10+ Free Online Creative Writing Courses UK

11/20/2020

10+ free online creative writing courses in the UK to learn to write a book, novel, short stories, poetry or script writing. These are free writing classes, courses and workshops for beginner writers and authors with experience in writing fiction and creative nonfiction.

The following UK free online creative writing courses listed are taught by expert teachers, published writers and established distance learning providers.

Discover storytelling techniques, enhance your writing skills, improve career prospects, reach your writing goals, and tap into your creativity with these best online writing courses UK.

If you’ve always wanted to try creative writing but you're not sure where to start, or improve your writing skills online for free, or write fiction to become a successful author, check out these 10+ UK free online creative writing courses.

1. Free Writing Courses and Tutorials from Udemy - Beginner Level

Try a free Udemy online writing course for beginners. The course content is the same quality as their paid courses but without a certificate of completion or Q&A access to instructors.

Udemy is a popular and recognized e-learning platform providing 130,000 courses for millions of students around the world. Course subjects include programming, business, marketing, health and fitness, and much more.

Here are some of Udemy's free online writing courses for beginner level:

Secret Sauce of Great Writing – Ex-Wall Street Journal Editor Teaches How To Make Your Blogs, Books & Business Writing Sparkle.
On Writing – The 20 Minute Jumpstart for Novices and Writer-Blocked Writers
Starting to Write – Be a more creative you. Take small steps and start writing today.

Once you've tried any of Udemy's free courses, you can decide to undertake a more in-depth paid course for a low price during flash sales.

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2. Free Writing Courses and Tutorials from Udemy - All Levels

Also, you can try a free Udemy online writing course for all levels of writers.

Here are some of Udemy's free online writing courses for all writing levels:

Creative Writing Sample Lesson – Video lectures and plenty of activities about setting, character and plot with best-selling novelist K.C. Finn.
Let’s Write a Basic Story – A step-by-step walkthrough. Write your own story.
Use Show Don't Tell to Improve Your Writing – A free mini-course about one of the most important skills in writing.

You can find a full list of Udemy's free online writing courses here.

3. Creative Writing Course for Writing Stories and Creative Non-fiction

A free online creative writing course from Pearson aims to "set your imagination free with advice, ideas and motivation to start writing stories and creative non-fiction".

This course has been created by author and creative-writing professor Janet Burroway, and it is based upon her book Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft.

Learning outcomes:
The aim of this course is to provide ideas and tips whether you're starting or continuing to write fiction, a memoir or even poetry. The units cover releasing your imagination through discussions of characters, setting, image, voice, plot and story, before moving on to guidance on developing, reviewing and, hopefully, publishing your work.

Course content:

Start your writing easily with motivational tips, advice about developing the writing habit, and lots of activity ideas to create an online journal.
Explore how detailed imagery and figures of speech enhance your writing and enables reader engagement - here you will find out how to "show, not tell" in your writing.
Learn about voice and character, point of view and narrative voice to then flesh out characters' appearances, personalities, behaviours, thoughts and dialogue.
Discover how to use the "setting" to invoke mood and conflict, and how to immerse yourself within the setting to write your manuscript.
Use your journal ideas to advance your writing by considering stories as connection and disconnection, a journey or struggle. Also a look at genres, and then plot your story by utilizing various storytelling devices.
6 units, which are self-paced and available to access at any time
For beginner writers and authors who wish to kick-start their creative writing to finish writing a book, memoir, collection of short stories, or poetry.

View course: Creative Writing

4. Start Writing Fiction

This free creative writing course from OpenLearn via The Open University looks at how to create rounded and convincing characters, establishing the setting and its links with the plot, and also the effect of genre when writing your manuscript.

Learning outcomes:
After studying this course, you should be able to:

Identify strengths and weaknesses as a writer of fiction
Demonstrate a general awareness of fiction writing
Discuss fiction using basic vocabulary

Course content:
From a world leader in distance learning, the Start Writing Fiction course via The Open University is a self-paced course available to access at any time that you can download and/or print to access offline.

You can listen to novelists discussing how they develop their fictional characters using a mixture of methodical research, accident and empathy, and how they work within existing genres or subvert them.

12 hours of study
Level 1 – Introductory
The Open University is a trusted university with over 50 years’ experience delivering flexible learning to thousands of students

View course: Start Writing Fiction

5. Writing What You Know

Another free online creative writing course from OpenLearn via The Open University, which will enable you to develop your descriptive writing skills.

By analysing your perception of the world around you, the everyday can be viewed differently, which in turn can benefit your writing style and technique.

And you will also find out how authors apply their personal experiences to their writing.

Learning outcomes:
After studying this course, you should be able to:

Express the concept of “writing what you know”
Create ‘blind’ descriptions of known objects and notice new observations
Have an improved capacity to list sensory perceptions
Write short pieces about a personal recollection of either a person or a place

Course content:
In this course you will use life experiences in your fiction writing and raise your level of perception above the ordinary, build a believable world which your readers will think existed before and continues after the story has ended, involve all of the senses in your writing to create much fuller imagery of the world you are creating, and use memories to order narrative in your writing.

8 hours of study
Level 1 – Introductory
A self-paced course available to access at any time that you can download and/or print to access offline.

View course: Writing What You Know

6. Creative Writing and Critical Reading

A more advanced free creative writing course from OpenLearn via The Open University where you will “explore the importance of reading as part of a creative writer’s development at the postgraduate level".

You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers’ methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills.

Examples will cover the genres of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and scriptwriting.

Learning outcomes:

Recognize the significance of reading when developing as a creative writer
Engage methodically and critically with various literary and media texts
Understand how critical reading provides both ideas and inspiration for writers
From applying writing practice, understand the genres fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and scriptwriting
Engage with postgraduate methods of reading and writing practice

Course content:
Reading as a critical reader (how a writer uses point of view, tone, and structure to generate tension, for example), reading and creative writing (write short critical reflection in prose), reading as a writer (fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and scriptwriting), writers on reading (critical reading and habits), and writing in practice (write a short creative piece).

8 hours of study
Level 3 – Advanced
A self-paced course available to access at any time that you can download and/or print to access offline.

View course: Creative Writing and Critical Reading

7. The Crafty Writer's Creative Writing Course

A free online creative writing course from Fiona Veitch Smith who has created The Crafty Writer. Fiona is a writing teacher, author, freelance journalist, playwright, editor, and screenwriter.

This is a self-paced online creative writing course and comprises eight sessions which provide an "introduction to the basic elements of creative writing, from prose fiction to poetry".

Other useful resources and recommended books are mentioned to accompany the lessons.

If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at creative writing but don't know where to start, this free online writing course could be a great option for you.

Course content:

Discover how to tap into your creativity, and whether your preference is writing prose or poetry
How your choice of point of view (POV) has an effect on reader engagement
How to bring your writing to life
How to write realistic and complex characters
Using your voice as an author and also writing dialogue between characters
The basics of writing poetry – lyric, narrative, structured, free verse, rhythm, and meter
Tips and advice on markets, competitions, and opportunities

Even though this course is free, this does not involve a free critique of your writing or feedback on the exercises. If you would like Fiona's professional opinion on your writing, you can contact her via the course link below for a quote.

View course: Creative Writing Course

8. Supercharge Your Productivity – How to Develop Good Writing Habits

This free online course from the National Centre for Writing is full of information and advice to help you examine your writing habits (the good and the bad!) and identify how you can supercharge your productivity.

If you've always wanted to write but don’t know how to start or you’d like to stop getting distracted and never finishing projects, this course could help you.

The tutor for this course is Ben Johncock, author of The Last Pilot and a productivity expert, who will give you the guidance to deal with habits, distraction and procrastination.

Course content:

Examine your daily agenda for wasted time
Find out how to allot writing time in your daily routine
Explore where and when to write
Identify your “hidden time” and how utilize it
Recognize bad habits and what to do about them
Discover how to take control of your smartphone

This course is self-paced and can be accessed at any time after enrollment. Sign up to a free account is required to get instant access to the course.

The course should take 1-2 weeks, but you can take as long as you need to complete.

View course: Supercharge Your Creativity

Another free course from the National Centre for Writing is Know Your Publishing Options

9. Writing Science Fiction: World Building Designing the Final Frontier

This is another free online course from the National Centre for Writing. Aimed at anyone looking to write in the sci-fi genre, you will find this course full of advice and information on world building and verisimilitude!

All authors need good settings to tell their stories, but science fiction has its own distinctive and specific needs, whether you're writing in the past, an alternate present or a future faraway. This course takes you through characteristic sci-fi settings and discovers ways to create your own.

The instructor for this course is Ian Nettleton, author of the science fiction anthology Angles, and the novel The Last Migration. With a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia, he teaches creative writing at the Open University (undergraduate and MA) and the University of East Anglia.

Course content:
On this sci-fi writing course you'll learn:

How to use your setting to reveal and reflect your characters
Using the mundane to your advantage
Discover the difference between world building and exposition
Find out what separates after the catastrophe from enclosed habitats
Understand why verisimilitude is key to any science fiction story

This course is self-paced and can be accessed at any time after enrollment. Sign up to a free account is required to get instant access to the course.

The course should take 1-2 weeks, but you can take as long as you need to complete.

View course: Writing Science Fiction

10. How to Stop Talking about Writing a Book and Actually Start Doing It

If you want to write a book but you’re not sure where to begin, or you’ve made a start but need some guidance to keep going or to complete it, this free online writing course from Reedsy could help you.

The instructor for this course is Jennie Nash who is the author of three memoirs and four novels. She is also a private book coach whose clients regularly receive national self-publishing awards, are signed up with top New York agents, and have book deals with publishing houses such as Simon & Schuster, and Random House.

Course content:
On this free writing course you will learn:

How to start the book, and how to know when to end it
How to find your voice and use the right point of view for your story
The significance of knowing why you're writing, and allowing that to show in your work
How to find your "raving fan," the one who you'll need to keep in mind every time you write a page
How to envisage your entire book so you always know where you're heading

This is a 10-day course where the 5-minute lessons are delivered to your inbox each day. Sign up to a free account is required to get instant access to the course.

So if you want to stop talking about writing a book and actually start doing it or finally complete that final draft, this course may be the ideal option for you.

View course: How to Stop Talking about Writing a Book and Actually Start Doing It

Conclusion

Learning from a professional course will advance your writing further, so taking advantage of a free writing course will enhance your motivation and confidence as well as improving your writing style and storytelling ability.

While you keep writing, learning, and developing, you’ll soon see how much a difference practice and utilizing the information from a writing course can make.

If you make time to write each day, even for just a few minutes, and apply the techniques and tips from a writing class, you will see the improvements and growth as a writer.

Good luck on your next step to becoming a writer!