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Creative writing and critical reading

Introduction.

This free course, Creative writing and critical reading , explores the importance of reading as part of a creative writer’s development at the postgraduate (MA) level. You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers’ methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills. A diverse range of examples will cover the genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and scriptwriting. You will be able to listen to professional writers discussing the creative process in relation to their reading habits. You will also have the opportunity to apply the insights you have gleaned to your own writing, by producing a short creative piece in your chosen genre.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course MA in Creative Writing [ Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. ( Hide tip ) ] .

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Online Creative Writing Courses Offered Free by Top Universities and Educational Websites

Free Creative Writing Courses

Creative writing requires the application of hard work, discipline and much practice. Use these free creative writing courses online to hone your skills and become a better writer.

Open University

Open University offers a plethora of writing courses, on topics such as poetry and fiction. Read through these lessons on the website or download them as a single eBook.

• Writing What You Know
• Start Writing Fiction
• Approaching Prose Fiction
• What is Poetry
• Approaching Poetry
• What is Good Writing

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

MIT offers courses in fiction, editing and publishing, in addition to courses on writing essays. The fiction course has required reading with titles like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Textbooks for the writing and editing course include Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers by Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon and Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide by Lunsford, Andrea and Frank Horowitz. The advanced essay workshop entails readings from literary magazines and the science essay course assigns eight sets of readings on topics like literary techniques and public health.

• Introduction to Fiction
• Writing, Editing and Publishing in Cyberspace
• Advanced Essay Workshop
• The Science Essay

Purdue University

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers free online writing lessons. Subjects include poetry and proofreading. These quick lessons can be downloaded and printed.

• Pattern and Variation in Poetry
• Proofreading Your Writing

Yale University

Yale University offers a free online course in modern poetry. Texts include The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Vol. 1, Modern Poetry, in addition to selections from the course packet, with readings from The Complete Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Selected Poems from Ezra Pound. Students can choose from 25 audio lectures, on poets like Williams Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, Langston Hughes, and more.

• Modern Poetry

The Crafty Writer

This free online tutorial offers individuals text lessons in the form of an article on topics like writing short stories, character development, poetry, and more. Lessons also recommend books for purchase.

• Intro to Creative Writing

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing

This science fiction and fantasy writing course is offered online for free by science fiction writer, Jeffrey A. Carter. A multitude of lessons are available, in a variety of subjects like language and style, creating characters, rewriting, alien creatures, conflict and plot, and much more.

• Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Creative Writing Prompts

This website offers free writing prompts. Use this as a resource to get your writing started.

• 200 Creative Writing Prompts

WritingClasses.com

This website offers two questionnaires for writers. Answer questions about characters in order to help your development process for writing.

• Character Questionnaires from Fiction Writing Workshop

Free Online Creative Writing Courses At a Glance

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Creative Writing: Free Online Resources

Introduction.

In addition to resources the Bodleian Libraries purchases, there are a number of alternative free online resources to support the study of Creative Writing. If you have any suggestions to help us expand this page, please contact [email protected].

Free online resources

• Open Educational Resources (OERs)
• Websites of useful organisations
• Audio resources

OERs are any type of teaching and/or learning materials that are freely available in the public domain, published under open licenses. Those listed below are applicable to the study of philosophy.

• Future Learn A diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world. Includes several courses relating to Creative Writing.
• MERLOT The MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.
• open.conted The gateway to Open Educational Resources and other freely available resources created or selected by tutors of the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education.
• Open Culture An aggregator of free, downloadable courses from the world's leading universities, including many courses relating to Creative Writing.
• Open Learn Free online courses and resources provided by the Open University. Covers many subjects, including Creative Writing.
• The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing The Centre is committed to outreach, collaboration, and fostering research into life-writing. It promotes a lively, cross-disciplinary dialogue on the full range of life-writing, including biography, memoir and social media forms, through a busy programme of events, including lunch talks, performances, panel discussions, seminars and full-day workshops.
• The Poetry Society Membership organisation providing events, publications, competitions and education to support poets and poetry audiences. The Society supports small local groups around the country called "Stanzas".
• BBC Writers Room Training, advice and opportunities for script writers. Includes the Script Library, where you can read BBC film, TV and radio scripts in full.
• Oxford Playhouse residencies Oxford's local theatre supports playwrights through two residencies: the Playhouse Playmaker programme for playwrights at any stage of their career, and The Plot for later career playwrights.
• Writing Lives: biography and beyond Interviews with leading biographers, writers, and scholars about life writing in all its forms.
• Oxford Writers House Talks A series of talks exploring writing mediums, methods, interests, and approaches, produced by the Faculty of English Language and Literature at Oxford University.
• Writers in Dialogue Peter D. McDonald, Professor of English and Related Literature in the Faculty of English and Fellow of St Hugh's College, talks to contemporary writers about their work.
• BBC Writers Room Podcast Writers of popular BBC shows answer listeners' questions

The Poetry Archive exists to help make poetry accessible, relevant and enjoyable to a wide audience. It came into being as a result of a meeting, in a recording studio, between Andrew Motion, soon after he became U.K. Poet Laureate in 1999, and the recording producer, Richard Carrington. They agreed about how enjoyable and illuminating it is to hear poets reading their work and about how regrettable it was that, even in the recent past, many important poets had not been properly recorded.

The Archive is a not-for-profit organisation with charitable status. It is run by a small staff, supported by a distinguished board of trustees and a panel of specialist advisers. We depend for our existence on funding from public bodies, charitable trusts and generous individuals. The money we earn from sales of Poetry Archive CDs goes towards making more recordings.

• LibriVox Public domain audiobooks, including both fiction and non-fiction.

We accept no responsibility for the content of these external websites, which may have their own terms and conditions.

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• Last Updated: Feb 16, 2024 1:25 PM
• URL: https://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/creative-writing

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Creative Writing Certificates

Our certificate of higher education in arts and humanities introduces you to creative writing and a variety of literary works. Complete in as little as one year and count the credit gained towards a future diploma or honours degree.

Certificates of Higher Education (2)

• Certificate of Higher Education in Arts and Humanities
• Certificate of Higher Education Open

Other Creative Writing courses

• Creative Writing Degrees
• Creative Writing Diplomas

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