Online Creative Writing Courses, Ideas, and Inspiration

Welcome to CWN, where you'll find creative writing courses, ideas, and inspiration.

CWN was created by writing teachers as a free service to provide a supportive and friendly place for authors and poets at all stages in their writing lives.

Free Fiction Writing Course: ENDLESS STORY IDEAS

This free 3-day online writing course will show you how to find new creative writing ideas whenever you need them.

In case you ever worry that it's too late to achieve your writing dreams, consider these examples:

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison published her first book at age 39.
Bestselling thriller writer Lee Child started writing novels when he was fired from his job at age 41.
Pulitzer Prize-winner Elizabeth Strout wrote her first novel at 42.
Raymond Chandler started writing mysteries in his mid-40s.
Frank McCourt published his first book, the Pulitzer Prize-winner Angela's Ashes, at age 66.
Harriet Doerr's first novel, published when she was 74 years old, won a National Book Award.
Millard Kaufman's first novel was published when he was 90 years old.

It's never too late to accomplish great things with your writing. But first you have to get started.

STEP 1 - Join our free email group. We'll send you help and inspiration to keep your writing on track.

STEP 2 - Consider scheduling regular time for writing into your day -- even if you only have ten minutes. The key is to be consistent.

Ten minutes a day may not seem like much. But all of those ten minute efforts will add up. For example, if you write just a half-page a day, in one year, you can finish a novel!

For more creative writing inspiration, click here to join our free email group.

Online Creative Writing Courses

Below are some of our online creative writing courses. You'll find a complete list of creative writing courses in our Writer's Shop.

FREE: Endless Story Ideas

Learn techniques to help you generate new creative writing ideas and inspiration whenever you need them.

This 3-day e-mail course is currently available for free.

Sign up here

Story Structure

In this 8-week course, you'll learn how to develop story ideas into plots and how to structure a successful story from beginning to end.

You'll also create a detailed story plan that you can use as a road map for your own stories and novels.

Click here for details

Bringing Characters to Life

Learn how to create 3-dimensional characters and bring them to life in the reader's imagination.

If you can make people care about your characters, they'll care about your stories. This 8-week e-mail course will show you how.

Click here for details

Essentials of Poetry Writing

In this 8-week course, you'll learn essential techniques for writing powerful poetry.

You'll learn to write poems that work on more than one level at the same time, poems that create an intense mood or atmosphere, poems that show your readers new ways of looking at the world.

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Essentials of Memoir Writing

No matter what your life experiences, you can turn them into a great memoir. This 8-week course will show you how to recreate your memories as vivid scenes and shape them into a successful narrative.

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Irresistible Fiction

Make your stories impossible to put down.

This 8-week e-mail course will show you how to write fiction that builds excitement, curiosity, and suspense. Our most popular course!

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Mastering Dialogue

In this 8-week course, you'll learn how to write great dialogue. Discover how to create a unique voice for each of your characters, achieve the right mix of "showing" and "telling," and use dialogue to improve character development, plotting, pacing, and setting.

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Through Your Character's Eyes

In this 8-week course on narrative viewpoint, you'll learn how to pull readers deep inside your characters and your stories. Discover techniques to make readers feel like they're actually living your stories instead of just reading them.

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Mystery Writing

This 8-week course will take you step-by-step through the process of writing a successful mystery story or novel.

You'll discover techniques that make mystery writing much easier, as you create a vivid story world and a plot full of clues, twists, and surprises.

Click here for details