9 Best Writing Classes in Sydney

A ten-month in-person course at the Writers Studio's Bronte studio in Sydney, built to get a complete first draft of a novel or screenplay finished by people who work full time. Fee is $4,495 AUD including GST, or $965 registration plus nine monthly payments of $400. You meet one Saturday a month, 10am to 6pm, plus one full weekend intensive, with founders Roland and Kathleen teaching and further tutors supporting between sessions. The structure breaks the draft into weekly tasks rather than leaving you to pace it yourself.

Single-day in-person workshop at the Rozelle campus, 2A Gordon St, on Saturday 19 September, 10am to 4pm, with Elizabeth Gascoigne Rosa. Fee $202 AUD including GST - the cheapest taught creative writing day currently running in Sydney. The focus is the short true story: essay-length non-fiction rather than a book-length project. This is the only session the college has scheduled for this course, so there is no later date to fall back on.

Single-day in-person workshop at Sydney Community College's Rozelle campus, 2A Gordon St, on Friday 6 November, 9am to 3pm. Fee $263 AUD including GST. Taught by Gabiann Marin, a script and story-writing consultant and lecturer with a professional writing degree and honours in film and television production. Six hours in one sitting, so you get a whole day on your own life material rather than a weekly commitment. Places were available at the time of listing, and the college gives 15 per cent off if you book two or more writing courses together.

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.