Start Writing Fiction Course - The Open University

Get started with your own fiction writing, focusing on the central skill of creating characters, with this hands-on course.

Discover the rituals and approaches that successful fiction writers use

On this online course, established writers – including Louis de Bernières, Patricia Duncker, Alex Garland, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Tim Pears, Michèle Roberts and Monique Roffey – will talk about how they started writing.

You’ll consider the rituals of writing and keeping a journal; learn how to develop your ideas; reflect on your own writing and editing; hear writers talk about their approach to research, and start turning events into the plot.

You’ll also have the opportunity to review the work of fellow writers and receive comments on your own, learning to read as a writer and respond to feedback.

When would you like to start?

Most FutureLearn courses run multiple times. Every run of a course has a set start date but you can join it and work through it after it starts.

• Available now
• 4 October 2021

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to:

• Apply and learn to write fiction and generate stories by creating characters.
• Investigate notions of writing from your experience and from research.
• Explore using a writer’s notebook to develop ideas and increase observational awareness.
• Identify and realise the importance of other authors and works to develop your skills in reading as a writer.
• Develop your awareness of editing, in developing your vocabulary of style and presentation.
• Identify and realise the importance of exchanging work and critical comments with fellow writers.

Who will you learn with?

Derek Neale

A novelist and short-story writer – his latest novel is The Book of Guardians - Derek has recorded many interviews with novelists, playwrights and biographers about their approach to writing.

Who developed the course?

The Open University

The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance learning, with a mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.

Syllabus

Who is the course for

This course is intended for those with an interest in starting to write fiction or improving their fiction writing and does not require any previous experience of studying this subject.

Please be aware that participation in this course involves reviewing work posted by other learners. You may find some material used in these stories is of an adult nature (e.g. language, sex, violence) and although captured in context, may offend. Learners on this course are instructed to place warnings at the top of their work to indicate the use of such content.

Recommended for learners age 16+.