Class is Back in Session: Creative Writing College Courses 311

Are you going to college to study in fields such as engineering, medicine, math, or science? Do you have an idea for a story you would like to write someday, but feel you can’t since your field of study isn’t English? Creative writing college courses are a great way to squeeze in some real writing education and earn credits simultaneously.

Anyone from any field of study can write a book. For those who are still in college, you have an incredible opportunity to take a course or even multiple courses to help strengthen your story-writing skills and have access to trained professors who can offer helpful tips and tricks.

Depending on where you attend college will likely determine what courses are available as some schools have stronger focuses on the creative arts than others. Still, there are always more popular courses that can be found at most colleges across the country. We are going to look at four creative writing college course types that could benefit you when it comes to learning more about getting that story in your head out onto paper.

1. Creative Writing

Probably the most popular course one can find at any college would be creative writing. With more of a focus on short stories (reading and writing), this is an excellent course that helps develop one’s literary analysis and offers helpful exercises by having students write their own short stories and receiving grammatical and stylistic feedback. This also provides a great introduction to writing creative fiction and nonfiction.

2. Poetry Workshop

For those who are fans of poetry and perhaps dabble in writing their own poems, consider looking into a poetry workshop. These kinds of workshops work similarly to creative writing, but, of course, focus on poems and poetry collections rather than short stories. This provides an excellent introduction to writing more common types of poems such as haikus, free verse, couplets, and more.

3. Persuasive Writing

While this may seem more like a business course, taking a course on persuasive writing and public speaking (which normally go hand in hand) can not only strengthen one’s writing skills, but could also help a student develop skills to write a rather impactful book. This kind of writing could be used to write a self-help book or even a motivational memoir.

4. Journalism

Taking a course in journalism can be a surprising eye opener to the writing world. Since journalism is about sharing the facts in a quick and concise way, this would give experience to students who wish to write a story that is direct and to the point. If someone has an idea for a book that involves a character perhaps writing newspaper articles as part of the storyline, having this sort of writing experience could help a future author write out fictitious newspaper articles in a believable way.

TL; DR

If these creative writing college courses are offered at your school (typically higher courses in the 200s or 300s and up), sign up early as these can quickly fill up. If your college offers additional courses in genres such as creative nonfiction, dramatic writing, scriptwriting, novel writing, or other genres that fascinate you, feel free to take them. Even if you are not going to college to study English, if you have an idea for a story and would like help on learning how to get it out there, don’t hesitate to take advantage of the resources you have access to during your time at school.

For those of us who are no longer in school, you can take advantage of free courses from Yale, Harvard’s free writing refresher prep tool, and more.

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