Best Creative Writing Classes Online 2025
22 creative writing classes online to write fiction and non-fiction.

Have you ever read a good book and thought about writing your own? Whether a novel, a self-help book, or even a viral tweet, we have all witnessed the benefit of creative writing. And as you’ll see in this article, the benefits of learning creative writing go beyond being an author. Here, we’ll give you an overview of the best creative writing classes online.
Overview
Creative writing is a form of expression where writers use their creativity and imagination to craft a narrative. Genres that fall under creative writing include novels, comic books, creative nonfiction, memoirs, biographies, plays, and movie scripts. The elements used in creative writing include characters, setting, plot, conflict, point of view, and theme.
Beyond just being an author, the ability to craft a convincing and compelling narrative can be helpful in many industries. Creative writing skills can make a difference whether you are writing a marketing campaign or a lawyer crafting your closing statements.
In fact, in almost any possible career or social situation, you will benefit by understanding how to craft a narrative. When choosing a creative writing class, finding one suited to your goals and needs is important.
Some courses might offer practical exercises, and others might focus on inspiration. Whatever path you choose, learning the art of creative writing comes with many personal and professional benefits. For general writing courses, please look here.
Best Creative Writing Classes Online 2025
MasterClass | Domestika | Udemy |
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Various Genres | Various Genres | Creative Writing |
from $15/month | from $14.99/class | from $11.99/class |
★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ |
Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website |
*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Read the full disclosure at the end of this post.
Note: This review lists the best creative writing classes. We cannot claim comprehensiveness as there are many other great courses available.
1. Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing – MasterClass

Margaret Atwood’s popular MasterClass (visit website) is all about learning to craft vivid prose and timeless storytelling and to get readers hooked. According to Atwood, a good story makes the reader believe in it even though they know it’s fiction. And in her creative writing class, Atwood shares her creative process for developing ideas into finished novels.
Topics in the class include getting started as a writer, plot, novel structure, point of view, creating characters, dialogue, and more. Also included in the class are case studies from Atwood’s works to give practical examples of what she’s teaching.
And if you struggle with the business aspect of creative writing, there is also a section on that. It gives practical tips on finding an agent, getting published, and even dealing with negative reviews. The annual membership provides access to all online classes, including 22+ writing classes, many of which are creative writing. Have a look.
Instructor: Margaret Atwood | For: All Levels | Rating: 4.9 ★★★★★
Price: from $10/month. Access to all 200+ online courses.
Info: View course. Compare pricing plans on MasterClass.
2. Udemy Online Creative Writing Classes

Udemy (visit website) offers various creative writing classes for different purposes, skills and projects. Classes cover poetry, creative thinking, novels, creative nonfiction, memoirs, and more. And you can filter through options by categories such as ratings, video duration, topic, subcategory, and price range.
Three of the best classes include “How to Write a Novel – The Full Course”, “Creative Exercises for New Writing Ideas”, and “How to Write Poetry”.
In “How to Write a Novel” the focus is on creating engaging characters, using a 3-act narrative structure, and writing smart dialogue. The second example class covers 30 creative writing exercises. Interesting features here include starting a creativity journal and steps to build a daily writing habit. There’s also a Q&A section with a responsive instructor.
Finally, in the third class, you’ll learn how to write sonnets, narrative poetry, blank verse, free verse, and more. You’ll also focus on poetic form, rhyme, and practical writing exercises. If you are starting out, Udemy has some of the best creative writing classes online for beginners at a decent price range.
Classes: 500+ | Rating: 4.4-4.8 ★★★★☆
Info: Browse full category on Udemy.
Pricing: Classes start from $14.99. Up to 85% off.
3. Creative Writing Specialization – Coursera

Coursera’s Creative Writing specialization (visit website) covers topics from three different genres: short stories, narrative essays, and memoirs. Besides short story and fiction writing skills, you’ll also develop your copy-editing skills.
Wesleyan University authorizes the specialization and includes a series of classes you must complete individually. These classes focus on different elements of creative writing, such as plot, character, setting, description, and style. After doing each of the courses, you’ll complete a hands-on project.
This capstone project involves drafting, rewriting, and finishing an original story of your chosen genre. You will practice everything you have learned. Students will also practice revision skills as they edit their work and do peer reading of other students’ works.
Upon completing the specialization, you will receive a certificate to share with potential employers. This is one of the best creative writing classes online if you want a well-structured learning path delivered by an academic institution.
Provider: Wesleyan University, Coursera | Type: Specialization
Pricing: Free trial. $59/month Coursera Plus. | Review: 4.8 ★★★★★
Info: View course. Browse: Search all related classes on Coursera.
4. Neil Gaiman Teaches the Art of Storytelling – MasterClass

In his online masterclass, Neil Gaiman (visit website) reviews his storytelling approach. He shares tips, exercises, and his own philosophy on writing to help teach and inspire students to write. Video lessons cover topics such as finding your voice, developing the story, world-building, humor, dialogue, character, descriptions, and more.
Case studies are also included. Gaiman uses his own works to give in-depth insight into how he applies different storytelling elements. Some unique benefits of this class are Gaiman’s lessons on sources of inspiration, writer’s block, editing, and rules for writers.
In the Rules for Writers section, Gaiman gives important tips on confidence, staying organized, and being devoted to daily work. Finally, for people interested in writing comic books, a section also covers that genre. This is one of the best online creative writing classes for learning storytelling. It is included in MasterClass’s all-access membership.
Instructor: Neil Gaiman | For: All Levels | Rating: 4.9 ★★★★★
Price: from $10/month. Access to all 200+ online courses.
Info: View course. Compare pricing plans on MasterClass.
5. The Complete Creative Writing Course – All Genres – Udemy

The “Complete Creative Writing Course – All Genres” (visit website) is an excellent class on Udemy and is recommended for beginners. Poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and playwriting are the four genres that you’ll become familiar with here.
Throughout this popular course, you will focus on developing and perfecting your own writing voice. To accomplish this, you will explore a variety of writing styles and examine a range of concepts to relate to your own writing. You’ll also learn to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of writing projects.
Each lesson is broken down into multiple video lectures, daily writing assignments, review quizzes, and a practical application project. Lessons cover the different writing techniques, literary devices, and specialized skills related to the four genres.
As a student, you will also learn about publishing opportunities and have access to podcasts and information on creating a professional portfolio.
Instructor: Trace Crawford | Level: Beginners | Video: 12 hours
Price: View course. From $11.99. Up to 95% off. Browse category on Udemy.
7. Creative Writing for Beginners – Domestika

“Creative Writing for Beginners” (visit website) is the best-rated online class on the popular Domestika platform class. The goal is to help you develop a complete written piece. To do this, lessons include practical exercises that help sharpen your writing voice.
Class content covers topics like how to start writing immediately, create impact, and shape a story. Within these sections, you will learn techniques for approaching subjects and sketching with words.
There is also a class on what to do when you get stuck. Other lessons include storytelling, editing, rewriting, and sharing your work. One of the benefits of this class is that it has a final project where you will develop, write, and complete your own story.
If you’ve never actually tried writing a story, this could be a great course to start. No previous writing experience is necessary.
Instructor: Shaun Levi | Level: Beginners | Lessons: 25 | Time: 2.5 hours
Info: View course. From $14.90. Up to 75% off. Browse category Creative Writing.
8. Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers – MasterClass

If you like suspense stories, Dan Brown’s masterclass (visit website) will teach you to write thrillers. According to Brown, writing a novel is about the process and doesn’t rely on inspiration. Based on this philosophy, the class provides practical tools and a roadmap to help develop an idea into a story.
Interestingly, Dan Brown believes that all ideas have already been done. So, the trick isn’t about creating some big idea but executing big “hows” as the story unfolds. Thus, lesson topics focus on the anatomy of a thriller, finding an idea, universal character tools, and doing decent research. It is an exciting learning process.
Other practical topics are building a story from the ground up and creating suspense. Sections on editing, point of view, writing scenes, and life as a writer are also included. Overall, perhaps the main benefit of Brown’s masterclass is its practicality. It aims to remove the mystery of writing and turn it into a replicable process. MasterClass’s annual membership provides access to all their online classes, including 22+ writing classes.
Instructor: Dan Brown | For: All Levels | Rating: 4.9 ★★★★★
Price: from $10/month. Access to all 200+ online courses.
Info: View course. Compare pricing plans on MasterClass.
9. Skillshare Online Creative Writing Classes

Skillshare (visit website) offers students a broad choice of online creative writing classes. There are courses on topics such as starting a story, writing essays, editing, writing for video games, or eBook formatting. You can narrow your search by choosing related skills like screenwriting, publishing, novel writing, creative nonfiction, and storytelling.
Let’s take a brief look at some of their best offerings. In “The Writer’s Toolkit: 6 Steps to a Successful Writing Habit,” the goal is to create an approachable and fun daily writing routine. Topics include optimizing your writing space and gathering and acting on inspiration.
In the “Editing and Proofreading Masterclass,” the focus is on taking your editing and proofreading skills to the next level. You’ll learn how to use keyboard shortcuts for writing and editing, as well as how to use the best autocorrect software. Beyond this, you’ll also learn how to enhance your publishing, writing, and editing skills.
Finally, in “Writing Fiction: How to Build a Believable Character,” you will focus on creating authentic characters. You’ll learn about character development through exercises, prompts, and techniques. A membership pass gives you access to all their classes.
Platform: Skillshare | Level: Beginners to advanced | Review: 4.6 ★★★★☆
Info: Visit website. Browse all related classes in their catalog. Free trial.
Price: $15/month. Get 30% Off Premium to try all online courses.
10. Creative Writing Classes with Publishing Professionals – The Novelry

The Novelry has a range of creative online writing classes for beginners and experienced writers. In the “Classic Course,” you’ll study bestselling novels and get comprehensive writing tasks to develop your story and outline your novel.
“Ninety-day Novel” comes with over 100 online lessons covering all aspects of creative writing. You’ll have lectures and coaching on topics such as plot structure, character development, and the like. At the end of the class, students will have gone from an outline to a finished first draft of their novel.
In “The Big Edit”, professional publishing editors will review your storyline and give you a revision plan. As a student, you will also have access to lessons and feedback from other writers. Finally, you’ll have a pre-submission session with The Novelry’s editorial team to prepare the work for presentation to literary agents.
“Ultimate Manuscript Assessment” delivers a more in-depth assessment of your novel from professional publishing editors. All these online classes can be taken individually or as packages, depending on where you need help. For experienced writers, there’s also “The Advanced Writing Course” that offers advanced insider lessons, writing exercises, and coaching from bestselling authors.
Platform: The Novelry | Style: Creative Writing – Novels, Editing, Publishing
Level: Beginners, Intermediates | Price: Various packages.
Popular platforms: Browse our lists of the best courses for Coursera or Domestika or MasterClass or GetSmarter or edX to improve your skills further.
11. Wired for Story – How To Become a Story Genius – CreativeLive

“Wired for Story” with Lisa Cron shows you how to make the book that may already exist within you a reality. She does this by addressing writing myths that hold people back and giving you a step-by-step method to find your story.
Lessons aren’t filled with general, random creative writing exercises. Instead, the online lessons are designed to build on previous lessons. Topics include learning about what readers crave in stories and why writing a novel isn’t about talent but something learnable.
Students will also learn how to write a polished first draft to minimize the rewriting process. Essentially, the class is focused on the process of finding your story. According to Cron, the important work is developing the story idea, and from that, the writing will naturally flow.
Provider: CreativeLive | Instructor: Lisa Cron
Level: All levels | Time: 2-4 weeks | Rating: 100% ★★★★★
Info: $149/year or 39/month.
12. Creative Writing Class 101 – Writer’s Digest University WDU

Writer’s Digest University’s “Creative Writing Class 101” is for anyone who wants to write but doesn’t know where to start. While some of the classes mentioned try to teach you a specific writing method, the goal of this class is to find a method of writing that works best for you.
Topics covered in the class include developing a vibrant protagonist and defining them, their goal, and their problem. Other lessons cover point of view, dialogue, being more visual, and creating a hook. You will also learn to determine the correct order to tell your story and how to find discipline while writing.
While this class is excellent for beginners, it’s also suitable for more experienced writers. With a focus on character development, imagery, and dialogue, it’s a good refresher class for any fiction writer.
Platform: Writer’s Digest University | Style: Story and Character Development
Level: Beginners | Price: Various classes. From $579
Reading Tip: Browse our lists of writing courses, or language courses online or public speaking classes.
13. How to Write a Novel with Johanna Penn

Johanna Penn’s “How to Write a Novel” will help you learn how to finish a novel. She teaches from experience as someone who once wanted to write but didn’t know where to start. Her class aims to cut through excess information, focusing on what you must write and how to finish your book. Topics include principles like story structure, genre, and mindset.
There’s a section on ideas, research, and planning as well. After the idea phase, the class covers the essential aspects of a novel. Aspects include character, plot, setting, dialogue, point of view, theme, and more. Once the key features of a novel have been covered, the focus turns to writing and editing.
In those lectures, you will learn about outlining, writing, using Scrivener software, and editing. Finally, you will explore the options for publishing and planning to finish your novel. Students also get access to bonus interviews with industry experts. Topics in the bonus interviews cover writer’s block, outlining, dialogue, writing voice, and more.
Instructor: Johanna Penn | Style: Manuscript development. Publishing.
Level: Beginners | Price: $355. Or $59.50/month for 6-month installments.
14. The AI Assisted Author – AI for Creative Wiring – The Creative Penn

In this second class by Johanna Penn, the focus differs from most creative writing classes online. Without using technical jargon, the class gives insight into the current information on the potential of AI tools for authors. If you’re interested in AI writing or open to its possibilities, this class may equip you with a bunch of fresh ideas and projects.
Topics covered in the class include AI and its relation to writing poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and editing. There are also lessons on AI analysis of plot and structure and AI-assisted book marketing.
This class is also suitable for people interested in areas beyond creative writing. With lessons on AI for video, content creation, marketing, and AI in creative industries, it takes on a wide scope. It also covers AI narration of audiobooks and AI-assisted translation.
Platform: The Creative Penn | Style: AI-assisted writing.
Level: All | Price: Approx. $237
15. Bestseller Bootcamp with Ania Ahlborn – LitReactor

Ania Ahlborn’s “Bestseller Bootcamp” aims to help you develop a writing plan. Lasting four weeks, the goal is to finish the class with a fully realized synopsis of a novel. The classes are entirely online and consist of weekly lectures, homework assignments, peer reviews, critiques from instructors, and discussion forums.
During the first week, the goal is to take the seed of a story idea and expand it into a short synopsis. In the second week, the focus is on the characters of the story. Character development continues and intensifies in the third week. By focusing on the character details, the aim is for the story to reveal itself.
Finally, the fourth week covers putting everything together into a full book synopsis. This synopsis is meant to be the detailed road map for the future process of writing the novel. There are also other creative writing classes from LitReactor. Those include classes on writing about vampires, short stories, writing your way out of a rut, and more.
Platform: LitReactor | Style: Bootcamp, Novel writing, Publishing
Level: Beginners | Info: 12 students/class. $399.
Other Online Creative Writing Classes

16. Online Creative Writing Classes – Stanford
Stanford University’s creative writing classes are open to anyone with writing experience. Available classes cover writing novels, personal essays, creative nonfiction, travel writing, short fiction, and more. There are also classes on topics like writing relationships, finding an idea, writing scenes, and establishing a writing habit.
17. How to Write a Novel – Structure – edX
In this edX class, the focus is on developing the outline of a novel. Composed of hands-on weekly exercises and insights from accomplished authors, the class covers the core elements of fiction writing. You will learn about character development, world-building, and storytelling architecture as you develop an outline of your own creative project.
18. How to Write a Novel – The Draft – edX
If you have a finished outline, this edX class will focus on facing the draft writing process confidently. You’ll develop new skills through writing exercises, examples from published novels, and feedback from fellow writers. Topics covered include character creation, scene design, tactics for managing plots, and writing dialogue.
19. Creative Writing Certificate – Emory University
In Emory University’s creative writing certificate program, you will take a series of required and elective classes. As you explore many writing categories, the goal is to gain practical, professional knowledge. With this gained expertise, the aim is to be able to grow your platform and evaluate the commercial potential of your work.
20. Catapult
Catapult is a platform that hosts different online creative writing workshops created by writers for writers. Various workshops are available on topics such as poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and more. Learning methods include written and video lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts, with access to feedback from other writers.
21. Free Creative Writing Classes – Reedsy
Reedsy gives you access to several free 10-day online classes. Available topics include writing novels or short stories, how to show and not tell, children’s books, using dialogue, building a writing routine, and more. There are also online classes on things like how to write romance or how to write young adult works that sell.
22. Creative Writing Online Classes – Writers.com
Writers.com has a range of creative classes that offer regular instructor feedback and ongoing collaboration with other writers. In the creative nonfiction category, you can find all types of courses. Example topics include memoir writing, building a successful blog, writing lyric essays, writing for health and happiness, and more.
How to Choose the Right Creative Writing Class

With so many options, trying to choose the best creative writing classes online can be a headache. But when choosing, try to think about:
- How much money are you willing to spend?
- What kind of writing do you want to do?
- How long do you want the course to last?
- What weak points do you want the class to address?
Ultimately, any class you complete with dedication can only take you further along your path. Perhaps you just need an idea, motivation, or to build a habit to start writing. Or maybe you need someone experienced to push you, give you feedback, and guide you.
Either way, think about where you are in your writing journey and what’s holding you back from where you want to be. There’s certainly a great class out there waiting for you.
Creative Writing Classes Online 2025 – Summary

As we’ve seen, developing creative writing skills can be highly beneficial. However, we all know that creative writing can seem complicated and frustrating. There are so many courses on many different areas of creative writing. And any creative writing class can be helpful, depending on your needs.
But if you’re serious about becoming a published author, I would recommend the class from The Novelry in combination with one of Masterclass’s creative writing classes. There, you’ll find a comprehensive and structured class to take you from an idea to a published work. it also provides you with the mindset of successful and published authors.
Best Creative Writing Classes Online 2025
- Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing
- Udemy Creative Writing Classes Online
- The Complete Creative Writing Course – All Genres
- Creative Writing Specialization – Coursera
- Neil Gaiman Teaches the Art of Storytelling
- Creative Writing for Beginners – Domestika
- Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers
- Skillshare Online Creative Writing Classes
- Creative Writing with Publishing Professionals – The Novelry
- Wired for Story – How To Become a Story Genius – CreativeLive
- Creative Writing 101 – Writer’s Digest University WDU
- How to Write a Novel with Johanna Penn
- The AI Assisted Author – AI for Creative Wiring – The Creative Penn
- Bestseller Bootcamp – LitReactor
More Creative Writing Classes + Ressources
- Creative Writing Introduction – Purdue University
- English Major Creative Writing Track – Lawrence University
- Creative Writing – Department of English Tufts University
- Creative Writing BA (Hons) – University of Gloucestershire
- How to write descriptively – Nalo Hopkinson, YouTube. View.
- Joe Bunting and Liz Bureman – The Write Practice – View
- The Anatomy of a Scene – Lisa Cron
- How to Get Emotion Onto the Page – Lisa Cron
- Write Your Book: Start Strong and Get It Done
What are the best creative writing classes online for 2025, in your opinion? Which courses have you taken? What have you learned?
Please let us know in the comments below, or contact us via email for questions.
Sources: What is creative writing? –1 | List of writing genres – 2
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