Ready to bring your fiction to life?
Our 12-week online creative writing fiction course is designed for beginners and anyone looking to write more consistently. Whether you’re just starting out or need guidance in developing a regular writing practice, during this fiction course, you will gain the essential tools and techniques to craft compelling fiction.
Through a combination of inspirational lessons, engaging exercises, and practical assignments, you’ll learn how to create memorable characters, build captivating stories, and find your unique voice. You’ll achieve real progress with one-to-one feedback from your tutor that is tailored to your writing. No generic responses — get specific, actionable advice from an expert.
This course will cover…
- Building a writing habit: Learn how to establish a consistent writing routine and effectively utilise a writer’s journal.
- Character development: Discover how to create well-rounded characters and write credible dialogue that brings them to life.
- Exploring perspectives: Understand the impact of different perspectives on your writing and how to choose the right one for your story.
- Narrative structure: Find the ideal structure for your work to enhance its engagement and flow.
- Crafting beginnings and endings: Master techniques for compelling story openings and satisfying conclusions.
- Redrafting and self-editing: Delve into the essential steps of the redrafting process and learn effective self-editing techniques to refine your work.
This writing fiction course is ideal for those with no prior formal training who want to master the foundations of fiction writing. Your tutor will review up to 5,000 words of your writing, and at the end of the course, you’ll enjoy a one-to-one tutorial to discuss your progress and the next steps for your writing journey.
Book your space by 10am GMT, Monday 9 March to take advantage of our early bird discount!
Start date
Monday 4 May
Location
Online
Length
12 weeks (please see course schedule below)
Price
£495* £445 early bird discount
*Payment plans available. Contact us at [email protected] to find out more.
Course format
This course is delivered across six fortnightly modules (see course programme below). The majority of the content is presented in text form via Teachable, allowing you to progress through the material chapter by chapter at your own pace. You will have two weeks to complete each module, after which you will submit an assignment directly to your tutor for personalised feedback and guidance.
The course also includes up to two live Zoom sessions: a welcome session in the first module, followed by a one-to-one tutorial with your tutor later in the course.
Click to find out more about the course structure and the equipment you may need.
Course programme
Please note, the module order and/or content of the course may be subject to change.
Module one – Getting started
In this module, you will explore exercises to release your creativity and meet your tutor and fellow students. You’ll use the world around you to help generate ideas for stories, and you’ll get into the habit of writing daily in a writer’s journal. The assignment for this module is up to 500 words of the seed of a story.
Module two – Character
In this module, you will get to know your characters inside out and you will learn how to write credible dialogue. You will complete exercises to develop relationships between your characters, discover the importance of subtext, and observe strangers in the real world to generate writing material. The assignment for this module is up to 750 words in which you introduce a character into a scene.
Module three – Whose story is it, and who is telling it?
This module is a journey through perspectives and their impact on writing. You’ll read examples of writing in the first, second, and third person, and through a series of exercises, you’ll explore how your story changes depending on the point of view. The assignment is up to 750 words encouraging you to explore a new point of view in your writing.
Module four – Finding the story
This module is focused on structure and its impact on narrative. You’ll learn that finding the right structure can make even the simplest story engaging, you’ll analyse a short story using a structured framework and you’ll practise implementing this in your own work. The exercise for this module will ask you to produce a rough draft of your own story accordingly, in less than 700 words.
Module five – Making it better
In this module, you’ll get deep into the nuts and bolts of the redrafting and self-editing process. You’ll work on editing on a sentence-by-sentence level through a series of exercises, you’ll be led through the essential art of showing, not telling, and you’ll produce a piece of writing to share with a trusted reader. You’ll learn how to give and receive feedback, and you’ll produce a critical self-commentary on your own work.
Module six – Beginnings and endings
In this final module, you’ll explore different ways of beginning your story. You’ll learn how to hook a reader from the first word and you’ll compare opening paragraphs to analyse their effect. You’ll also learn how to end a story, comparatively looking at different techniques and methods in order to bring your narrative to its conclusion. The assignment for this module is a completed short story of up to 2000 words, accompanied by a short self-appraisal that takes into account everything you’ve learned in the course.
Live sessions
There will be two live sessions for this course, which will take place over Zoom.
Timings for these courses will be confirmed shortly.
Yan Ge
Yan Ge is a fiction writer in both Chinese and English, and is the author of fourteen books in Chinese, including six novels. She has received numerous awards and was named by People’s Literature magazine as one of twenty future literature masters in China. Her work has been translated into eleven languages, including English, French and German. The latest English translation of her novel, Strange Beasts of China, was one of the New York Times Notable Books of 2021.
Yan’s English writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Irish Times, TLS, Granta, the Stinging Fly and elsewhere. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where she was the recipient of the UEA International Award 2018/19. Her English language debut short story collection Elsewhere was published by Faber in the UK and Scribner in the USA in summer 2023 and was named a New Yorker book of the year.
Hear from former students
Got a question?
If you still have questions, get in touch with the learning team by email [email protected] or phone (+44) 01603 877177 between our working hours of 9am – 5pm GMT, Monday to Friday. We’re here to help!