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.

Find Your Writing Focus

Browse Courses by Genre

Whether you write poetry, memoirs, novels, or essays, there's a course here for you.

June Courses

Beginner’s Mind: A Mindful Approach to Personal Essays

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June 17 | 8 Weeks | $545$465Save 15%!

Write true and meaningful personal essays with the tools of mindfulness. We'll discover new insights in our work as we center ourselves, confront our inner critics, and write mindfully. 

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Crafting a Story or Novel Chapter Using Forward-Moving Tension

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June 17 | 5 Weeks | $395$340Save 15%!

How do writers tell stories with tension, action, and emotion? Learn how to write forward-moving tension in this 5 week fiction course.

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Flash Fiction: The Art of Compression

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June 24 | 6 weeks | $445$380Save 15%!

Discover how compression transforms narrative, write with precision, and come away with a portfolio of new flash pieces of all sizes.

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Observing What’s Vivid in Prose and Poetry

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June 24 | 4 Weeks | $345$295Save 15%!

Learn how to spotlight beauty through fresh, vivid, and surprising language, in this four week mindfulness writing course.

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Writing Our Grief: How to Channel Loss into Creative Expression

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June 24 | 8 Weeks | $545

Writing about grief is a powerful healing tool. Turn pain into power in this personal essay course, with instructor Rudri Patel.

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July Courses

Creative Nonfiction and the Personal Essay

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July 1 | 10 Weeks | $645$550Save 15%!

Gretchen Clark pick axes her way into the volcanic marriage of real life and fiction. Weekly writing with incisive feedback.

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Write Your Novel in 16 Weeks!

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July 1 | 16 Weeks | $995

In this generative novel writing course, we'll go from writing a strong beginning to writing "The End" on your novel's first draft.

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Writing With the Body: Using Our Intuition to Write the Personal Essay

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July 1 | 6 Weeks | $445$380Save 15%!

Tap into your body’s wisdom to craft vivid, emotionally resonant personal essays.

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Boundaries, Burnout, and the Body: A Writing Workshop for Creative Resilience

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July 8 | 6 Weeks | $445$380Save 15%!

Writing from a compassionate awareness of the body, build resilience in the face of burnout—and produce your most grounded, authentic writing.

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Let’s Get Published: Poetry Editing and Submission Intensive

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July 8 | 6 weeks | $445 | NEW!

Get your poems submission-ready through focused and detailed feedback, and come away with a packet of at least 4 edited and submitted poems.

Our Online Writing Courses are...

Fully Digital

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

Friendly and Welcoming

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

Open to All

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

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

Joseph Caperna – Writing Mindfulness

August 29, 2022

Assignments and readings all new for me, motivating, unsettling in good ways. Marc helped me show not tell, write down first thoughts, editing is mostly deleting later. He gave me confidence to submit a poem, pending now. This is my second course with Marc Olmsted, and I highly recommend him.

Lucy Xing – Intro to Screenwriting

August 29, 2022

The overall experience of the workshop was positive. It was exactly what I’d expected from an intro class. Susan was knowledgeable and communicated the information in an organized manner. 

Sharon Ransom – Crafting a Story or Novel Chapter Using Forward-Moving Tension

August 29, 2022

My knowledge of how to construct tension is significantly improved after taking Sandra’s class. Her reading assignments were not only helpful but also included a variety of outside reading for further clarification. I learned more about my own writing through Sandra’s critiques and observations. I highly recommend Sandra’s class.

Sharon O’Toole – Writing Mindfulness

August 25, 2022

Marc is an excellent teacher who truly engages with his students. His critiques are thoughtful and helpful. I hope to take a class from him in the future.

Sharon Ransom – Anatomy of a Premise Line

August 22, 2022

The Anatomy of a Premise Line was the perfect class for me. I am working on a writing project that seemed unwieldy and over my head. Jeff Lyons’ class helped me to articulate and focus on an approach that is working much better.

Karin Reimondos – Crafting a Story or Novel Chapter Using Forward Moving Tension

August 22, 2022

Sandy goes above and beyond the call of duty. A teacher that LOVES to teach and takes care of each of her student with so much dedication and enthusiams.

Jeffrey Vamos – Crafting a Story or Novel Chapter Using Forward Moving Tension

August 22, 2022

It was very helpful as a way to jump start one’s writing discipline, and receive some useful feedback on the work. I give it high marks. Sandy was a very good and insightful reader/critiquer of the work.

Kathy Keats – Crafting a Story or Novel Chapter Using Forward Moving Tension

August 22, 2022

Sandy is an absolutely outstanding instructor. She has a gift for pushing you to be better without taking away what makes your writing your own. Her questions and comments are always incredibly insightful, and it’s obvious she’s given your piece her full attention.

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.