Social Video Secrets: TikTok, Instagram, and Beyond

Jess Zafarris

NOVEMBER, 21  |  01:00-2:30 PM ET

In this session, discover what it takes to get started with (or improve!) your social video game, including what to post and where to reach new fans, build your platform and become an influential author.

This workshop will be interactive, with time questions and answers.

Train Your Editor Brain

Tiffany Yates Martin

DECEMBER, 5  |  01:00-2:30 PM ET

Learn specific techniques for developing and deepening your knowledge of story craft that you can practice every day, by doing things you’re already doing—reading books and watching movies and television—but shifting your focus from simple enjoyment to objective analysis.

Thematic Writing: How to Use Symbols and Allegory to Add Richness and Depth to Your Writing

Jane K. Cleland

DECEMBER, 12  |  01:00-2:30 PM ET

When you feel as if your prose is flat or banal, try upping your writing game by focusing on themes. Converting abstract concepts into concrete examples resonates with readers by getting them thinking and reflecting on their lives and beliefs. This live webinar analyzes strategies to add thematic heft by integrating symbolic imagery, atmospheric descriptions, and visual and word allegories.

What Do Your Characters Want? Using Highly Motivated Characters to Drive Stronger Stories

Jessica Strawser

DECEMBER, 19  |  01:00-2:30 PM ET

In this live webinar, you'll learn how to leverage your characters' goals and desires from Page 1 to get readers to quickly invest in their journeys, eager to come along for the ride. With plenty of examples from bestsellers across genres, you’ll see how focusing on character motivations as a guiding principle can not only bring your story’s central players to life, but add propulsion to your plot, raise and complicate the stakes, and elevate the themes of your story.

How to Get Published: Land a Book Deal in 2025

Jane Friedman

JANUARY 16, 2025 |  01:00-3:00 PM ET

This intensive and information-filled 120-minute live webinar helps you think like an industry insider who makes decisions every day on what work merits print publication. You'll get practical advice and tools to help you develop strong pitch letters and proposal materials for both fiction and nonfiction-plus back-door methods for networking with agents and editors.

Establish (or Improve) Your Email Newsletter

Jane Friedman

FEBRUARY 06, 2025 |  01:00-2:30 PM ET

This live webinar will cover best practices of email newsletters for authors, how to avoid the mistakes most prevalent in the writing community, plus the pros and cons of using the popular newsletter platform Substack. Thankfully, regardless of what tools or platforms you use to send your email newsletter, it’s fairly straightforward to start (or restart) an email newsletter. It often doesn’t cost you any money until you have a sizable list of names—and that’s the point at which it can become very profitable.

Publishing Your Children's Book: How to Write and Pitch Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Picture Book Manuscripts

P.S. Literary Agency

November 5–November 8, 2024

Children’s books are celebrated for their enchanting prose, relatable characters, beautiful illustrations, and fantastic stories that transcend age categories and genres—and this Writer’s Digest Boot Camp will teach you everything you need to know about being a children’s book author.

Agent One-on-One: First 10 Pages Boot Camp

The Talcott Notch Literary Agency

JANUARY 9–JANUARY 12, 2025

In this invaluable event, you'll get to work with an agent to review and refine the first ten pages of your novel or non-fiction book.

3rd Annual Nonfiction Writing Virtual Conference

NOVEMBER, 16  |  ALL DAY

FOUR award-winning and bestselling nonfiction writers will provide expert insights on the finer points of writing nonfiction.

Historical Fiction Virtual Conference

DECEMBER, 6–DECEMBER, 8 

On December 6 - 8, our WDU Historical Fiction Virtual Conference will provide expert insights from bestselling historical fiction authors Kimberly Brock, Ryan C. Coleman, James Wade, Susan Meissner, Amanda Churchill, Trisha R. Thomas, and Sharon Short.

12 Weeks to a First Draft

Mark Spencer | Terri Valentine | G. Miki Hayden | John DeChancie

Dive into the world of writing and learn all 12 steps needed to complete a first draft. In this writing course you will tackle the steps to writing a book, learn effective writing techniques along the way, and of course, begin writing your first draft.

21 Days to Your Novel Outline and Synopsis

Bryan Young

This course is designed to help you understand how to craft a winning premise, how to outline your novel, and then how to take both of those things and assemble a synopsis that will act as a guide for you to write your novel and sell it.

21 Days to Your Screenplay Treatment

Bryan Young

Learn how to create an electrifying treatment step by step! By the end of this workshop, you will have a strong treatment and a solid log line for your screenplay that has been vetted by an industry professional.

Advanced Novel Writing

Mark Spencer | Terri Valentine

Push yourself beyond your comfort zone and take your writing to new heights with this novel writing course, designed specifically for novelists who are looking for detailed feedback on their work. When you take this online course, you won't have weekly reading assignments or lectures. Instead, you'll get to focus solely on completing your novel.

Advanced Read Like a Writer: Classic Modern Novels

Mark Spencer

Join instructor Mark Spencer as he guides you through a close reading of a classic modern novel. Each session will focus on a different novel, with selections rotating over time. Take inspiration and instruction from some of the best writers of the modern age!

Advanced Television Rewriting Workshop

William Rabkin

This eight-week course is broken up into four sessions that each focus on individual elements of the rewriting process. Each session, you will submit a section of your screenplay for review. Each session will also have focused lectures that help you on each step of your revision process.

The Art of Storytelling 101: Story Mapping and Pacing

Terri Valentine

Discover how the seven core competencies of storytelling—concept, character, voice, plot, theme, scene construction, and style—combine to create compelling narrative.

The Art of Storytelling 102: Showing vs. Telling

Terri Valentine

Learn the differences between showing and telling, how to use dialogue to convey information, how much setting description is necessary, how to avoid information dumps, and more!

Beginning Feature Film Writing: Complete Course

Donald H Hewitt

This 12-week course guides students through the process of building a feature film script, starting with an outline and continuing through all the acts of your screenplay. You will get expert guidance on your writing along the way, and helpful self-tests allow you to reinforce your mastery of the lecture content.

Beginning Feature Film Writing: Outline and Act One

Donald H Hewitt

The writing critiques in this workshop are tailored to develop specific skills needed to succeed as a feature film writer. You will also gain access to a wealth of creative writing prompts.

Beginning Feature Film Writing: Acts Two and Three

Donald H Hewitt

This course is designed to pick up where Beginning Feature Film Writing: Outline and Act I left off. If you are working your way to a completed screenplay, this is the next step

Beginning Television Writing

William Rabkin

In this four-week course, an established executive producer/showrunner will give you an inside look at the world of dramatic, episodic television. You will explore—and practice—the actual process involved in successfully writing a spec episodic script that will open doors across Hollywood.

Book Coaching for Advanced Writers

Mark Spencer

Are you ready to take the next step toward a final draft of your novel? This course is for you! Join Mark Spencer in an intensive 16-week coaching session focused entirely on your novel in progress.

Build Your Novel Scene by Scene

Mark Spencer

If you want to learn how to write a story, this is the course for you. Get the impetus, the guidance, the support, and the deadline you need to finally stop talking, start writing, and, ultimately, complete that novel you always said you wanted to write.

Character Development: Creating Memorable Characters

Sharon Short

Learn how to create believable fiction characters and construct scenes with emotional depth and range. You'll discover character development techniques and tips along with practical advice for weaving emotion into scenes

Comp Titles Intensive: The Essential Tool That Can Launch Your Career

Amy Collins 

This one-week intensive will walk you through the process of finding comparable titles and authors. The class covers what the industry uses comps for and why they are so important. Then it shows HOW to find the titles with the best sales numbers by using readily accessible online tools.

Copyediting Certificate Program

Kim Catanzarite

Writer's Digest is proud to offer our Copyediting Certificate Program. This course will provide training for aspiring copy editors in order to give them practical and marketable workplace skills. As a student in this certification course, you will progress from the fundamentals of grammar, form, and composition to advanced copyediting skills.

Creating the Viral Web Series

Rebecca Norris Resnick

By the end of the course, you’ll have your pilot in hand — and a plan for where you want to take your series in subsequent episodes. Whether you’re interested in comedy or drama, this course will give you the tools you need to get started writing and producing your very own series from the ground up.

Creative Writing 101

Ran Walker

Are you one of those people who have thought, “I’d like to write a book someday, but I don’t know where to start”? If yes, then this is the course for you. All you need is to open yourself up and allow your ideas to flow.

Creativity and Expression

G. Miki Hayden

When you take this online course, you’ll explore creative writing topics and learn how descriptive writing can breathe life into your characters, setting, and plot. Stretch your imagination, develop your creative writing skills, and express your creativity.

Description: Bring Your Writing to Life

Sharon Short

Learn how to effectively use descriptive techniques to elevate your writing into an immersive reading experience for your readers, including agents and editors.

Documentary Film Writing

Bryan Young

This course will help you understand how to start crafting the pieces of a documentary, whether that writing happens in pre-production, during the collection of footage, or in post-production as you work to craft the final narrative.

Fearless Writing

William Kenower

In this workshop, we’ll look at several techniques you can you use to keep yourself in the creative flow and out of the trouble and misery fear always causes. This course is offering you a transformative experience. Don't miss out!

Focus on the Short Story

Mark Spencer | John DeChancie

Short stories are a well-loved and popular form of fiction. When you take this online course, you will learn how to write short stories that will delight and entertain your readers. By the end of this course, you’ll improve your creative writing skills and write two complete short stories. Don’t delay—start writing your short story today!

Form and Composition

Kelly Boyer Sagert

Proper grammar, punctuation, and mechanics make your writing correct. In order to truly write well, you must also master the art of form and composition. From sentence structure to polishing your prose, this course will enhance your writing, no matter what type of writing you do.

Freelance Writing

Kelly Boyer Sagert

In this course, you will work with a published article writer to develop, research and write two articles suitable for publication in magazines you've identified as appropriate markets.

Fundamentals of Fiction

Jack Adler | G. Miki Hayden

Creating a story that is dynamic and engaging takes a lot more than just setting aside an hour every day to write. This course will take you through all of the basics of writing a novel, including how important it is to choose a great setting, how to build characters, what point of view you should choose, how to write great dialogue, and more.

The Fundamentals of Screenwriting: Give your Script a Solid Foundation

Donald H Hewitt

This four-week class is the perfect introduction to the fantastic world of writing a script, from the fundamentals of the story down to the revision process. In this course, you will gain the tools to structure your scenes, your acts, and your plots.

Getting Started in Writing

Estelle Erasmus | Terri Valentine

Have you always wanted to be a writer? Don't let doubt or fear get the best of you—take a chance and learn how to start writing a book, novel, short story, memoir, or essay. In this course, you'll discover your voice, learn the basics of grammar and examine the different types of writing.

Grammar and Mechanics

Kelly Boyer Sagert

Do you remember the difference between the 8 parts of speech and how to use them? Are you comfortable with punctuation and mechanics? No matter what type of writing you do, mastering the fundamentals of grammar and mechanics is an important first step to having a successful writing career.

Introduction to Copyediting

Kim Catanzarite

If you’ve thought about becoming a copy editor but you’re not sure how to go about it, this is the course for you. It’s also a fitting course for college students who want to work for the school newspaper, creative writers who want to self-edit their manuscripts, and businesspeople striving to sound as competent and together on the page as they possibly can.

Mastering Amazon for Authors

Rob Eagar

Mastering Amazon for Authors is the premiere online course designed to help you maximize book sales at the world’s largest retailer. This self-guided video course provides in-depth instruction for authors at every level.

The Nitty Gritty of Spec Scripts: Writing Strong Action and Dialogue

Dave Trottier

This one-week intensive course focuses on the specifics of writing compelling action (description) and dialogue. At the end of this course, your expert instructor, Dave Trottier, will evaluate five pages of your spec script.

The Novel Opening

G. Miki Hayden

How can you produce an infallible story opening? Action, voice, an immediate interest in the characters, and a hook that pulls in the reader and which is designed around your particular genre.

Outlining Your Novel

G. Miki Hayden

Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly used, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer's arsenal. In this course, you will learn how to write an outline as you explore what type of outline is right for you, brainstorm plot ideas, and discover your characters.

Pitch an Article: Write for Today's Marketplace

Estelle Erasmus

This intensive two-week course will teach you how to craft a good pitch letter and do it well. Be ready to mine your life for ideas. Start thinking about a great spin on a topic or an unusual personal experience that you'd like to write about in class.

Point of View: Finding The Heart of Your Story

Sharon Short

Learn the nuances of POV and how to avoid POV pitfalls, how time is an essential part of POV, how POV intersects with character, how to choose the right POV for each story, and how to handle unusual or tricky POVs.

Powerful Endings to Hook Your Reader

Dave Trottier

Hook your readers with a powerful ending that will convert them into fans of your screenplay. Regardless of your genre, your ending is also the secret to a captivating beginning, and “writing backwards” is only one of many tools you will be handed to craft your powerful ending.

Prepping Your Screenplay to Win Competitions Intensive

Rebecca Norris Resnick

This course will teach you specific ways to drastically increase the readability of your pages, make your dialogue and description sing, and improve the clarity and structure of your script so you can have a better shot at advancing to the next round.

Proper Formatting Technique: Script Format Made Easy

Dave Trottier

Let Dave Trottier (Dr. Format himself) show you the necessary techniques and currently accepted standards that will set your script apart from the heap. Not only will he teach you the rules of script formatting, he will show you when and how to break them.

Query Letter in 14 Days

Jack Adler

Take your writing one step further and tackle the publishing process. When you enroll in this online course, you'll learn the details of the query letter format and how to write a query letter that catches the attention of agents and publishers.

Read Like a Writer: Learn from the Masters

Mark Spencer

This course will demonstrate that the best way to become a good writer is to study the writing of others, especially the work of the masters. Because there are no hard-and-fast rules to writing, it’s important to study what other writers have done.

Research for Writers

Sharon Short

In this online writing course, you will learn how to manage your research time and effort, and even become comfortable with it. You’ll learn how to find resources, streamline the process, and organize results.

Scriptreading Certificate Program

Brian O'Malley

This course will show you, step-by-step, how to write script coverage. We will cover key elements of screenwriting coverage, including writing a synopsis, analyzing a script, writing an evaluation, script formatting, and finding work as a reader

Sell Books on a Shoestring Budget

Rob Eagar

You don't have to spend crazy sums of money to get crazy good results. Even on a shoestring budget, you can take your book sales to a higher level. Let one of the most accomplished book marketing experts in the industry show you the way.

Setting: Create a Vivid Story World

Sharon Short

Learn how to world build in any genre, research setting, use setting to define character and drive plot, and discover techniques for weaving setting into other creative writing craft elements such as theme and voice.

Short Story Fundamentals

Ran Walker | John DeChancie

Throughout this four-week course, you will have feedback and support while you write and hone an entire short story from beginning to end, and you'll leave with a polished draft of your story. You will get insider information about what editors are looking for in short stories they choose to publish.

Start Your Own Script Reading Business

Brian O'Malley

Learn how to launch a script reading business of your own, from building a website using a simple web platform to creating your online shop to the basics of marketing online using social media and writing blog articles.

Story Development and Outlining

Lynn Grant Beck

This course will examine plotting a screenplay from premise to story. You'll learn how to take your screenplay from the early stages of building an idea to a full story, ways to structure the story to keep tension and investment high, and strategies to build not only structure but texture in the world of your film.

Submission Coaching: Everything You Need to Know to Get Published

Amy Collins

There is so much more to getting an agent or publishing deal than just writing a good book. This 5-week class will give you the tools you need and that agents and publishers are looking for when considering taking on an author.

Travel Writing

Jack Adler

Discover how to become a travel writer by exploring the different types of articles you can write and developing your writing style. You'll learn travel writing tips such as how to take your own photographs, as well as how to draft an article that keeps readers captivated and garners interest from travel editors.

Voice: The Personality of Writing

Sharon Short

In this course, examples of voice from literature, music, and art will deepen your understanding of and appreciation for voice. You will explore all these elements, experiment with them, and emerge with a stronger voice for your writing projects, making them memorable and engaging for readers.

Watching Movies: Learn from the Masters and Become a Better Writer

Bryan Young

In this 10-week course, we’ll take you through some of the master filmmakers and writers of the past—Alfred Hitchcock, William Goldman, George Lucas, Edgar Wright, Steven Spielberg, and more—and give you a peek behind the curtain of their work and how they crafted stories.

Write Great Dialogue

Sharon Short

Dialogue can be one of the most interesting parts of a book to read, but only if it is done right. Sharpen your writing skills and challenge yourself to craft engaging, yet believable dialogue that will keep your readers interested.

Write Your Drama Pilot in Six Weeks

William Rabkin

Learn the tools professional screenwriters use to finish high-quality scripts under deadlines. By the end of this course, you will have completed and received professional feedback on a script for your drama pilot.

Writing Historical Fiction

Donna Russo Morin

Whether history is a backdrop to your story or the focus of the story itself, this workshop will provide you with the tools to find the facts you need, organize the data in a functional manner, and merge that data seamlessly into your novel.

Writing the Memoir 101

Kelly Boyer Sagert

The goal of this course is to teach you how to structure your stories, develop your storytelling skills, and give you the tips, techniques, and knowledge to adapt your own life stories into a chronological memoir. Learn how to write a powerful memoir that will engage readers for years to come.

Writing the Middle Grade Book

Holly Alder

Any middle-grade book author will tell you that writing an effective book is more challenging than reading one! Take this online course and learn the essential elements of writing for kids and how to break into children’s publishing.

Writing the Mystery Novel

G. Miki Hayden

Do you love reading a good mystery? Have you always wanted to write one? In this course, you'll have the choice of creating a brand new mystery story from scratch or working with a story you already have in progress.

Writing Nonfiction 101: Fundamentals

Mark Spencer

Research, interview, and explore the subjects that interest you. Then write about what you've learned in Writing Nonfiction 101: Fundamentals. Writing nonfiction is a great way for beginner and experienced writers to break into the publishing industry.

Writing the Paranormal Novel

Terri Valentine

People have been telling supernatural stories from the beginning of time and readers love them because they fulfill our desire to escape reality. Create your own paranormal novel and explore the supernatural world of literature.

Writing the Personal Essay: Fundamentals

Estelle Erasmus

This course guides beginning and intermediate writers through elements of how to write a personal essay, helping them identify values expressed in their stories and bring readers into the experiences described.

Writing the Picture Book

Holly Alder

In this course, you'll learn how to write a winning picture book narrative, envision it with illustrations, and put together a picture package that a publisher will really notice.

Writing and Producing the Short Film

Rebecca Norris Resnick

With successful short film examples to watch and study, as well as real-world advice from the low-budget filmmaking trenches, this 4-week class will lead you through the process of writing a short film you can produce on a budget, as well as touch on the pre-production, production, and post-production process.

Writing and Revising Your Picture Book: From Concept to Polished Project

Danielle Davis

This series will give you vital tools to write, revise, understand the “why,” “how,” and “what” of your story and develop a plan for next steps. You can expect video lectures with content as slides, published examples, and activities tailored to support your specific project as well as you as a writer.

Writing the Romance Novel

Terri Valentine

This course explores why romance is the same, yet different. Some essential components of romance are unique to the genre, while some romance requirements are identical to those of any good fiction story.

Writing Scary Stories: A Short Story Primer on Horror

Richard Thomas

This four-week class will make sure you have the basics of short story telling down, and then show you how to use that pairing between terror and horror to immerse your readers in atmosphere, mood, tone, setting, and depth.

Writing the Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel

John DeChancie

In this course, you'll discover the essential elements of fictional worlds, how to write a novel with intriguing characters and plot, and write up to 2,500 words for your science fiction or fantasy story.

Writing the Series Bible: Developing Your TV Series

Lynn Grant Beck

A strong series bible is a crucial sales tool for your series. This course will help you get your TV series ready for an executive by developing your series premise, honing your pilot, and writing your series bible.

Writing the Thriller Novel

G. Miki Hayden

In this six-week course, you'll examine the structural elements that create a successful thriller, learn how to build compelling conflict and suspense into your story, find out what helps a story engage a reader, and much more.

Writing the Young Adult Novel

Holly Alder

Learn everything you need to know for writing young adult fiction, including what readers look for, the importance of plot, theme, and setting, how to craft entertaining dialogue, and much more.

Your Creative Journey

Dave Trottier

Join long-time favorite instructor Dave Trottier to discover and develop your writing creativity in just three weeks! You'll tackle blocks, block fears, and liberate your inner writer. Best of all, you'll have loads of fun as you embark on your creative journey!