I am working to create my own online writing courses, but in the meantime I have other online writing courses to recommend, which are listed here.
(Some links on this page are affiliate links, which means that I receive a commission if you purchase the product through the link. Any income I earn in this manner I will be investing into the costs associated with producing my own online courses to compete with them, so it’s a devil’s bargain we have struck!)
Currently, I only recommend two places for online writing courses. However, in the future, I will update this list.
Masterclass
I personally have a MasterClass All-Access Pass (affiliate link), which grants full access to any Masterclass course for a single annual fee. Their courses are taught by celebrities and range across a variety of topics, from writing to filmmaking to cooking to business concepts to music production to photography to tennis.
The production value of Masterclass’s products is massive. The videos are high-level professional productions and entertaining as well as informative, In fact, the flaw of Masterclass is that their videos are too easy and too fun to watch, in the sense that they are somewhat infotainment and you could easily overlook the excellent information and advice as you get caught up in just watching.
The key to getting the most out of Masterclass is to download the WORKBOOKS that each course includes. These notebooks summarize the core material (in the videos) and also offer additional material and outside reading recommendations and exercises to apply the video concepts.
In other words, don’t buy Masterclass unless you will seriously apply yourself and download the workbook and do the work. This is true in general for online courses, but for Masterclass there really is a wealth of material provided — but it’s easy to overlook because of how the courses focus you toward the celebrity video content.
As I say, Masterclass has courses on many topics (which is why I recommend the MasterClass All-Access Pass) but here is a list of their courses on writing. These are listed alphabetically by last name. Again, the all-access pass would unlock all of them plus non-writing courses (like the fascinating Werner Herzog on Filmmaking).
If you can only afford ONE Masterclass on writing, I recommend Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers. Maybe the writer I like the least out of the list, but the one who produced the most useful online course.
Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing (affiliate link)
David Baldacci Teaches Mystery and Thriller Writing (affiliate link)
Judy Blume Teaches Writing (affiliate link)
Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers (affiliate link)
Billy Collins Teaches Reading and Writing Poetry (affiliate link)
Neil Gaiman Teaches The Art of Storytelling (affiliate link)
Malcolm Gladwell Teaches Writing (affiliate link)
David Lynch Teaches Creativity and Film (affiliate link)
David Mamet Teaches Dramatic Writing (affiliate link)
Joyce Carol Oates Teaches the Art of The Short Story (affiliate link)
James Patterson Teaches Writing (affiliate link)
Shonda Rhimes Teaches Writing For Television (affiliate link)
Aaron Sorkin’s Teaches Screenwriting (affiliate link)
R.L. Stine Teaches Writing for Young Audiences (affiliate link)
Mockler’s Writing Workshop
Kathryn Mockler is an exceptional and under-appreciated experimental writer who has created an outstanding suite of courses at Mockler’s Writing Workshop. I endorse all of her material with no reservation.
Mockler includes some small free courses in her list of offerings, but the paid courses are much more in-depth and useful. My core recommendation is her Introduction to Writing Short Fiction course.