Improve your writing skills with this free online creative writing course that lays out the elements of storytelling.

Storytelling and writing are connected artforms that can be mastered with practice and the right training. This creative writing course covers the essential principles of imaginative writing, which have been debated since the time of Aristotle. Writing an engaging and original masterpiece involves more than just scribbling down words: it takes excellent language and syntax skills, original ideas and a strong grasp on the technical aspects of storytelling. We define narrative terms like ‘climax’, ‘inciting event’ and more. This course provides the English writing skills required to craft a masterpiece.

We begin by examining the various factors that motivate writers. We examine the first writing pieces and study the long history of storytelling. We then explore the various grammatical rules that must be observed to write good English and provide examples of sentence structures to make these rules clear. The course then examines the core elements of a good story. We introduce the seven archetypal narrative formats used by most writers (which include ‘Overcoming the Monster’ and ‘The Quest’ ). We also explain how to create compelling characters that drive the story and the reader’s emotional investment.

Did you know that there is a third genre of writing beyond fiction and non-fiction? We discuss the principles that drive creative non-fiction. This creative writing course explains how to structure creative non-fiction and choose a writing style. Finally, we show you how to write your first draft. This course has no prerequisites and suits anyone interested in storytelling and writing. It is particularly useful to those seeking to become published authors so sign up to learn how to turn your ideas into novels, scripts, short stories, screenplays and poems.