749 Best Writing Classes in 2026

One-day in-person workshop on Saturday 7 November, 10am to 4pm, with Tim Ferguson. Runs at Writing NSW's home in Callan Park, Balmain Rd, Lilyfield. $225 AUD non-members, $170 AUD members, $145 AUD concession. This is comedy as writing craft, not performance: weaving humour into fiction and drama, comic characterisation, plot, and the mechanics of why a joke works on the page. Bring pen and paper or a charged device - there is writing throughout the day.

One-day in-person workshop on Saturday 31 October, 10am to 4pm, with Hayley Scrivenor, author of the bestselling crime novel Dirt Town. Runs at Writing NSW's home in Callan Park, Balmain Rd, Lilyfield. $225 AUD non-members, $170 AUD members, $145 AUD concession. A full day on the two decisions that shape everything else in a draft - who tells the story and how they sound - worked through practically rather than discussed in the abstract.

One-day in-person workshop on Saturday 24 October, 10am to 4pm, with Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project and its sequels. Runs at Writing NSW's home in Callan Park, Balmain Rd, Lilyfield. $225 AUD non-members, $170 AUD members, $145 AUD concession. Simsion teaches novel writing as a structured, repeatable process drawn from creativity and design theory rather than as inspiration - story structure and project management for a book-length work. Note it runs the same day as the poetry workshop, so you cannot take both.

One-day in-person poetry workshop on Saturday 24 October, 10am to 4pm, with Rico Craig. Runs at Writing NSW's home in Callan Park, Balmain Rd, Lilyfield. $225 AUD non-members, $170 AUD members, $145 AUD concession. The premise is writing the ordinary at the intensity of myth: techniques for finding poetic material in everyday life, alongside an introduction to recent poetry working in that mode. A full day on a single idea rather than a survey course.

One-day in-person character workshop on Saturday 17 October, 10am to 4pm, led by Maame Blue, award-winning author of the novels Bad Love and Kissing the Coconut. Runs at Writing NSW's home in Callan Park, Balmain Rd, Lilyfield. $225 AUD non-members, $170 AUD members, $145 AUD concession. It is aimed specifically at difficult characters and difficult relationships - people who are hard to like and harder to write - rather than at character construction in general.

One-day in-person workshop on Saturday 10 October, 10am to 4pm, with Kavita Bedford, author of Friends & Dark Shapes. Runs at Writing NSW's home in Callan Park, Balmain Rd, Lilyfield. $225 AUD non-members, $170 AUD members, $145 AUD concession. The subject is the seam between memoir and fiction - how to draw on real people and real events while still writing a novel or story rather than a record. Useful if you have autobiographical material you have not worked out how to fictionalise.

Seven-week workshop at the QWF office in Westmount, Montreal, Mondays 5.45-7.45pm from 26 October to 7 December, with playwright Leanna Brodie. The pitch is deliberately broad: dramatic technique taught as craft any writer can use, not only people writing for the stage. The final session on 7 December runs long, 5.45-9.45pm. In-person at the Westmount office by default, with virtual seats by request only. Full for this term with a waitlist; fees reappear when registration reopens.

Eight-week poetry workshop at the QWF office in Westmount, Montreal, Thursdays 5.45-7.45pm from 8 October to 26 November, led by Kelly Norah Drukker. Built around memory, place and sensory detail as generative sources rather than around fixed forms. Capped at 12 participants, in-person by default with two virtual seats available only by prior arrangement with QWF. The autumn intake is full and a waitlist is open; the fee is shown again once places are released.

Eight-week early-evening workshop at the QWF office in Westmount, Montreal, Wednesdays 5.45-7.45pm from 7 October to 2 December, with Leith Gollner - note there is no meeting on 28 October. The focus is narrow and practical: building scenes in factual writing rather than surveying the whole genre. Runs in QWF's default format, in-person at the Westmount office with a small number of virtual seats by prior request. Currently full with a waitlist open; fees are displayed again when registration reopens.

Eight-week evening workshop at the QWF office on Atwater Avenue in Westmount, Montreal, Tuesdays 8-10pm from 6 October, led by Eva Crocker, author of the novels Back in the Land of the Living and All I Ask and the prize-winning collection Barrelling Forward. One element of craft per week - setting, character, dialogue, description, voice, theme, point of view, structure. You submit one full story of 2,500-3,000 words for group critique and must have it ready before the first session. Capped at 12; registrations default to in-person seats, with two virtual places available only on request. This autumn's intake is full and QWF is running a waitlist - fees are shown once places reopen.

Thirty-hour evening course on Dawson College's downtown Montreal campus, Tuesdays 6-9pm from 6 October to 8 December. Fee $250 CAD plus tax - by some distance the cheapest structured creative writing course in the city. No prerequisite, class capped at 20, and the teacher is listed as TBA. It moves across short fiction and poetry with peer critique as the core method: every participant must submit at least one story or two to three poems for the group to workshop. Registration closes 1 October.

Two full Saturdays at the QWF office in Westmount, Montreal, 14 and 21 November, 10.30am to 4.30pm, led by Afreina Noor, ending in a live in-person showcase. Fee $240 CAD for non-members, $210 CAD for QWF members, $120 CAD students. You leave with one true personal story of seven minutes or less, built through guided writing, editing, peer feedback and performance coaching - aimed at people who want to tell at events like The Moth or Confabulation. Capped at 12; the showcase itself is in-person only.