Since 1993, the Gotham Writers Workshop has helped untold amounts of writers hone their craft and become the best writers they can be.

Though they’re based out of New York City, you don’t have to be in the Big Apple to take part. In fact, they offer two types of online writing courses that you can take anywhere with an Internet connection:

• Online Writing Classes. These are 10 week workshops that allow you to learn at your own pace. That means anytime and anywhere.
• Zoom Classes. These are more involved classes where you meet with a cohort of writers and instructors to replicate an in-person writing workshop. As such, you must meet at a specified time.

The Gotham Writers Workshop is a NYC institution and not enough can be said about what they have done for the writing community as whole. If you’re looking to improve your fiction, essay, screenwriting, poetry, or playwriting chops, this is the place for you.

Pricing varies depending on what you’re looking for but a typical Fiction Writing course is going to cost $409.

What to look for in an online writing course

While the course you ultimately choose is up to you and your goals, there are a few things that separate the good courses from the bad ones.

Here are the criteria we used when deciding which courses we should include on this list.

Accomplished instructors

There’s an old saying: Those who can’t do, teach.

When it comes to online writing courses, the saying should go: Those who can do, teach. That’s why we looked towards the background and credentials of the instructors who are teaching these online writing courses.

If your instructor isn’t published or experienced in the writing topic they’re setting out to teach you, I highly suggest you look elsewhere. After all, if they couldn’t get published or craft good stories themselves, why would they be able to show you how?

When looking at online writing courses, investigate your instructors background. Where have they been published? What is their experience like outside of the classroom?

Amount of lessons

Though quality beats quantity most of the time, this is an area you want to make sure you’re getting a lot of reps in.

You can’t teach someone how to write great stories or copy in a single lesson. You can’t do that in a few lessons. That’s why when you’re taking a look at which writing courses to take, you should also consider the amount of time you’ll actually spend learning.

If it’s just a one-day workshop, you’ll actually might get more value by turning elsewhere that offers comprehensive multi-week long courses. That way you know you’ll at least be able to keep a habit of writing and learning, rather than making it a one off thing.

Feedback

Perhaps the best way to improve as a writer is to get consistent and constructive feedback. After all, you never know what’s working and what isn’t working.

Try to find an online course that offers good feedback and critiques on your writing. This can come in a number of different forms. Perhaps the best way is when an experienced writer and instructor can give you personalized feedback. A few courses above offer that–however, most don’t.

Instead, they rely on community feedback from your peers in the class. This can be especially helpful as other students can keep you motivated and in check when it comes to your writing habits. Also it’s known that teaching someone how to do something is a great way to learn yourself. That means when you read and critique work, it inadvertently improves your own writing as well.

Conclusion

Looking for the best online writing course? Choose any of the ones above based on your goals and you’re sure to learn a thing or two about writing.

Just remember: The important thing to get better at writing is doing it…a lot. So just get started and we’ll see you on the NYT bestseller list.

Source: quicksprout

Best Online Writing Courses

Related