Online writing courses with Writers.com

Follow the call to write.

Writers.com is a warm, welcoming space for all writers. Explore the joy and craft of writing in our inclusive community, join our online courses and coaching for personal feedback from our award-winning instructors, and explore our writing tools and resources. Wherever you are in your journey, we’re here to help you.

Our Online Writing Courses Are...

digital writing classes

Fully Digital

Join and participate from anywhere. A laptop or tablet is all you'll need.

friendly and welcoming

Friendly and Welcoming

We can't wait to meet you and support your writing!

open to all

Open to All

We welcome writers of all backgrounds, experience levels, genres, and styles.

Online Writing Courses Starting Soon:

May Courses

Call of the Weird: Poetry and Nature

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May 14 | 6 Weeks | $445$380Save 15%!

Turn your poetic lens towards the outdoors, where we'll put to verse everything strange and wonderful about the natural world. 

Crafting Poems in Form: Rhyme, Meter, Fixed Forms, and More

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May 14 | 8 Weeks | $545 | NEW!

Working within the guidelines of a fixed poetic structure can make your poetry more creative, not less. Find freedom in form in this 8 week workshop. 

Deep Waters: The Prose Poem Advanced Workshop

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May 14 | 6 Weeks | $445

Take the plunge in this advanced prose poetry course, where you'll write and revise short, powerful works that look like prose but hit like poetry.

Six Flash Essays in Six Weeks

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May 14 | 6 Weeks | $445$380Save 15%!

Tell the stories of your life in 1,000 words or less in this generative flash essays workshop. 

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Anatomy of a Premise Line: How to Use Story and Premise Development for Writing Success

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May 21 | 5 Weeks | $395$340Save 15%!

The premise line is the only reliable tool that can tell you, BEFORE you start writing, whether or not your story will “work.” In this class participants will learn how to master the process of premise line development—the essential first step in any book or screenplay’s development process.

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The Lyric Essay: Invitation to Play

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May 21 | 10 Weeks | $595$510Save 15%!

Create dynamic, genre-bending works of musical prose in this playful and exploratory lyric essay workshop. 

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Tightening the Screws: How to Build Tension in Fiction

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May 21 | 4 weeks | $345$295Save 15%! | NEW!

Hook your readers! Discover what tension is and how it works to keep readers emotionally invested, and write four tension-filled scenes from a new or existing project.

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Writing the Short Story

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May 21 | 10 Weeks | $645$550Save 15%!

Create new work with fresh language, universal themes, sustained mystery and memorable characters. Stimulate your imagination.

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Scene Study: Strengthen Your Writing with Compelling Scenes

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May 28 | 5 Weeks | $395$340Save 15%!

Great stories are constructed with great scenes. Immerse your reader in your stories by learning the ropes of scene development.

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The Joy of Poetry: A Beginner-Friendly Workshop

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May 28 | 6 Weeks | $445

Only 1 seat left!

Have you wanted to get into poetry, but don't know where to start? Learn the craft from the Joy of poetry herself in this welcoming workshop.

Student Testimonials

nabila zahur writers.com

It was so fantastic working with other serious writers and getting their input. I have taken part in other writer critique groups, but I felt that the difference here is that everyone who came in is really serious about the craft.

I managed to revise and rewrite the first half of my novel during this course, and I have a plan for how to tackle the rest.

The ultimate success for me was that my husband could see a lot of improvement between the writing he saw in week 1 vs in week 10. Feeling inspired and empowered from this course!

-Nabila Zahur, novelist

This was my first course with Writers.com, and my first course in this global format (we had members from London, Australia, Denmark, and the US). It worked very well.

The course content was thoughtful, informative, and well-organized. The instructor was supportive and encouraging to all, and matched her level of critique to the level of the participant. I felt we were in the hands of a master and mentor, and it was a privilege to have her undivided attention eight times in two months.

-Fred Lindgren

fred lindgren writers.com
melissa decarlo

Writers.com classes provide a great way to sharpen your writing skills and join a community of writers. Try a few-you won't be disappointed.

-Melissa DeCarlo, author of The Art Of Crash Landing (Harper Paperbacks/HarperCollins)

Browse More Testimonials

Janice Cafaro — Death Riding Shotgun

December 9, 2024

Lisa’s readings helped me explore this genre and also examine my own mortality and that of my beloved family members. Her discussions and writing projects further helped me explore the multi-faceted layers of mortality as expressed in the unique voices of the poetry we studied.  Lisa’s class offers an excellent foundation into existential poetry, and I will continue to explore the genre and the writers she exposed us too. Thank you for everything!

About Writers.com

The First Writing School on the Internet

Since 1995, writers from over two hundred countries have visited Writers.com and thousands have completed our online writing classes. We are accessible 24-7 from any Internet connection in the world, uniting far-flung students with renowned instructors - all published, working writers with teaching experience- who offer feedback and encouragement.

Writing can be a lonely road but it doesn't have to be. Whether you're just beginning to write or polishing your next piece for publication, we can help. Let us provide inspiration, direction, community and deadlines to start you writing and keep you working.

Support And Constructive Criticism

You're never just a face in a crowd at Writers.com. Small groups keep our online classes lively and intimate.

Each class provides written lectures, projects and assignments, and discussion forums where you'll share your work with the instructor and the other students.

Best of all, a teacher offers insights on every project you submit. These critiques help identify the patterns that can plague even the most talented and experienced writers. So whether you're dusting off a grade-school passion or breaking onto the bestseller list, we can boost you up the ladder a few rungs.

Can't bring yourself to share your work? We offer private classes,  just you - or just you and a friend or two - working with the instructor. Click on private classes in the navigation bar at the top of the page to read more.

We also offer one-to-one services such as coaching and editing but it's highly recommended you take one of our classes first.

Writers.com commits to providing the best online writing classes for creative writers available anywhere. (If you're interested in learning other kinds of writing, such as business or technical writing, you can start with Hidden Front Door or a similar site.)

Caring And Community

Writers.com remains a rock in a sea of audit-only and feedback-light classes. We've had decades to fine-tune our approach, recruit top instructors and build a supportive network of writers. When you send us an email, you'll always hear back from a real person, not an auto-responder. And while you're in class, we're available to help seven days a week if you run into a problem or have a question.

Over a third of our alumni return to take a second class with us, and some have been taking our classes for 20 years or more. That's the highest compliment we can imagine - and it inspires us daily to keep growing as writers' needs and the literary landscape shift.

We pioneered teaching online writing classes. And we still do it with pleasure every day.

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Lavish praise? We want to hear it all! Please contact us through the form below. We'll be in touch ASAP.

Please note: many of our courses are completely text-based. If you're reaching out with a question about course meeting times, check the course description to see whether it has a live video component or not. For more information, check out how our courses work.

We do check email seven days a week. Please allow for some delay as chances are we're not in your time zone and, though the Internet never sleeps, we do.