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.
September Courses
In Focus: Writing Short Stories
with Elwin Cotman
Discover the power and impact of the short story form. Explore new ideas freely and begin up to 6 new short stories.
Where the Diary Ends and the Essay Begins
with Shelby Hinte
Start a diary practice and turn it into a mode of writing personal essays in this generative journaling workshop.
Writing Autobiographical Fiction
with Jack Smith
Learn to depart from "what really happened," and write compelling fiction from your own life experiences.
Do I Have a Book?: Pulling Out the Thread in an Essay Collection
with Bryn Gribben
Write from what will not leave you alone—the fascinations and obsessions you keep returning to—and build toward a book-length collection of linked essays.
Flash Fiction: The Art of Compression
with Alexander Shalom Joseph
Discover how compression transforms narrative, write with precision, and come away with a portfolio of new flash pieces of all sizes.
Long Story Short: Compressing Life into Meaningful Micro Memoirs
with Gretchen Clark
Distill the spirit of your story in fewer than 500 words. Learn to craft compelling short nonfiction, and write and revise five new pieces of micro memoir.
Surprise! in Poetry: Building Oomph into your Practice
with L.J. Sysko
Explore the power of surprise in poetry, and write new poems that gleam with the unexpected.
Anatomy of a Premise Line: How to Use Story and Premise Development for Writing Success
with Jeff Lyons
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.
Life Writing: Explore Your Lived Experience in Prose
with Kate Potts
Discover how to translate your lived experiences into writing that resonates beyond the self, and create a wealth of new writing.
Warp and Weft: Weaving Free Verse Poetry from Life
with Anna Scotti
Weave everyday events into deftly-written free verse poems in this generative, creativity-centered poetry workshop.
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.
Online Writing Course Categories
Student Testimonials
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
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
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.