Are you someone who craves upskilling? Has Covid Quarantine (or what’s really left of it) inspiring you to make changes in your career? Or better yet, you’re getting sick and tired of bing-watching “The Crown”?

Then I highly recommend you turn to online learning. Nerds, students, and job-changers can benefit from learning at their own pace, save hard-earned cash from commuting and bite into mini courses before committing to any expensive or arduous programs.

Although some online learning is free, there are other courses that request a small amount of money. E-learning platforms such as Skillshare, which boasts around 27,000 online courses, requests $32.00 a month or $168.00 annually. A Skillshare membership entitles you to expert-led online courses in business, technology, design, and writing.

As a creative writer, I recommend Skillshare to develop or even brush up on your writing skills. I recently joined and discovered a couple courses that expanded my brain on developing ideas, mapping out stories, and harnessing a better depth in my writing prowess.

Are you interested in sharpening your creative writing skills? In fact, are you new to writing? Do you want to write riveting blog posts, short stories, or essays? Well, check out the Skillshare courses below.

Here are the 5 Skillshare courses I recommend for Creative Writers

1.) Creative Writing: Crafting Personal Essays with Impact. Have you ever written a story, article, or an assigment but it lacked—oomph?

Best selling New YorkTimes Roxane Gray teaches this one hour masterclass that was developed for anyone trying to find their voice in a story. Students in this course will learn how to find a specific purpose, connect one’s work to a larger conversation, use research constructively to support your work, explore personal memories, write and revise your final work and,most importantly submit your work for publication. In addition, with 176 + projects, and a downloadable worksheet to support your creative nonfiction work, your personal essays will have staying power.

2.) 5 Techniques to Generate Creative Writing Ideas. Need an idea on what to write? Check out Alison Stein’s class that will teach you 5 unique self-reflection, brainstorming, and ideation techniques. In this 54 minute course, you will be able to mine your personal life to develop a fascinating tale.

Writers of all experience levels are welcomed! Bloggers, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, and even song writers can uses these techniques on the job.

3.) Fundamentals of Creative Writing: A Project Based Course to Strengthen Your Writing Skills. What I really enjoy about this course, taught by the ever so popular Preeti Shenoy, best selling novelist, is learning new ways to brainstorm ideas and being able to use “THE ESSENTIALS” in crafting a great story. Don’t be fooled into thinking this 17 lesson, 55 minute course is short.

There are 45 projects included in this lesson to inculcate in your head where to get ideas, how to use POV, how to employ material, adding a coherent plot, and sprinkling in essential dialogue to further strengthen your writing skills as a creative writer. At the end of this course, students are able to write with more clarity and depth.

4.) Editing and Proofreading Masterclass| Dominate Writing, Punctuation & Grammar. How can anyone write effectively, let alone creatively, without mastering the basics? This 3 hour and 49 minute course encompasses 64 lessons, with an enriching project.

Nitay, a well versed proofreader and translator, brings proofreading and editing to a whole new level by ensuring students learn how to: use keyboard shortcuts, how to edit all sorts of articles, track changes in MS Word, and by enhancing Publishing, Creative Writing, and Copyediting skills.

5.) Real Productivity: How to Build Habits That Last. Gaining skills to write a masterpiece is one thing, but not harnessing your innate drive to write is another. Thomas Frank, acclaimed Youtuber, Entrepreneuer, and Author teaches this comprehensive class that helps you develop sustainable habits to be a doer not just a talker. Frank developed real-world steps so you can keep yourself on track.

In this class, you will learn: how to set realistic goals, teach you how to reach them, how to handle failure and not give up, develop your own habit tracking system, and learn to take ownership of your own habit formation.

In just I hour and 2 minutes, you will be able to digest 10 semi-short classes. If that’s not enough, with a premium membership you can participate in 54 projects until you ‘build habits that last’.

Have you checked out Skillshare? What are your thoughts on this e-learning platform? Do you recommend other Creative Writing courses? Comment below!