203 Best Fiction Writing Classes in 2026

One-day Saturday beginners' course at Faber's offices in Hatton Garden, central London, 10am to 4pm, GBP 100. Class size is fifteen, and you write in the room from the start - experimenting with structure and technique and getting responses on the spot rather than workshopping something prepared. Faber runs it monthly, so 26 September, 31 October, 28 November and 12 December are all open if one date does not suit.

One-day Saturday workshop at City Lit's Keeley Street centre in Covent Garden, 7 November, 10.30am to 4.30pm. GBP 79 full fee, GBP 51 concession - among the cheapest ways to try a proper taught creative writing class in central London. Guided exercises rather than critique of work brought in, so nothing is required in advance. Further dates run 5 December and 14 March if the November one fills.

Six-week Sunday-daytime course at City Academy in Farringdon, 11am to 1.30pm from 27 September, with Conor Patrick Carroll, GBP 375. It is the follow-on from City Academy's beginners' course and assumes you have already written something: the goal is to produce your first full scene or chapter rather than to sample forms. Daytime scheduling makes it one of the few London options that does not require weekday evenings.

Six-week evening novel course at City Academy in Farringdon, Thursdays 6.45-9.15pm from 12 November, with tutor Jelena Curcic, GBP 425. Covers structure, character and voice with weekly writing and feedback, aimed at people who have an idea and want a working framework for the whole book. The earlier autumn section starting 16 September is discounted to GBP 382.50 if you can begin sooner.

Six-week evening course at City Academy's Farringdon studios, Tuesdays 6.30-9pm from 27 October, taught by Conor Patrick Carroll, GBP 375. It is a workshop format rather than a lecture: you write across several forms, share work with the group and get structured feedback each week, leaving with a folder of finished pieces. City Academy runs this roughly monthly, so if 27 October does not suit, a 30 November start is also open.

Ninety-minute Friday-morning workshop with novelist Ramona Ausubel, $60 ($51 for members), run by The Porch in partnership with the Southern Festival of Books. It is held off-site in the Smart Classroom at the Tennessee State Museum on Rosa L. Parks Blvd rather than at The Porch House. The subject is the stalled project - self-doubt, the manuscript you have started to resent - and practical ways to get moving again.

Four-week in-person evening workshop at The Porch House in Nashville with Cara Lynn Albert, whose debut book Worshipping the Sun is due in 2027, $255 ($217 for members). The class reads widely in monster literature, then has you build an original monster-centred piece - story, poem or essay, your choice of form - which is workshopped in the final session. Homework is required and the workshopping is intensive.

Six-week in-person short fiction workshop at The Porch House in Nashville with Erin Cecilia Thomas, $365 ($311 for members). This is a true workshop rather than a lecture course: you submit your own work in progress for critique and are expected to give considered feedback on everyone else's. Published models under discussion include Joy Williams. Aimed at writers already drafting stories, not at complete beginners.

Four-week in-person evening course at The Porch House in Nashville, taught by novelist Lauren Nossett, author of the thrillers The Resemblance and The Professor. Priced at $255 ($217 for Porch members). The target is volume on the page: you draft roughly ten pages a week so you leave with about thirty pages of a first draft, alongside craft sessions on story catalysts, openings, dialogue and endings. Homework is required and drafts are workshopped intensively, so budget writing time between classes.

Free 90-minute midday freewriting class at the Blue Diamond Library, facilitated by author Marijke McCandless. It is generative rather than critique-based - you write to prompts in the room instead of bringing finished pages, and grammar, punctuation and polish are deliberately set aside so drafts come out fast. Open to absolute beginners and working writers in the same room; no booking and no fee.

Free 90-minute evening workshop in the Paul C. Blau Theatre at Clark County Library, led by novelist and artist Brian Gardner as part of the library district's Writers Workshop series. Gardner works through character backstory, building an alien world that holds up, and designing an antagonist who is genuinely hard to beat, using his own SF novel The Banished as the worked example throughout. First come, first served - no booking is taken and seating may be limited.

Free two-hour in-person workshop at the Centennial Hills Library, taught by award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist Maxwell Alexander Drake. It runs as an ongoing series on the craft of writing a novel readers finish, and Drake teaches the same session twice each month - Sunday afternoon and Monday evening - so you can take whichever slot fits. There is no registration and no waiting list: seating is limited and first come, first served, so arrive early.