Develop your craft and tell the stories you're burning to tell, in our online short story writing courses.
You’ll get personal weekly instructor feedback on your work, ongoing collaboration with other writers, and a supportive course structure that will help you set and meet your writing goals.
Learn from published short story writers who have spent decades perfecting their craft and are dedicated to supporting you and your work.
Our online short story classes are filling fast. Find yours today!
Upcoming Online Short Story Writing Courses
January
Writing Autobiographical Fiction With January 13, 2021 $315 | 8 Weeks Learn to depart from “what really happened,” and write compelling fiction from your own life experiences. |
Writing the Short Story With January 13, 2021 $360 | 10 Weeks Create new work with fresh language, universal themes, sustained mystery and memorable characters. Stimulate your imagination. |
Writing with Tarot With January 13, 2021 $315 | 8 Weeks Jump-start your creative juices, and explore a world of divination, symbolism, and imagery right at your fingertips: learn short story and novel writing through Tarot. |
Humor Is The New Black! With January 20, 2021 $215 | 4 Weeks Ready to add a splash of fun to your writing life? Join us for a four-week humor writing class. We’ll read. We’ll laugh. We’ll write. We’ll experiment. |
In Your Own Words: Transforming Life Into Memoir and Fiction With January 27, 2021 $350 | 8 Weeks Learn how to draw inspiration and material from your life experiences or those of people you know, or want to know, to craft compelling, publishable memoirs, personal essays, autobiographical novels and short stories, and/or narrative poetry. |
Writing for Children: Create A Picture Book! With January 27, 2021 $260 | 6 Weeks NEW! Picture books have changed greatly over the last few decades, and the market is wide open for fresh ideas. Join us in this six-week intensive where we’ll take that idea of yours and turn it into a manuscript! |
February
Poetic Prose: The Prose Poem With February 3, 2021 $430 | 10 weeks Explore the border between prose poetry and flash fiction. For writers of fiction, poetry, essay and memoir. |
The Ongoing Fiction Workshop With February 10, 2021 $415 | 10 Weeks Many students have attended this 10-week online fiction workshop with Shelley Singer multiple times, completed novels, and come back to finish more books. |
Essentials of Character Development: How to Create Characters that Move and Breathe and Can't Stop Talking With February 10, 2021 $315 | 8 Weeks Bring your characters to life in this in-depth character development class with Gloria Kempton. |
How to Firm Up the “Mushy Middle” of Any Story With February 17, 2021 $250 | 5 Weeks Ensure a strong middle throughline for any story. Say goodbye to the “mushy middle,” and hello to stories that work. |
Mastering the Elements of Fiction With February 17, 2021 $360 | 10 Weeks In this course, you’ll work with the basic elements of fiction–the fundamentals that drive the story and determine the quality of the work. |
The "I've Always Wanted To Write Fiction" Workshop With February 24, 2021 $250 | 5 Weeks Learn the basics of fiction writing and submit weekly writing for feedback from Shelley Singer, author of 13 novels. It’s time to start. |
March
The Art of Storytelling With March 3, 2021 $315 | 8 Weeks It’s an age-old art form—storytelling—and you can learn the craft. |
Plumbing the Past: Turning Life Experience into Poetry, Flash and Creative Non-Fiction With March 10, 2021 $250 | 4 Weeks Dig deep into personal ritual while studying narrative poets, short fiction and non-fiction authors, and food writers. |
The Watching Eye: Writing Flash Fiction With March 24, 2021 $285 | 5 Weeks Write tiny fictions while experimenting with 3rd person point of view and analyzing how that point of view affects the craft of fiction writing. With Barbara Henning. |
May
The Thinking Mind: Writing Flash Fiction With May 5, 2021 $285 | 5 Weeks Write tiny fictions while experimenting with 1st person point of view and analyzing how that point of view affects the craft of fiction writing. |
From Journal To Poem Or Prose: The Chronology Of Mind With May 12, 2021 $430 | 10 weeks Gather material through writing and experimenting with journaling, researching and taking notes to develop into poems or prose works. |
Unscheduled Online Short Story Writing Classes
Browse our full short story offerings below. Let us know which online short story writing courses you're interested in, and we'll contact you with dates when we're ready to put them on our calendar.
Voice: What is it and how do you find yours? Instructor Gloria Kempton offers feedback on assignments in this 3-week online class.
Write about love beyond trite sentiment and shallow fictions. Work down to the real thing: deep, powerful, destructive, exalted, fundamental.
Banish writer’s block, unearth fresh ideas, and sharpen your storytelling ability with the practice of fast, timed writing.
Take a four-week writing adventure deep into the core of your story, to find the true theme of your personal essay, short story, or short memoir.
Turn your experience into fiction, autobiography, or creative memoir. Bring forward stories with a powerful truth at their core. Instructor Anya Achtenberg.
In-depth character development using an ancient personality study of human motivation–the Enneagram.
For writers of memoir, creative nonfiction and fiction, with some experience. Particularly helpful to writers in the midst of a longer work.
Fiction or nonfiction? Article, short story, or how-to book? Do you want to write for children, teens, adults? There is a type of writing that is best suited for you, and the discovery process can be an adventure.
Write the entire first draft of a novella-length story, with plenty of feedback from stage to stage, and finish with a plan for revising toward a publishable manuscript.
Have a grand time with specific physical exercises that honor your health, generate imaginative ideas, explore deeply and make your creative writing entertaining.
Have a grand time with specific physical exercises that honor your health, generate imaginative ideas, explore deeply and make your creative writing entertaining.
Can you translate the movement of a dance into a poem? What happens when you write a story in the form of a multiple-choice quiz? Learn to take your work in rich and unexpected new directions by subverting and blending genre conventions.
Address the larger issues of writing story through a look at the essential elements of narrative in fiction and memoir.
During this six week program, you will work closely one-on-one with Kelly to finalize, refine, and polish your picture book into a manuscript ready to submit for publication or representation.
Write 1–3-page flash fiction in this online course with Barbara Henning, drawing on classic, poetic & experimental elements. Read the form’s masters.
The holiday season is the best time to get the ball rolling on your book. Join us if you really want to get your book into the world.
Take the whirlwind tour! Learn the conventions of eight major fiction genres, try them out, and figure out your niche.
You’ll write prose that gets folks so hot and bothered they won’t be able to put it down, even if it isn’t about sex.
Author Sarah Aronson leads this intermediate/advanced workshop on writing for children. It offers support, structure and detailed feedback on manuscripts.
A course for intensive practice and feedback in scene writing skills.
“Who are you to want to write?” Someone great, that’s who! Politely ask Mr. or Ms. Fear to step aside while you sign up for this fun, freeing and functional adventure.
Write like mad, read brilliant books & deepen your craft while exploring new paths to inspiration. With novelist and poet Anya Achtenberg, .
Inject suspense into your stories to keep readers turning pages. For writers of all kinds of fiction: thrillers, mysteries, romance, humor, literary and memoir. A four week class with Giulietta Nardone.
As a prison volunteer for 20 years, Gloria Kempton has met many anti-heroes. In this course, you’ll receive feedback on your story antagonists.
Structure your story and give it meaning with Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey.
Create new work with fresh language, universal themes, sustained mystery and memorable characters. Stimulate your imagination.
For any writer wanting to root writing in vision and vision in the body: for poetry, fiction, essay, memoir & pleasure.
Join Susan in two writing circles each week: intimate spaces for writers to free-write together, saying yes to whatever shows up, followed by group read-arounds. These writing sessions are spontaneous, intimate, freeing, and transformative.
Expressive writing can be a powerful elixir for what ails you. Learn and practice tools for writing expressively, including two virtual writing circles each week, turn raw writing into poetry or prose, and come away with a better understanding of how writing can lead toward wellness.
For young writers (ages 10-15) who want to learn more about creating their own stories: Four video seminars and direct one-to-one coaching with Sarah Aronson!
If you turn on to the absurd in life—to the ironic, edgy, bizarre, and grotesque—this is the course for you. Learn the key techniques of writing absurdist fiction, dark fiction, and satire.
Articles on Short Story Writing
Why Take an Online Short Story Writing Course with Writers.com?
- We welcome writers of all backgrounds and experience levels, and we are here for one reason: to support you on your writing journey.
- Small groups keep our online short story writing classes lively and intimate.
- Work through your weekly written lectures, course materials, and writing assignments at your own pace.
- Share and discuss your work with classmates in a supportive class environment.
- Your course instructor will offer you direct, personal feedback and suggestions on every assignment you submit.