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Accessibility statement

An image to illustrate Introduction to creative writing short course

Introduction to creative writing teaches you skills central to three of the main forms of creative writing: fiction, poetry and scriptwriting. Throughout this online short course, you’ll learn methods for appealing to the senses, strategies for building characters, and ways to create compelling dialogue. Along the way, you’ll glean tips from a wide range of contemporary poetry, fiction and scripts. And you’ll get to hear professional writers share their writing habits: processes such as reading as writers, balancing instinct with intellect, and redrafting. Most important of all, you’ll get to try out each of these approaches for yourself.

This Continuing Professional Development (CPD) short course will introduce you to three forms of creative writing: poetry, fiction and scriptwriting.

Introduction to creative writing is split into three fortnightly sections. During the first section, you will focus on poetry, next you’ll explore fiction, and finally you’ll look at scriptwriting.

Weeks 1–2 focus on poetry. Since we experience the world first through our bodies, you will explore ways to appeal to the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. You’ll see how poets such as Malika Booker, Owen Sheers and Jane Yeh have employed these techniques.

Weeks 3–4 concentrate on fiction. Fascinating characters lie at the heart of good stories. Drawing on your experiences, observations, and imagination, you will create convincing characters of your own. And then you’ll learn how to place them into compelling scenarios, following the examples of fiction writers such as Kevin Barry, Jhumpa Lahiri and Courttia Newland.

In Weeks 5–6, you will learn about scriptwriting. Here, you will be introduced to methods for putting words into the mouths of your characters. After all, what they say – and don’t say – is a core component of drama. This is something you’ll get to see for yourself in the work of scriptwriters such as Jonathan Harvey, Ming Ho and Julia Pascal.

At the mid-point of each week, you’ll pause to learn about writing habits – the kinds of rituals, routines and strategies writers tend to find useful for generating ideas, getting started and keeping going.

Each section builds to a 'Bringing it together' point, when you get to try out for yourself the writing skills and strategies you've looked at in published passages or heard discussed by working writers.

As you work through this course, you’ll be building a portfolio of creative writing, which, by the end of Week 6, will include a poem, a short passage of fiction and a few pages of script.

Knowledge and understanding

You should gain a knowledge and understanding of:

Cognitive skills

You should gain an ability to:

Key skills

You should gain an ability to:

Practical and professional skills

You should develop:

This course has relevance for those interested in becoming professional writers as well as those interested in working in the literary industries.

There is no tuition on this course and all study is self-directed. However, a Study Advisor is present to facilitate discussion within the online forums.

There's no formal assessment. However, there will be three 'Bringing it together' points built into the course, which will allow you to employ in your own writing some of the key techniques you've studied.

You’ll study for around 8 hours per week for 6 weeks. In total, this course will require around 50 hours to complete.

All of this course’s study materials are online. Online materials are composed of pages of text with images, interactive activities, audio/video clips (with transcripts). Some online materials may also include links to external resources, and the Course-wide forum.

Printed materials are not provided for the course content. However, you are able to access the web pages in alternative formats (PDF, Word for screen readers, ebook) from the Downloads area on the course website and print them for your studies, if you wish. You are also able to download all course audio tracks and videos from this area. You will find further useful documents available in Word or PDF format in the Resources area of the course website.

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.

There are no entry requirements for this course.

If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact us.

The course is delivered online and makes use of a variety of online resources. If you use specialist hardware or software to assist you in using a computer or the internet, you can contact us about the support which can be given to meet your needs.

Start	End	Register by	England fee
No current presentation

We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.

If this course is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could ask your employer to sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees. Your sponsor just needs to complete a simple form to confirm how much they will be paying and we will invoice them.

The fee information provided here is valid for short courses starting in the 2025/26 academic year. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our

Fee Rules

This course will next start in the 2026/27 academic year and will open for registration on the 1st of May.