Learn Creative Writing from Online Video Courses by Famous Writers

There are many ways to learn how to write. You can read one of hundreds of books written about creative writing; you can take courses in universities or online; and you can experience online video courses by some of the world’s most famous writers.

In this article, we look at some of these video courses and how they might help you write better.

Ways to improve your writing

There have long been books about improving writing skills. One can go back to Aristotle’s Poetics, written more than 2,300 years ago, which features some of the earliest discussions of plot, and Horace’s Ars Poetica, from around 2,000 years ago, which gives practical instruction on writing poetry and drama. More recently, an entire industry has emerged with hundreds of books, workshops, and degree programs devoted to creative writing.

With the rise of the internet, online videos have become a way of teaching many subjects, and creative writing courses and one-off videos abound. One of the latest manifestations of this is video courses available from two providers, MasterClass and BBC Maestro. With high production values and famous authors sharing their wisdom, these platforms can provide valuable teaching for any creative writer.

Can you learn from online videos?

Watching videos isn’t that different from reading books on creative writing: they both provide useful information, but lack the feedback that writers get from courses in universities and workshops. While some of them contain exercises to complete, no one grades the work or gives feedback. Doing the exercises can make you think about the topic, but you won’t know if your results are any good.

If you choose a course to watch because an author is famous or one of your favorite writers, you will get to hear from a writer you admire, perhaps in the genre or style of your writing, and the tips and advice they give may be helpful. If you are familiar with their work, their discussions of how they approach writing may resonate with you more than what others say, and the affective relationship you feel with the author will make you think more carefully about how you can apply their lessons.

The two platforms discussed below, MasterClass and BBC Maestro, present courses with high-quality production values, almost like a Netflix series. The courses seem more like documentaries than lectures, but focus on teaching practical skills. They are designed to appeal to both beginners and more experienced writers, and what you get from them depends on where you are in your writing journey.

MasterClass

Launched in 2015, MasterClass was the first online video service to offer courses like this by well-known instructors. The site offers more than 200 courses covering a wide range of topics from cooking to music, from business to health. Writing is one of its main categories, and it currently features nearly three dozen instructors teaching creative writing, journalism, poetry, drama, and screenwriting.

Subscriptions are annual, and start at $120 a year, though plans are often discounted during the year. Some MasterClass courses have downloadable PDF files about the course summarizing what is taught and including exercises.

BBC Maestro

BBC Maestro was launched in 2020 and features a similar range of topics as MasterClass, and a different group of well-known presenters, but it only has about 50 courses. The writing section is more limited, with about a dozen courses covering popular fiction, writing for television, children’s books, and more. However, these courses are generally longer than those on MasterClass. Most MasterClass writing courses are about three to four hours long, and BBC Maestro’s courses range from about four to eight hours.

At $120 a year, BBC Maestro also offers discounts at various times. You can buy individual courses on BBC Maestro, but there’s not much point; at $89 each, to access a single course for one year, it’s only slightly cheaper than a full membership.

All BBC Maestro courses have comprehensive PDFs that you can download, which include a full transcription of each course, exercises, and some references.

Some notable courses to watch

While BBC Maestro has fewer courses than MasterClass, some of them are especially interesting and comprehensive. Ken Follett’s discussion of writing bestselling fiction looks in detail at how he plans, outlines, writes, and edits his long historical novels. Isabel Allende and Alan Moore offer courses on storytelling, and Lee Child talks about writing popular fiction, in his case, the Jack Reacher thriller series. Jed Mercurio, creator of the popular TV series Line of Duty, gives a class on writing drama for television, and David Walliams discusses writing books for children.

One course on BBC Maestro raises eyebrows: Agatha Christie on writing. Obviously, Ms. Christie was not around when the BBC prepared this course, and it features actor Vivien Keene as Christie, using an AI-generated voice based on Christie’s writing and recordings of her speech.

MasterClass has more authors of literary fiction, such as Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and Joyce Carol Oates, who adapted the course she teaches about the short story at Princeton University for these videos. There are also writers of popular fiction like David Baldacci, Dan Brown, and Walter Mosley, and Aaron Sorkin gives a course on screenwriting. MasterClass has a US-centric roster of authors, whereas most of BBC Maestro’s instructors are British.

While these subscriptions may seem expensive, you get a lot more than just writing courses; the BBC Maestro course on bread baking by Richard Bertinet changed my kitchen technique, and MasterClass has a strong roster of business and wellness courses. As far as writing instruction goes, either one can be useful if you find authors you admire and who write in genres and styles similar to yours. You may not learn any more than you would from a book, but you will be entertained by the high-quality videos both services offer.