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List of Free Online Creative Writing Courses, Classes and Workshops

Free online courses in creative writing are offered by real schools. Learn which creative writing courses are available, what topics they cover and which ones lead to real college credit.

Take Free Courses. Earn Real College Credit.

Most free courses don't lead to college credit. Education-Portal.com's free courses do!

Here's how it works:

  1. 1. Watch free video lessons.
  2. 2. Pass an exam to earn real college credit.

Education Portal

The College Composition course offered through Education Portal addresses various writing topics and helps students prepare for CLEP exams that many schools accept for the issuance of credits. Students learn the parts of essays, methods used in writing essays, revision methods and grammar conventions necessary for writing. Lessons are presented through short videos and print transcripts. Quizzes are available upon completion of lessons to check learning mastery.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is available for download or may be viewed online. Students don't have access to faculty with OCW or earn credits and degrees. Although the materials might not reflect the complete contents of the original classes, courses are self-paced and there's no need for registration. In Composing Your Life: Exploration of Self through Visual Arts and Writing, learners examine written and visual tools for creative self-expression. Students can download course materials, and a reading list is provided. The Creative Spark includes a list of readings and videos, along with journal and essay assignments. Study materials are intended to help aspiring writers develop their sense of purpose and audience.

While studying Playwriting I, learners will complete readings from magazines and books. Playwriting exercises are available in PDF format. Writing and Reading Poems looks at how poems are structured as well as traditional and alternative elements in poetry. Through writing assignments, students will practice analyzing poetry and write their own poems. Examples of other students' work are provided. Learners will read well-crafted short stories and complete writing assignments in the course Writing and Reading Short Stories. Essays written by published authors about the art of the short story will also be introduced.

Open University

These non-credit LearningSpace courses offered through the Open University may be viewed online or through content feed; students may also download or print the learning materials. The 12-hour Start Writing Fiction course helps students delve into how writers create characters and settings. Various genres of fiction are presented. Reading extracts about character and setting are included with this unit. Writing What You Know is an 8-hour course that helps fledging writers improve their descriptive writing abilities and looks at how authors often base their own works on personal histories. The coursework examines building a believable world, using observations, raiding your past for story ideas and using life experiences.

UbuWeb

UbuWeb presents poetry and other forms of the arts, and offers free visual and sound resources. These 6 audio lectures were delivered originally in 1967 and 1968 at Harvard University by Jorge Luis Borges, a major literary voice of the 20th century. Users listen to discussions on topics including metaphor, the origins of verse, epic poetry and poetic meaning, in addition to an exploration of prose forms. Credits are not awarded to listeners of these lectures.

University of Iowa

This university hosts the Iowa Summer Writing Festival Elevenses each June and July. Author lectures are made available through audio podcast format on the Writing University website. Building Characters gives students techniques to create enduring, vivid fictional characters and settings to captivate audiences. The lecture also addresses differences between writing for print and the theatre. Students are introduced to the technique of free writing in Making Words Count. The balance between the creative writing process and the work of self-editing is also discussed.

The relationship between content and form in different types of writing is the focus of Same Content/Different Form. Students are instructed to address similar themes and content in different types of fiction to expand their skills and explore new depths in their work. The focus of Ways of Reading is the idea that reading critically, with a writer's eye, can assist writers in creating their own works. The lecture also discusses how important it is that writers really know the setting and characters of their works. Writing with Ethnic Diversity discusses the importance of incorporating diversity into fiction through settings and characters. Students are advised to step beyond what they know and introduce elements from a variety of personal experiences in an effort to create mature, compelling stories. No credits are granted for these lectures.

Earn Real Credit from Free Courses

While the free courses above don't award credit directly, you can earn credit by passing an exam and transferring credit to your college. There are two widely recognized and affordable options for exams that award credit.

Option #1: CLEP Exams

The College Board's 33 CLEP exams allow you to test out of your general education requirements. Credit is accepted at 2/3 of colleges and universities in the U.S.

Option #2: Excelsior College's Credit-by-Exam

Excelsior College offers over 40 exams that lead to transferable credit. You can also earn three full degrees by taking free online courses and earning your credit by exam.

Learn how Education Portal Academy will pay you to earn credit!

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The schools in the listing below are not free but are popular choices among our users. Tuition and costs will vary across programs and locations. Be sure to always request tuition information before starting a program.

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