Creative Writing Ideas

There are many, many, free writing courses online, ranging from open courseware at various universities, to articles claiming to be courses that describe the subject rather than actually teach you how; giving you little opportunity for involvement. I did some research, and so far, I found what I consider to be some real quality courses. They are really comprehensive and seem easy to follow. These range from screenplay writing, to technical writing, to fiction, and more.

Remember, all writing is creative in my book. If you’re creating something, or figuring out a new way to express something, that’s creativity. So here is what I’ve found so far. While most of these are higher level courses geared toward college students, I’m sure there are also high school students out there who would benefit. I hope you find it really useful!

1. Steven Barnes’ 9-Week Introduction to Screenwriting Course at lifewrite.com. This is an in depth course, which he’s taught for many years at UCLA. You can follow it online or download the whole course. No registration is needed.

2. Purdue University online writing lab, is a wonderful resource free to everyone. They offer instruction in “creative writing” topics  such as Patterns and Variations in Poetry, as well as technical, business, proofreading and grammar lessons. And this is only an overview, ANY writer should get to know this site.

3. Wikiversity offers some good technical writing courses including audience analysis, researching information, and the mechanics of technical writing itself .

4. Writer’s Village University currently has a free workshop on Character Building, no registration is required for this course, however you do have to become a member for a fee, to access other courses.

5. The American University in Cairo has an excellent free course called “How to Write an Essay in Ten Easy Steps.” This goes way beyond the basic five-paragraph essay descriptions you frequently see. It explains each of the ten steps in depth from how to research your topic, to analyzing the information, and writing the actual essay. Plan to spend a few hours here. Then look around the rest of the site because there are some other useful gems for writers here.

No matter how creative we are as writers, sooner or later we all need resources such as dictionaries, grammar help, help with bibliography citations for term papers, etc. So I have gathered a list of some of the most important ones here with links to the websites. Please leave a comment if you think of any others, that you feel are important.

1. Encyclopedia.com –is a free site where you can access several encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc, all in one place.

2. Rhymezone.com –is a site where you can type in a word and it gives you all words that rhyme with that word. Essentially, an online rhyming dictionary.

3. Big Huge Thesaurus– Need I say more?

4. Elements of Style– This site has a few useful resources, but I specifically link you to the page which explains figures of speech, such as alliteration, metaphor, assonance, and colloquialism.

5. The Learning Toolbox– a resource at Cornell University. My particular link takes you to note taking strategies.

6. The Five Paragraph Essay Wizard– This is a useful site that explains the different types of essays, as well as the format for the five paragraph essay.

7. Commonly confused words– If you tend to get confused with words like affect and effect, or who vs. whom, then check out this site.

8. The Chicago Manual of Style– and

9. MLA citation style– are both online handbooks for citing sources in term papers, etc.

I hope you find them useful!