Find out more about The Open University's Creative Writing qualifications.
Got an idea for a story? Start writing fiction
Could your ability to tell stories give the Grimm brothers a run for their money? Then try our Start Writing Fiction short course. Taken from an Open University module, you'll gain fantastic skills in order to pen your masterpiece.
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Start writing fiction: characters and stories
Learn more to access more details of Start writing fiction: characters and storiesStart writing fiction is a free course that helps you to get started with your own fiction writing, focusing on the central skill of creating characters.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Writing what you know
Learn more to access more details of Writing what you knowDo you want to improve your descriptive writing? This free course, Writing what you know, will help you to develop your perception of the world about you and enable you to see the familiar things in everyday life in a new light. You will also learn how authors use their own personal histories to form the basis of their work.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Creative writing and critical reading
Learn more to access more details of Creative writing and critical readingThis free course, Creative writing and critical reading, explores the importance of reading as part of a creative writer’s development at the postgraduate level. You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers’ methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills. Examples will cover the genres of fiction, creative ...
Level: 3 Advanced
Want to be the next poet laureate?
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Poetry prescription
Take part now to access more details of Poetry prescriptionFeeling loving, adventurous or scared? Poetry Prescription will find you the perfect poem to reflect your mood.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Three Irish poets - introduction
Read now to access more details of Three Irish poets - introductionA look at three female Irish Poets – Ellen O'Leary, Katharine Tynan and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.
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What is poetry?
Learn more to access more details of What is poetry?Have you always wanted to try to write poetry but never quite managed to start? This free course, What is poetry?, is designed to illustrate the techniques behind both the traditional forms of poetry and free verse. You will learn how you can use your own experiences to develop ideas and how to harness your imagination.
Level: 1 Introductory
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The poetry of Sorley MacLean
Learn more to access more details of The poetry of Sorley MacLeanSorley MacLean (1911-1996) is regarded as one of the greatest Scottish poets of the twentieth century. This free course, The poetry of Sorley MacLean, will introduce you to his poetry and give you an insight into the cultural, historical and political contexts that inform his work. MacLean wrote in Gaelic and the importance of the language to ...
Level: 3 Advanced
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Approaching poetry
Learn more to access more details of Approaching poetryDo you want to get more out of your reading of poetry? This free course, Approaching poetry, is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary texts. You will learn about rhythm, alliteration, rhyme, poetic inversion, voice and line lengths and endings. You will examine poems that do not rhyme and learn ...
Level: 2 Intermediate
Don't like writing? Perform your tales
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Speeches and speech-making
Learn more to access more details of Speeches and speech-makingThis free course, Speeches and speech-making, explores an aspect of language use where 'voices' and 'texts' converge: the art of speech-making.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Theatre & Performance: The Show Must Go On
Watch now to access more details of Theatre & Performance: The Show Must Go OnDr Louise Ritchie from Aberystwyth's Department of Theatre, Film & Television Studies presents Theatre & Performance – The Show Must Go On.
Find out more about some well-known storytellers
Find out more about some of the greatest authors of our time.
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Exploring Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts
Learn more to access more details of Exploring Virginia Woolf’s Between the ActsThis free course introduces Virginia Woolf’s last novel, Between the Acts (1941), with the aim of understanding how she writes about time, memory, and ideas about identity. It also considers why Woolf’s fiction is often considered difficult. Selected extracts from her essays on writing help to clarify some of these perceived difficulties, ...
Level: 2 Intermediate
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Quiz: Which Brontë sister wrote it?
Take part now to access more details of Quiz: Which Brontë sister wrote it?Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë had very different writing styles but can you tell their writing apart from the other?
Level: 1 Introductory
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Exploring Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd
Learn more to access more details of Exploring Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding CrowdThis free course, Exploring Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, is designed to tell you something about Hardy's background, and to introduce you to the pleasures of reading a nineteenth-century novel. Why do we believe in fictional characters and care about what happens to them? You will discover some of the techniques that Hardy ...
Level: 2 Intermediate
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The man behind Matilda – what Roald Dahl was really like
Read now to access more details of The man behind Matilda – what Roald Dahl was really likeRoald Dahl: the incredible storyteller loved by millions or a belittling bully? Find out what his character was like in this article.
Level: 1 Introductory
Written a novel? Find out how to get a literary agent
Firstly, well done on completing your novel. What to do next? Your best bet is finding a literary agent, if you want to see it on other people's bookshelves. Find out how...
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What do literary agents do?
Listen now to access more details of What do literary agents do?Johnny Gellar explains what it is that literary agents do to earn their money - and help their authors earn theirs!
Level: 1 Introductory
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So you've written your novel, what now?
Read now to access more details of So you've written your novel, what now?Literary agent Joanna Swainson shares her top five tips for hooking an agent.
Level: 1 Introductory
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