Free Online Writing Courses

Writing courses are becoming part of many writer’s route to publication. In fact the rise in popularity of writing courses means that writers are overwhelmed with choice. It is now possible to attend traditional writing courses or even join up to a free online writing courses.

PAID WRITING COURSES

There are a number of companies offering online writing courses for a range of fees.

Writing Classes (the highest ranking hit when I googled online creative writing courses) charge £150 for a ten week course. They say:

All our creative writing courses run for ten weeks (a free familiarisation week + nine conferences). During each conference participants read online notes, complete writing assignments and are encouraged to appraise each other’s work.

This is pretty typical.

FREE ONLINE WRITING COURSES

In addition to paid writing courses there is a growing band of free online courses.

Here are some examples I came across:

Creative Writing 101

Writing what you know (Open University)

Start writing fiction (Open University)

Approaching prose fiction (Open University)

What is poetry? (Open University)

Approaching poetry (Open University)

What is good writing? (Open University)

Introduction to Fiction (MIT)

Writing and Reading the Essay (MIT)

Steven Barnes’ Free Writing Class

Three English courses from Yale

Publishing Poetry

Cleaning Your Copy

Proofreading Your Writing

Basic Grammar Skills

Conquering the Comma

So has anyone had experience of these online course? Worth the money/time?