6 Best Creative Writing Courses Online in 2026 (Free & Paid)

Last updated: November 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

QUICK VERDICT

Creative writing covers far more than novels. It includes short stories, poems, personal essays and memoir, and the skills overlap: noticing detail, building a scene, choosing the right word, cutting what does not earn its place. The courses below were chosen because they teach those shared skills across genres and, more importantly, make you write. If you already know you want to write novels, our dedicated guide to fiction writing courses goes deeper on plot and long-form structure.

We loaded every course on 2 November 2026 in a logged-out browser and recorded its rating, review count and last-updated date from the course page itself. We earn a commission if you enroll through some of our links; that never changes the order. How we review is set out in our review methodology.

The best creative writing courses at a glance

1. Best overall: The Complete Creative Writer: All Genres (Udemy)

Trace Crawford’s course is the broadest well-reviewed creative writing course on Udemy and the cheapest way to try every major genre before you commit to one. It moves from the basics of description and imagery through fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, with writing exercises after the lessons rather than long lectures. On 2 November 2026 the page showed 4.6 stars from 5,680 ratings, 46,710 students and a last update of September 2026, so it is maintained rather than abandoned.

Its strength is range. A beginner usually does not know whether they are a poet, a short-story writer or an essayist, and this course lets you find out cheaply. The trade-off is depth: one course cannot go as far into any genre as a dedicated class, and there is no instructor feedback on your drafts.

• Best for: beginners who want to sample every genre and build habits.
• Watch out for: no personal critique; pair it with a writing group or workshop.
• Cost: a one-time Udemy purchase; Udemy runs frequent sales, so check the price on the course page.

2. Best university program: Creative Writing Specialization, Wesleyan University (Coursera)

Wesleyan’s five-course series is the closest thing to a college creative writing sequence you can take online on your own schedule. Coursera describes it as covering three genres, the short story, the narrative essay and memoir, and it ends with a capstone in which you complete an original piece. The instructors include Salvatore Scibona and Amy Bloom, who teaches the character course (4.5 stars from 1,975 reviews). The specialization as a whole showed 4.6 stars from 6,438 reviews and 168,610 enrolled learners on 2 November 2026.

Assignments are peer-reviewed, which is useful practice in giving and taking critique, though the quality of peer feedback varies. You can open the first module of each course free; the graded work and the certificate need a paid enrollment. Coursera Plus costs $59 a month or $239 a year (normally $399), and Coursera offers financial aid on this program.

• Best for: writers who want a structured syllabus, deadlines and a shareable certificate.
• Watch out for: peer review is uneven; the specialization leans toward prose, not poetry.
• Level: beginner, no prior experience required (per Coursera).

3. Best for inspiration: Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing (MasterClass)

Margaret Atwood’s class is less a syllabus than a long conversation with one of the most respected living novelists about how she approaches character, voice and the discipline of finishing a long project. It is the best choice if you already write and want to raise your sense of what a story can do, rather than learn the basics step by step.

MasterClass sells an all-access membership rather than single classes. Its writing category page showed plans “starting at $10/month (billed annually)” and a 30-day money-back guarantee on 2 November 2026; our engine shows the current Standard price as $10/mo billed annually. The membership includes 35 writing instructors, so it is good value only if you will watch several of them.

• Best for: intermediate writers who want perspective and motivation.
• Watch out for: fewer structured exercises than a course built for beginners.

4. Best for poetry: Billy Collins Teaches Reading and Writing Poetry (MasterClass)

Billy Collins, a former US Poet Laureate, is unusually good at explaining poetry to people who think they “do not get it”. His class treats reading and writing as one skill: you learn to notice how a poem turns, how line breaks create surprise, and how humor and plain language can carry real feeling. For anyone whose creative writing leans toward poetry, it is the most accessible high-quality option we found.

If performance interests you as much as the page, Amanda Gorman’s Writing and Performing Poetry class on the same membership covers reading your work aloud. Both are included with any MasterClass plan.

5. Best for memoir and personal essays: Creative Non-Fiction Writing (Udemy)

Creative nonfiction, true stories told with the tools of fiction, is the genre many adults actually want to write: family history, travel, a hard year, a career. Trace Crawford’s shorter course focuses on it directly. It rated 4.7 stars from 333 ratings on 2 November 2026 with 1,899 students. Its last update was September 2022; the craft of memoir has not changed, but it is older than our top pick, so we rank it below the broader course.

Take it after the all-genres course, or on its own if you know your material is real life. Wesleyan’s specialization also includes narrative essay and memoir courses if you want a longer, graded version.

6. Best for character and approachable advice: Judy Blume Teaches Writing (MasterClass)

Judy Blume’s class is warm, practical and especially strong on character and on writing honestly for young and broad audiences. It is gentler than Atwood’s and a good confidence-builder for new writers who find literary instruction intimidating. It comes with the same membership, so treat it as a companion to the poetry and fiction classes rather than a separate purchase.

Live workshops and certificate programs (honest picks we do not earn from)

Self-paced video cannot critique your draft. If feedback is what you need, a live or instructor-led workshop is worth more than any course above. None of the following pays us; we list them because they are respected.

• Writers.com: instructor-led online classes organized by genre (fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, personal essay, memoir), plus live Zoom workshops and private courses, with new classes starting every week.
• Gotham Writers Workshop: New York City’s best-known writing school runs online classes that move week by week but can be done at any hour, plus real-time Zoom classes, across fiction, nonfiction, scriptwriting and poetry.
• Stanford Continuing Studies: on-campus and online courses in fiction, poetry, memoir, creative nonfiction and more; Stanford says many instructors have been fellows in its Stegner program.
• UCLA Extension Writers’ Program: open-enrollment courses plus a 21-unit Certificate in Creative Writing you can shape around your genre, useful preparation for an MFA application.

These cost far more than a Udemy course or a MasterClass year, so start cheap, confirm you will write regularly, and move to a workshop when you have drafts worth critiquing.

Free ways to learn creative writing

• Coursera previews and financial aid: open the first module of each Wesleyan course free, and apply for aid if the full program is out of reach.
• Your public library: ask whether your library runs a writing group or offers free access to online learning platforms with your card.
• Writing groups and prompts: a weekly prompt and two honest readers will teach you more than passive video. Note that NaNoWriMo, the November novel challenge many writers used for accountability, shut down in 2025 (Class Central reported the closure in its 2026 guide), so look for a local or online group instead.
• Read like a writer: pick a story or poem you admire, retype a page of it, and note every choice the author made. It is free and it works.

Which kind of creative writing should you start with?

“Creative writing” is an umbrella. Knowing the main branches helps you pick the right course and avoid paying for one that teaches a form you do not care about.

• Short fiction: invented stories under about 10,000 words. The fastest way to practice the whole craft, from opening line to ending, because you can finish a draft in a week. Our top pick and the Wesleyan specialization both start here.
• The novel: long-form fiction with plot structure, subplots and pacing problems that short stories never raise. If this is your goal, use our guide to fiction writing courses after a general course.
• Poetry: compression, sound and the line. Billy Collins and Amanda Gorman cover it on MasterClass; poetry also improves prose writers, because it trains you to choose each word.
• Creative nonfiction and memoir: true stories with the tools of fiction, from personal essays to book-length memoir. The Udemy Creative Non-Fiction course and Wesleyan’s narrative essay and memoir courses fit here.
• Scripts: stage plays and screenplays, where dialogue and structure carry everything. See our playwriting courses guide.

What writers on Reddit recommend

We read recent threads in r/writing and r/KeepWriting (2025-2026) where beginners asked for course recommendations. Three points came up again and again. First, many writers point newcomers to Brandon Sanderson’s university lectures, which he publishes free on YouTube; they focus on fantasy and science fiction, but commenters note that the advice on plot and character applies to any story. Second, people who wanted feedback rather than video recommended workshop schools such as Gotham. Third, several posters hesitated over spending “a couple hundred” on recorded lectures from famous authors, and the most common reply was to start with cheaper or free material and keep reading widely.

One writer who took Coursera’s creative writing courses said the course did not fix everything but gave them a structure for editing their own drafts and helped them stay consistent. That matches our view: a course is a framework and a deadline, and the improvement comes from the writing you do inside it.

Creative writing courses for teens and kids

Every pick on this page is built for adults. For students under 18, school programs, library workshops and youth writing camps are usually a better fit than adult platforms, because they add a teacher who can read the work and adjust to the writer’s age. Gotham Writers Workshop lists dedicated teen classes, and many public libraries run free young writers’ groups. Parents of younger children will get more from a shared reading habit and short daily prompts than from any video course.

Can a creative writing course lead to a job?

Not on its own, and anyone promising otherwise is selling. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median annual wage for writers and authors at $76,910 in May 2025, across 47,940 employed writers (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics). Those figures count only employees; most novelists, poets and essayists are self-employed or write alongside another job, and their income varies enormously.

Where creative writing skills do pay is in adjacent work: copywriting, content marketing, communications and editing all reward the ability to write clearly and hold attention. If you want income from your writing, pair a creative course with a practical one, and build a portfolio of finished pieces; editors and clients judge what you have written, not the certificate.

How to choose a creative writing course

Start broad, then specialize. A multi-genre course tells you what you enjoy writing. Once you know, move to a genre course: fiction, poetry or memoir.

Choose courses that make you write. Count the exercises and assignments, not the hours of video. A course with ten prompts you complete beats a course with forty lectures you watch.

Decide how much feedback you need. Self-paced courses give none, Coursera gives peer review, and workshops give instructor critique. Price rises with feedback, so buy only as much as your drafts are ready for.

Check the date and the teacher. Craft does not age quickly, but a course updated recently has an instructor who still answers questions. On MasterClass, pick instructors whose own work you like; you will absorb their taste.

What a creative writing course can (and cannot) give you

A course can teach technique, give you prompts, and show you how good writers think. It cannot give you voice, taste or the reading habit that underpins good writing; those you build over years. Be wary of any course that sells a fast track to publication or literary success. The writers who improve are the ones who keep writing and reading long after the course ends.

A simple 8-week creative writing plan

Related writing guides

Go deeper with our guides to fiction writing courses, playwriting courses and self-publishing courses. For classes taught by famous novelists, poets and screenwriters, see our ranking of the best MasterClass writing classes. Want to earn from other people’s writing? Our Knowadays proofreading course review explains what the course covers, what it costs and who qualifies for paid work with Proofed.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best creative writing course online?

For most beginners, The Complete Creative Writer: All Genres on Udemy is the best value: 4.6 stars from 5,680 ratings, taught by Trace Crawford and updated in September 2026, with exercises across fiction, poetry and nonfiction. If you want a university-built path with graded assignments, Wesleyan University’s Creative Writing Specialization on Coursera (4.6 from 6,438 reviews) is the strongest structured option.

Can I learn creative writing online for free?

Yes, with limits. On Coursera you can open the first module of each Wesleyan course for free, and financial aid is available for the full specialization. Libraries, local writing groups and free online prompt communities cover practice and feedback. What free routes rarely give you is structured critique from an experienced teacher, which is what paid workshops charge for.

Are creative writing courses worth it?

A good course is worth it if it makes you write every week and gives you feedback or a clear way to judge your own drafts. It is not worth it if you expect it to get you published: no course can promise that, and the ones that do should make you suspicious. Budget courses on Udemy are a low-risk way to find out whether you enjoy the work.

What do creative writing classes teach?

Most cover the same core craft: character, point of view, dialogue, setting, structure and revision, applied to short fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Workshop-style classes add the part self-paced video cannot: reading other students’ drafts and having yours critiqued.

Is a creative writing certificate worth anything?

A certificate from a self-paced course shows you finished it; editors and agents judge the writing, not the paper. University continuing-education certificates, such as UCLA Extension’s 21-unit Certificate in Creative Writing, carry more weight because they involve instructor feedback over many courses, and they can help if you plan to apply to an MFA program.

Should I take a Udemy course or MasterClass for creative writing?

Udemy for structured, exercise-driven craft at a low price; MasterClass for watching celebrated authors explain how they think. MasterClass is a subscription (its writing page said “starting at $10/month (billed annually)” on 2 November 2026) with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so it suits people who will watch several classes. Many writers use one of each.

How long does it take to get better at creative writing?

Expect a few months of regular practice before you notice a clear change in your drafts, and years to develop a distinctive voice. A course speeds up the first part by showing you what to practice; the rest comes from writing and reading consistently.

What is the difference between a creative writing course and a fiction writing course?

A creative writing course covers several forms, usually short fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, and is the better start if you are still finding your genre. A fiction writing course goes deeper into invented stories, especially novel structure, plot and pacing. Our fiction writing courses guide covers that second step.

Are Brandon Sanderson’s writing lectures really free?

Yes. Sanderson publishes recordings of his university creative writing lectures on his YouTube channel at no cost. They focus on fantasy and science fiction, but most of the lessons on plot, character and the writing life apply to any kind of story. They are lectures, not a course with exercises, so add your own weekly writing goal.

Are there creative writing courses for adults who are complete beginners?

Yes. Every pick on this page assumes no experience. The Complete Creative Writer and the Wesleyan specialization both start from first principles, and Coursera lists Wesleyan’s program as beginner level with no prior experience required.

Prices and ratings were read on the course pages on 2 November 2026 and change often; the MasterClass and Coursera prices above update automatically when a sale is live.