can imagine, one of the common threads that connects all forms of creative writing is, well, imagination. In fiction, this is embodied in the creation of the story itself; in nonfiction, it’s inherent in the way that the author chooses to present (and engage with) facts and real events to create a compelling narrative. 

Why is creative writing important?

We might as easily ask: why is it important to tell stories? Because that’s just what people do. It’s our way to make sense of the world and ourselves, and share it with others. History abounds with the art of the story. Look anywhere on a world timeline, and you’ll find examples of creative writing fulfilling our need for creative expression, from Homer’s epics in 800 B.C. to Dante’s inferno to modern essays shared on the Internet today. 

Nothing suggests that it will ever disappear, either! In fact, creative writing is arguably even more important in the age of AI, in which we must continue to tell powerful human stories instead of outsourcing such a fundamental task to soulless machines. 

How do creative writing courses teach creative writing?

If you’ve decided that you want to invest in your own creative writing, that’s great! Get ready to embark on a lifelong learning path. Like all art forms, creative writing is a skill that you must constantly train in order to improve. 

Learning creative writing, of course, can be as simple as you want. All you need is pen and paper — or, these days, a computer with a writing app. 

You can also take a creative writing class if you’re interested in a certain writing topic, or if you simply want an experienced instructor to point out the way for you. A course can fast-track your writing progress by teaching you something about the art of writing in one day that might otherwise take a year for you to pick up by yourself. They also often specialize in a specific area of creative writing, for instance:

  • Character development, i.e. the way that characters change from beginning to end of a story.
  • Genre conventions and tropes, i.e. what conventions you should write to in a certain genre — and what you can (and perhaps should) subvert.
  • Story structure, i.e. the order of plot points and key events that a story should take in order to be compelling.
  • Writing voice, i.e. the unique writing style that only you can bring to a story. 

Because there are thousands of aspects to creative writing, there are thousands of creative writing classes. That’s why we built this directory of the best creative writing courses. We’ve made it filterable by genre, price, and more to make it easier for you to find the perfect class for your needs. 

But what are the best creative writing classes?

The best creative writing course depends on you, and your own profile! We always recommend that you thoroughly do your research to personalize your choice for yourselves. 

With that said, below are some recommendations to kick you off. 

The best creative writing classes for beginners

If you’ve got a book idea, and you’re willing to invest some money to write it, then Reedsy’s How to Write a Novel could be a great place for you to start. Over three months, this full-fledged course will take you step-by-step from your idea to your first draft — and give you a supportive writing community to boot. 

💲 Cost: $1,000+ 
👨‍🏫 Type: Video

The best in-person creative writing classes 

Gotham Writers, the biggest adult-education writing school in the US, is based in New York City and offers in-person classes. With self-paced courses, write-ins, and several free events per term, it emulates the university feel wherever possible.

💲 Cost: $165 - $450 
👨‍🏫 Type: In-person

The best free creative writing classes 

Reedsy Learning is composed of bite-sized modules that are emailed to you once a day for ten days. They can be read in five minutes — and best of all, they’re free! Each module is packed with practical tips, additional resources, and exercises to sharpen your skills. 

💲 Cost: Free 
👨‍🏫 Type: Email

 

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