Our online course is suitable for 13-17 year olds (please note, all students will need a parent or guardian’s permission to join the course).

During this course you will:

• Explore where ideas come from, and how to find inspiration
• Get better at plot, characters, setting and dialogue
• Try out practical writing prompts and assignments
• Join other young writers to share and discuss ideas, and find out what makes stories work
• Understand the writing process: read, write, revise, edit
• Start reading like a writer
• Start to understand your strengths and weaknesses as a writer
• In the final week, you’ll work on a short story or the opening pages of a novel, which you will submit for feedback from your tutor at the end of the course.

Each course is divided into sessions. These sessions are released one by one (weekly or fortnightly, depending on the course). 

There’s no need to log on at a set time. You can work through the learning materials whenever suits you, day or night, wherever you are in the world. Just complete the assignments and join forum discussions by the session deadline. 

Our teaching method is based on the science of active learning: you read/listen/watch, try out, share and reflect. It’s a social experience – you become part of a small group, feeding back on each other’s writing to build a supportive bunch of readers you trust. Find out more here.

Week 1: Inspiration and ideas – Where do stories come from? We’ll look at how to tap into creative inspiration and get ideas from your head and onto the page. You’ll experiment with different ways to start coming up with ideas for stories.

Week 2: Creating characters – We’ll look at how to come up with ideas for characters, why it’s important to know who your characters are inside and out, and how dialogue and movement can make your characters stand out.

Week 3: Your story world – We’ll look at the role setting and atmosphere play in your story and techniques for bringing your story world to life.

Week 4: Point of view – Whose story am I writing? We’ll look at different types of point of view and what they bring to a story, and how to work out who should tell your story.

Week 5: Shaping a story – This session is all about how to plan and shape a story. We’ll look at how to craft satisfying beginnings, middles and ends, and where to start a novel or short story idea.

Week 6: Pull it all together – In this final week, you’ll bring everything you’ve learned over the past few weeks together to work on a longer piece of up to 1000 words. You can either revisit one of your ideas from the previous sessions or start something new based on what you’ve learned. Your tutor will provide feedback on your work.

Commission a report on your work

If you’d like to receive a personalised, detailed report on a longer piece of writing from your course tutor, this is available at an extra cost. You’ll receive detailed written feedback assessing your ideas and writing, plus advice on what steps to take next.