Creative writing courses

Online creative writing courses are both inspiring and practical. You’ll be given the space to experiment with your writing, understand different genres, navigate the publishing industry and edit your own work.

Depending on your course, you’ll explore how to:

• Develop a distinctive writing style

• Think critically about other writers’ work

• Write short fiction, long-form fiction, genre fiction, poetry and children’s fiction

• Act on feedback

• Deliver constructive feedback during virtual workshop discussions

• Submit your work for publication

Typically, your creative writing course will cover specialty areas like poetry, short fiction, genre fiction, or even travel writing, but the exact subjects on offer differ by course.

If there’s a specific area you’d like to explore, consider completing a single subject in that area. Single subjects are available on topics like:

• Popular genre writing

• Australian poetry

• Poetry

• Long and short fiction

• Writing for children

• Scriptwriting

• Novel and novella writing

Yes. You and your peers are there to learn to better your writing, so workshopping your writing will form an important part of your course. Remember not to take constructive feedback personally. Your peers and tutors are there to help you become the best writer you can be.

As you’ll be studying online, networking opportunities may be limited, although you’ll likely find plenty of published authors, editors, or agents amongst the teaching staff for creative writing degrees.

You may, however, want to explore events in this space on your own time. Writers’ festivals are held around the country, and there are genre specific writing events available throughout the year as well. Your university and classmates will likely make you aware of these events and encourage you to go.

It depends on the course and whether you choose something short or long-term. Here’s a general guide: 

If you study a degree in creative writing through Open Universities Australia, you have the flexibility to choose how many subjects you take per term. This means you can complete your qualification at a faster or slower pace than you would on campus.

Creative writing is a skill that requires practice and patience—but it’s a skill anyone can learn with the right guidance.

If you can take constructive feedback to heart, have a love of words, and want to deepen your writing skills, a creative writing course could be the perfect fit for you.

Yes, you can! Many students who study creative writing online do so while working. When you pursue one of the online creative writing degrees available through Open Universities Australia, you choose your study load. You can drop down to as little as one subject per study term, or ramp up your workload and finish your course sooner.  

For undergraduate courses, like an undergraduate certificate or bachelor degree, you won’t need prior experience in writing. These courses are designed to give you foundational skills and experience.

Postgraduate study assumes you have some foundational skills in the subject area, but the level of experience assumed varies from course to course.

Creative writing graduates have the critical thinking and writing skills to work across many different industries. Graduates commonly pursue work as:

• Authors

• Journalists

• Copywriters

• Digital marketers

• Magazine publishers and editors

• Book publishers and editors

• Screenwriters

• Arts administrators

• Teachers (further study is required)

Here at Open Universities Australia, we make enrolling online as straightforward as possible. To get started, find the course for you by browsing the options on this page. You can also compare different qualifications using our handy comparison tool, or request help from one of our student advisors.

When you’ve made your choice, click ‘Apply now’ on the relevant course page and follow the prompts to begin your enrolment. We’ll ask you to supply some supporting documentation, including proof of your identity, your tax file number, and a unique student identifier (USI) during this process.

Your university will get in touch with you via email to confirm whether or not your application has been successful.

Please note that enquiries and applications for some courses are handled directly by the university. If this is the case, it will be indicated on the course listing page.  

For more information about enrolment, read our online self-service enrolling instructions. If you get stuck at any time, contact us and we’ll talk you through it.

Yes! There are plenty of options to choose from if you feel like creative writing isn’t the right fit for you. Use the table below to find a more suitable choice.