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The Best Online Creative Writing Courses: 12 Things to Look For

Sean Glatch  |  April 11, 2024  |  Leave a Comment

Are you looking for the best online creative writing courses? You may have found some promising classes online, but you may also be unsure if the course is actually good. How can you know you’ll benefit from the course without spending your money first?

The good news is, there are creative writing courses out there for everyone, and they’re sure to improve your writing. Even better news, the best online creative writing courses share many of the same qualities.

If you want to learn how to write creatively, or if you simply want to improve your everyday writing, the best online creative writing courses can transform your writing abilities. Let’s explore what you might learn in creative writing classes, and how they help writers of all skill levels.

The Best Online Creative Writing Courses: Contents

What do you do in a creative writing class?

• Reputable Instructor
• Clear Course Description
• Promise of a Great Experience
• Constructive Feedback
• Focus on Craft
• Respect Your Creative Autonomy
• A Writing Community
• Motivate You to Write
• Jumpstart a Writing Habit
• Broaden Your Literary Horizons
• Offer a Healthy Creative Outlet
• Give You Next Steps

How to Make the Most of Online Creative Writing Courses

Every online creative writing class is unique, and different courses emphasize different things. We have classes that are entirely generative, meaning the focus is on writing new poems, essays, stories, or making headway into a novel or memoir project. Other courses might have more of a workshop component, in which you share your work with the class and receive feedback on how to improve your writing.

Some online writing courses also focus on specific skills or types of writing. You might take a class focused entirely on learning the tools for revision, or on learning the elements of fiction writing so you can later employ them in a story or novel.

In short, the best online writing courses typically include the following:

• Lectures and discussions on a topic of creative writing craft.
• Assignments that help you generate new work or revise old work.
• Opportunities to give and receive feedback with your fellow classmates.
• Feedback on your work from the instructor, who themselves is a successfully published author of the type of writing you’re producing.
• A weekly video call. Some courses, including ours, are entirely text-based and asynchronous, but many classes meet at least once a week on Zoom.

In addition to all of this, you will make new friends and connections in the best online creative writing classes. Writing is often a lonely experience for writers, and the bonds you make in creative writing workshops can last a lifetime.

12 Things to Look For In the Best Online Creative Writing Courses

The best online creative writing courses will sharpen your writing skills, help you find your confidence, and introduce you to new communities of writers. How do they do it? Here’s 12 things to look for to make sure you’re spending your money on the right online writing class. 

1. The Best Online Creative Writing Courses Have a Reputable Instructor

Your course is only as good as the instructor who teaches it. For online writing classes to teach you the craft, they need to have reputable, trustworthy instructors. A great instructor will also be empathetic, community-oriented, adaptive to your writing needs, and a great writer themselves.

A great instructor will also be empathetic, community-oriented, adaptive to your writing needs, and a great writer themselves.

Do some research on the course instructor: they should have a terminal degree in their field (M.A., M.F.A., Ph.D., etc.), as well as a significant publication history. A reputable instructor will make all the difference in your course: as part of their education, the instructor should have undergone dozens of writing workshops, submitted to countless literary journals, and had their work scrutinized by critics and book lovers alike.

In order for an instructor to help you develop your creative writing skills, they need to be successful on their own. The best instructors are what make the best online creative writing courses.

2. The Best Online Creative Writing Classes Have a Clear Course Description

What does the course teach you, and what will you learn week by week? In addition to listing a reputable instructor, the course description should tell you exactly what you’ll gain from taking the course.

In addition to listing a reputable instructor, the course description should tell you exactly what you’ll gain from taking the course.

Be sure you know exactly what you’re getting out of your online creative writing course, including what you might learn and write in the process. Consider what will help you the most as you embark on your writing journey: entering a course with certain goals or learning objectives will help you make the most of the course’s lectures and writing assignments.

There should be no ambiguity: if you’re paying for the course, you deserve to know exactly what you’re paying for. And, if you have questions, ask the program administrator before you enroll. They should be happy to hear from you!

3. The Best Online Creative Writing Classes Promise a Great Experience

The best online creative writing courses prioritize one thing: YOU! Your learning, your goals, and your writing should be at the center of your experience. And, your course should guarantee that experience.

The best online creative writing courses prioritize your learning, your goals, and your writing.

Creative writing classes can be a risk, since they probably won’t confer university credit and you probably haven’t interacted with that instructor before. You want to be confident that your learning is guaranteed, otherwise you’ll only waste your time, money, and creativity.

Before you enroll in an online writing course, look to see if the program administrators have a student promise . Your experience in the course should be the number one priority of the instructor and administrators; otherwise, you’re better off looking elsewhere for the best online creative writing courses.

4. The Best Online Creative Writing Courses Offer Constructive Feedback

In addition to useful lectures and assignments, creative writing courses give you access to helpful, instructional feedback. Most instructors hold Masters or Doctoral degrees in English or creative writing and, as a result, they have ample knowledge of what works in literature, as well as tons of experience in giving feedback.

Creative writing courses give you access to helpful, instructional feedback.

In the best online creative writing classes, an instructor will both inspire you to write and guide you towards being a better writer. Their feedback will cover the many aspects of great writing. For example, your instructor might comment on:

• Unclear language
• Ideas that need to be expanded
• Sentences that are too wordy or passive
• Opportunities to use more engaging vocabulary
• Places to improve writing structure
• Grammar and spelling corrections

Finally, an instructor will tell you what you are already doing well in your writing. When you write a really great metaphor , use interesting word choice, or find a moment of great insight, your instructor will tell you—highlighting the creative writing skills you have already mastered.

5. The Best Online Creative Writing Courses Focus on Craft

You might be wondering how creative writing classes are different from high school English. The big difference is that, where a typical English class focuses on basic grammar and literacy skills, creative writing classes focus specifically on craft.

Creative writing classes focus specifically on craft: the elements of language and storytelling that make a work of prose or poetry successful.

What is creative writing craft? Craft involves the elements of language and storytelling that make a work of prose or poetry successful. Focusing on craft is how creative writing classes primarily improve your writing.

Your writing class might focus on the structure of a short story, the different types of literary devices , the importance of effective word choice , or the elements of storytelling . A writing class should break down successful works of literature into the components that make it work, giving you the tools to practice your own creative writing skills.

Additionally, craft-focused writing helps you with everyday writing. From improving your vocabulary to structuring an email, the creative writing practice translates to improved writing in every aspect of your life.

6. The Best Online Creative Writing Classes Respect Your Creative Autonomy

One of the benefits of creative writing classes is the perspective you get from different writers. No two writers are working on the same projects, and in your course, you’re likely to work with students of different genres and writing styles.

your creative authority should be respected no matter how new you are to creative writing.

With so many different writing philosophies in one class, the new ideas you encounter can help strengthen your own writing. But in the worst-case scenario, a student or instructor might try to force their writing philosophy onto you. This is always unfair, as there is no one-size-fits-all writing advice, your creative authority should be respected no matter how new you are to creative writing .

For example, let’s say you’re writing a poem about your childhood cat, and the instructor thinks it should be a poem about your experiences growing up. No matter how many times you explain you want this poem to be about your cat, the instructor keeps telling you to write more about your childhood. By ignoring your goals for the poem, the instructor is not respecting your creative autonomy, because they think they know your writing needs better than you do.

No matter where you are in your writing journey, you are a writer, and you deserve respect and compassion as such. Every writer is on a constant journey of growth and discovery; your instructor and course should acknowledge and respect that. In your course, you will encounter many different ideas, but you should also encounter the freedom to accept or reject those ideas. It’s your writing: you get the final say!

7. The Best Online Creative Writing Courses Foster a Writing Community

A creative writing course fosters a creative writing community . This community gives you the motivation to create, as it creates a safe environment to experiment, take risks, and grow in your writing practice.

A writing community gives you the motivation to create, as it creates a safe environment to experiment, take risks, and grow in your writing practice.

For even the most solitary of writers, writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Participating in a community of word enthusiasts can jog your creativity and give you useful feedback on your work. Additionally, the feedback you provide other writers in the community also helps you learn. It’s a self-fulfilling, self-sustaining process, where members of a writing group can continuously grow, improve, and fine-tune their love of the craft.

In fact, well-known authors throughout history have been a part of valuable writing communities, such as The Beat Poets, Stratford-on-Odeon, and other famous writing groups .

When you enroll in creative writing classes, you also take part in a writing community. Foster relationships, make new writing friends, and forge your own writing group—it may one day be famous, too!

8. The Best Online Creative Writing Classes Motivate You to Write

Writing is a skill that you can only develop through practice. For anyone just starting on our writing journeys, the best online creative writing classes keep you motivated and accountable.

The best online creative writing classes keep you motivated and accountable.

Every instructor works differently, but you can expect the following in a creative writing class:

• Creative writing prompts
• Daily journaling assignments
• Helpful revisions
• Inspirational readings
• Ideas to combat writer’s block
• Different opinions on how to write creatively

Some courses are even designed to motivate you, such as our course Write Your Novel! The Workshop With Jack . Sometimes, the biggest struggle is simply to begin, and creative writing courses help you do that.

9. The Best Online Creative Writing Classes Jumpstart a Writing Habit

The best online creative writing courses will get you into a writing habit. By combining lectures with thought-provoking assignments, one of the primary goals of a writing course is simply to get you writing.

You’ll gain the most from your creative writing courses if you block out the time to write every day.

To make the most of your creative writing classes, try to find time to write every day. It’s best to write at the same time every day, but if your schedule doesn’t allow this, sneak time where you can.

Here are some ways you can steal time as a writer:

• Journal for 15 minutes before you go to bed.
• Write while you wake up with your morning breakfast or coffee.
• Keep a journal on your phone during work and lunch breaks.
• Write on your commute to and from work. If you’re driving, consider keeping an audio journal, where you write by speaking into your phone’s recording device.
• Write on your phone while running on the treadmill.
• Put pen to paper while taking a bath.

These ideas won’t work for everyone, and it all depends on your schedule and lifestyle. Nonetheless, you’ll gain the most from your creative writing courses if you block out the time to write every day, no matter how brief that time is. And, your course should help you find the time to write!

10. The Best Online Creative Writing Courses Broaden Your Literary Horizons

You need to read great writing to produce great writing. The best online creative writing courses will introduce you to great literature, giving you additional opportunities to explore the writing craft.

The best online creative writing courses will introduce you to great literature, giving you additional opportunities to explore the writing craft.

In creative writing classes, you might read both classic and contemporary literature. As writers, it’s good to have knowledge of both worlds. Classic literature introduces you to the bedrock of modern writing, including the devices and rhetorical strategies that make for effective poetry and prose.

Contemporary literature, on the other hand, gives you a glimpse into today’s literary zeitgeist. It’s important to understand today’s publishing landscape and the type of work that’s being published, even if you don’t intend to write like contemporary authors.

In fact, it’s better if you don’t try to write like anyone else! Reading other writers shows you what works in literature and what doesn’t, giving you opportunities to experiment with form and style. But, at the end of the day, your writing is for you, not for publishers or particular writing schools.

Use your creative writing classes as opportunities to explore literature, experiment with words, and discover what you’d like to write yourself.

11. The Best Online Creative Writing Classes Offer a Healthy Creative Outlet

Creative writing classes offer a healthy outlet for your creativity and emotions.

A healthy writing space can supplement your emotional health and wellbeing.

How is that so? With a space to put thoughts to paper, many writers inevitably reach breakthroughs about their own feelings and experiences. This is true regardless of whether you write poetry, fiction, plays, articles, or creative nonfiction.

Now, even the best online creative writing courses can’t replace the benefits of therapy. But, a healthy writing space can certainly supplement your emotional health and wellbeing. Between the prompts, community, and writing habits that a creative writing class fosters, you’re sure to come away from your course with renewed emotional health.

12. The Best Online Creative Writing Courses Give You Next Steps

Your education doesn’t end at the end of your course. If anything, the best online creative writing courses are only the beginning of your writing journey!

The best online creative writing courses are only the beginning of your writing journey!

The best online creative writing courses give you opportunities for continuous growth. Those opportunities can take many forms, such as: a list of literary journals to submit to, further readings on a topic of interest, future creative writing classes, or even simply the instructor’s email.

If you’re ready to move on to the next level of your career, your instructor should provide you with next steps. And if you crave more learning, ask the instructor!

A creative writing course is much like life: the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Being an active participant will teach you as much about creative writing as the instructor will, because engaging with language is how you grow as a writer. Actively working with suggestions and ideas, keeping a daily writing practice, and offering other students constructive feedback will all boost your creative writing skills.

A creative writing course is much like life: the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.

Additionally, do your research before you enroll in the course, or you might end up taking a class that isn’t suited to your needs. Look up the instructor for the course, their teaching style and previous publications, and how much experience they have as a writing coach. If they don’t seem well suited towards your learning style, they might develop your creative writing skills, and they won’t be worth the cost.

Find the Best Online Creative Writing Courses at Writers.com!

Are you looking for a writing community? Are you ready to get writing? Check out some of the upcoming courses at Writers.com , the oldest creative writing school on the internet.

Sean Glatch

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Creative Writing Degrees  Degrees Also known as an undergraduate or bachelors degree. Internationally respected, universally understood. An essential requirement for many high-level jobs. Gain a thorough understanding of your subject – and the tools to investigate, think critically, form reasoned arguments, solve problems and communicate effectively in new contexts. Progress to higher level study, such as a postgraduate diploma or masters degree.

• Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
• One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
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Creative Writing Diplomas  Diplomas Widely recognised qualification. Equivalent to the first two thirds of an honours degree. Enhance your professional and technical skills or extend your knowledge and understanding of a subject. Study for interest or career development. Top up to a full honours degree in just two years.

Creative writing certificates  certificates widely recognised qualification. equivalent to the first third of an honours degree. study for interest or career development. shows that you can study successfully at university level. count it towards further qualifications such as a diphe or honours degree., why study creative writing with the open university.

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• Creative Writing

New 11+ Online Creative Writing Course

Last updated: september 2, 2023.

We are delighted to introduce our new 24-week 11+  Online Creative Writing Course  for year 4 and year 5, which starts in October 2023 and finishes in June 2024. This course is exclusively taught by creative writing experts and is focused on getting your child top marks in 11+ creative writing tasks for selective grammar and independent schools. Spaces are filling fast, and we have limited capacity; book soon to avoid disappointment.

Who is it for?

The Creative Writing Course is aimed at students going into year 4 and year 5 who are targeting grammar and independent schools that include a creative writing task as part of their 11+ entrance exams. Such schools include Tiffin and Tiffin Girls’ School, the Sutton grammar schools, The Henrietta Barnett School, and independent schools that use a writing task as part of their exams (please see further down this email for a full list of schools).

Why is creative writing important?

Creative writing is a significant component of most second-stage grammar and independent school 11+ exams. Schools use creative writing exercises to test a student’s ability to write engagingly whilst also using accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar. These exercises give students the opportunity to stand out by demonstrating their originality and imagination. The results of the creative writing task can often determine whether or not a child gets into a selective grammar/independent school. The purpose of this course is to maximise your child’s scores in writing components of 11+ exams to give them the best chance possible of securing a place at their school of choice.

How do we teach?

We deliver our creative writing teaching via an interactive 24-week course that involves regular marking and feedback, so both you and your child know exactly how your child is progressing against the required standard of the creative writing exam for your targeted school(s). The course content covers both fiction and non-fiction writing. Each session lasts 90 minutes, and we restrict classes to a maximum of 24 students per class.   The cost of the course is  £59 per session , paid termly at  £475 per term  (includes homework marking and weekly classwork PDFs). The course can alternatively be prepaid in full at a special rate of  £1299 for all three terms . For more information or to register, please click the button below to go to our website:

Schools this course is relevant for

If your child is aiming for a place at one of the grammar or independent schools listed below, this course will be highly beneficial. Please get in contact if the specific school you are aiming for is not included in the list.

Independent schools:

• City of London School for Girls
• Dulwich College
• Haberdashers’ Girls’ School
• Hampton School
• James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS)
• Kingston Grammar School
• King’s College School (KCS Wimbledon)
• Lady Eleanor Holles School
• Merchant Taylors’ School
• North London Collegiate School (NLCS)
• St George’s Weybridge
• St Paul’s Girls’ School
• St Paul’s School
• Surbiton High School
• Trinity School
• Westminster School
• Whitgift School
• Wimbledon High School

Grammar schools:

• Dame Alice Owen’s School
• The Henrietta Barnett School (HBS)
• Kent grammar schools
• Medway grammar schools
• Nonsuch High School for Girls
• Reading School
• St Anselm’s College (Birkenhead)
• St Olave’s School (Bromley)
• Sutton Grammar School
• The Latymer School
• Tiffin Girls’ School
• Tiffin School
• Wallington County Grammar School
• Wallington High School for Girls
• Wilson’s Grammar School

If you have any questions, please contact us ; we will be happy to answer all your queries.

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Creative Writing 11

English 11: Creative Writing

This course has been designed to meet the requirements of the new English Language Arts 10-12 curriculum as outlined by the Ministry of Education.  It is a 4 credit course that provides students with an English 11 credit.

View the complete Learning Standards for this course: English 11: Creative Writing

It is recommended that students take English 10 prior to enrolling in this course.

Course Description

Creative Writing 11 is a course designed for the student who loves to write creatively, and wants to improve their creative writing skills. Several different types of creative writing will be explored in this course including creative non-fiction, poetry, memoir, advice column Flash fiction and oral traditions. Explorations and learning happen through videos, readings, examples, and instructor feedback. Students show their learning through writing, portfolios, presentations, projects, discussions and quizzes and tests.

Course Structure

The course is divided into three modules:

Module 1 – Creative Non-fiction

• Lesson 1: Review of the Writing Process
• Lesson 2: Form
• Lesson 3: Voice
• Lesson 4: Style
• Module 1 Project

Module 2 – Memoir and Identity

• Lesson 1: Narrative
• Lesson 2: Reading and Responding
• Lesson 2: Description in Writing
• Lesson 4: Memoir
• Module 2 Project

Module 3 – Stories and Poetry

• Lesson 1: Genre
• Lesson 2: Conventions of a Story
• Lesson 3: Poetry and Language
• Lesson 4: Oral Traditions
• Lesson 5: Weaving Your Story

Grade Structure

Required Resources: a computer with internet access and speakers or headphones.

BC Perfomance Standards

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1 Day 11+ Creative Writing Course (ONLINE)

This course is designed to maximise your child’s marks in the creative writing section of the 11 Plus entrance examination in just one day!

Child’s Name

• What is it?
• Who is it for?
• When and where?
• Why Choose us?
• Testimonials

What is the 1 Day Creative Writing Crash Course?

This crash course guides your child through the 11 Plus creative writing mark scheme, providing them with the knowledge and tools necessary for top marks in their entrance examinations. Children will learn to produce an exemplar short story which is tailored to the standards of their prospective schools. Over the course of just one day, we aim to increase your child’s grade in creative writing by a minimum of 15%.

The course has been assembled by our expert instructors who possess over 20 years experience teaching 11 plus students and have helped hundreds of students gain admittance to the top private and grammar schools in/around London. The lessons are fun and engaging whilst being academically rigorous to ensure maximum absorption of the course materials.

How is the 1 Day Creative Writing Crash Course structured?

The day begins with a short writing mock test, which will be marked in accordance with the mark schemes of their prospective schools. These test scores, as well as in-depth feedback of their work, will be sent to parents so you can gain a better understanding of your child’s current standings.

Your child will then work through five lessons which outline the key elements of the 11 plus writing exam – allowing your child to build the skills needed to maximise their grades:

• Structure and Paragraphing
• Vocabulary and Figurative Language
• Sentence Variation
• Setting, Characters and Sensory Description
• Showing Not Telling

After mastering these aspects of the exam, our course instructors will work with the students, on both an individual and class level,  to produce a piece of writing to the best of their ability to test their new knowledge and gauge their progress over the course of the day.

A full write-up on how your child performed throughout the day, as well as their before and after pieces and a report of their strengths/weaknesses will be emailed to parents after the course has taken place.

Who is the course for?

This course is recommended for students preparing for the 11+ entrance exams provided by the top independent schools in London.

We have personally helped students gain acceptance into schools such as:

• St. Paul’s School
• Notting Hill and Ealing
• North London Consortium
• Dulwich College
• Westminster
• City of London School
• King’s College School
• St. Swithun’s
• Wilson’s School
• Wallington Grammar School
• Tiffin School
• and much more…

Our success in 9+, 10+ and 11+ preparation over the past few years can be found below:

2022: 9+, 10+ and 11+ success

2021: 11+ success

2020: 9+. 10+ and 11+ success

2019: 9+, 10+ and 11+ success

2018: 9+, 10+ and 11+ success

Where and when are our classes held?

WHERE: ONLINE

WHEN:  We have several courses throughout the year available to children.

Sunday 22nd May 2022

Sunday 26th June 2022

Saturday 30th July 2022

Thursday 18th August 2022

Sunday 25th September 2022

Saturday 15th October 2022

Saturday 19th November 2022

Each day consists of 5 hours between 10am-3.30pm.

We run several courses throughout the year. Our  Easter holidays , May half term  and October half term courses are one week long and are perfect for intensive revision. Each week long course does differ and is focused on a different set of skill sets that will greatly benefit your child in exams and in later life. We recommend your child repeat our 11+ courses at different dates in order to cover everything necessary for the 11+ exams.

Whilst over the  Summer holidays , our courses are split by topic to deliver thorough instruction on dedicated topics in Maths ( measurements ,  geometry ,  algebra ,  numbers ,  fractions/decimals/percentages,    statistics  and  word problems ), English ( creative writing  and  comprehension ) and reasoning ( non verbal  and  verbal ).

11 Plus London has helped over 800 children in the past 12 years; you can be assured your child will receive:

– tried and tested classes and courses  proven  to improve children’s chances of success

– excellent teaching with small group sizes – ensuring maximal attention for each child

– experienced DBS tutors who are able to help your child identify their weaknesses, play on their strengths and make notable improvements

– honest, personalised feedback throughout the process to assist you in your entrance exam journey.

Jane and Andrew are very responsible and extremely helpful. Their tutoring is very effective and personalized. We sincerely appreciate their help. My son got offers from top London schools including CLS. Highly recommended!

Really grateful to the team. My youngest attended courses for 11 plus prep and then we took up their online tuition to finish up with her and my son doing GCSEs next summer. I wasn’t too keen on online to begin with but it certainly does the trick. We have got places for our top three choices and feel very confident about the pending GCSE results. Very happy, highly recommended.

STEVEN GAYLE

We are very happy with Jane and Andrew who are both professional and enthusiastic. My DS has passed all paper exams and were invited for interviews by all applied schools including SPB and CLS.

“The team are fantastic at 11 plus London, they are friendly and approachable and are very quick to ascertain the areas of your child’s knowledge base that need boosting. The programme they create is well organised and helped our son improve in all areas. We will be going back to 11 plus London for our son’s brother.”

MATTHEW MITCHELL

“Really good support for preparing for exams. They really helped my daughter prepare and boosted her confidence at just the right time.”

DEBORAH BROOKS

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11 Plus Courses The Creative Writing Course

Customer Comments

"Coming from a different culture as parents we really didn't know how to help our son with their story writing. We had previously used some books but they hadn't really helped. With the Learning Street course we suddenly saw what we needed to do. The course helped our son take the steps he needed to get better and broke down the skills he needed. He certainly was writing better stories by the end of this course." Beatrice- Kent

"There's a small element of writing in the Essex test and as we had the time we embarked on this course during the summer before the exam. Our daughter likes writing and was quite good at it, but by the end she herself said she thought she was much better. She said that the element that was most useful for her was the development and revision of the descriptions banks. She felt that given ten minutes she could write a good description of just about anything." Richard- Essex

6-12+ Weeks

10-12 Years

This course is designed to help children develop their creative writing skills. Creative writing is an important part of all Independent School exams and some 11 Plus Grammar School exams such as those in Kent and some schools in Essex. Our course is a solution which has proved to be very popular.   See the preview for a good idea of what’s included.

What our creative writing course delivers

Most families don’t know how to help their children in this area. Just writing story after story won’t help much, children need real guidance.  This course covers the ground fully and helps children to develop the skills necessary to attain the highest marks.

The course helps children understand:

• What elements of their work attracts the most marks (it isn’t the plot!).
• What exercises to do to develop their core skills so that they don’t drop marks needlessly.
• That simple stories with excellent descriptions, vocabulary and literary techniques is where their focus should be- we show them how to do this, step by step.
• We show them how to develop a descriptions bank so the bulk of their creativity is done before they enter the exam room.
• We help them plan stories and then write them.
• We encourage them to improve their stories through self-criticism and re-drafting.

The course covers the ground better than any book could hope to and has proven to be very effective in helping children improve.  Many children find their stories have gone through a very major step-change for the better having completed the course.

When should children do the course?

• If children are preparing for a Grammar School 11 Plus entry test, then starting at any point from Easter onwards and slotting it into the other work you are doing is what most people do.
• If children are preparing for an Independent School Exam then they normally start in the summer of year 5 or once school goes back in September. This gives enough time to complete the work before exams in January.
• If children are doing a SATs KS2 Test then we’d suggest it could be done at any time from the summer at the end of year 5 onwards.
• The course is probably too advanced for children in year 4 unless they are very bright.
• Children who use this course fully will see a significant improvement in their creative writing ability.

Course length

• The course has 12 parts. Each part should take a week but can be done more intensively if necessary.
• It could be completed in four weeks if work is very intensive but children must do the revision work we suggest to benefit fully from it.
• We would suggest that to get best value from the course that it is done in 12 or more weeks (it is often the case that children will be working on other exam elements as well as creative writing so we have taken this into account when developing the course).

How is the course delivered?

• Once purchased you will be able to download and print the first part of the course directly from the site.
• You will receive an email a week later letting you know that the second part of the course is available to download from the Learning Street website.
• Your next part of the course can be released more quickly to enable pupils to cover the ground in a shorter time than twelve weeks if necessary.
• We deliver all our courses to be printed out and completed on paper, they are not designed to be used on an electronic device of any sort. We do this because children learn best when using a paper and pen.
• Each part of the course includes its own bespoke answers section for every question.

People who bought this also bought:

• Maths Stretch and Revision (6-12+ weeks) :  This course is fully planned, children are taken logically through a structured course designed to improve their performance in the most challenging forms of 11 Plus and Independent School Maths tests.
• Vocabulary Boost (6-15 weeks) :  This is our shortest vocabulary course. It is very intensive and is fully planned with revision built in to ensure children see words with the frequency that allows learning to happen.

You can preview the course or you can purchase it below. The price below is the only fee that is payable, there are no monthly costs.

Trusted by families across the uk.

"My daughter's preparation for her 11 Plus exam couldn't have gone better. The advice we received about being committed ourselves was exactly right. We set a time to do the work and broadly managed to achieve it. The course was very intensive so we did need to work hard, but it was worth it in the end. Without this course I'm not sure I would have known where to start or what to do when"

- Mrs Hamilton

"We used a Private Tutor to prepare for the 11 Plus, and they recommended that we use the full 40 part vocabulary course as part of the process rather than vocabulary books. We really can't see how it's possible to boost a child's vocabulary without this sort of work, it had everything- real learning activities, tests, revision, pieces of texts from classic books and even vocabulary puzzles which stretched our son no end."

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Ashleigh F. Streiff B. 2000, Maryland, USA.

“Juried Undergraduate Exhibition,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID At Invitation, University of Idaho’s President’s House, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID “In Medias Res,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID

At Invitation, “Painting Show,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID “VAC is Back!”, Reflections Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID “Pens, Pencils & Paint,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID At Invitation, University of Idaho’s President’s House, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. 2023-2024 “Palouse Plein Air,” Moscow City Council, Moscow, ID. (Winner: City Purchase Award) “Mirage,” Reflections Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. At Invitation, “Painting Show,” Moscow City Council, Moscow, ID. Fall 2023-Spring 2024

“Figures”, Downtown Arts Center, Honolulu, HI “Palouse Plein Air”, Moscow City Council, Moscow, ID. (Winner: Best Watercolor) At Invitation, “Student Painters,” Moscow City Council, Moscow, ID. At Invitation, “Student Printmakers,” Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. “Clay?!”, Ridenbaugh Gallery, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID.

At Invitation, “Student Show”, Iolan’i Gallery, Windward Community College, Kaneohe, HI.

“Foundations Juried Exhibition”, The Looking Glass Gallery, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.

“Student Show”, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC.

Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Painting and Ceramics, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID. (Forthcoming)

Extracurriculars and Honors

2022 - 2024

President of Visual Arts Community (VAC), University of Idaho President of Vandal Print Guild (VPG), University of Idaho Volunteer Artist, Vandaljacks, University of Idaho Dean’s List, University of Idaho Alumni Award for Excellence, University of Idaho

2019 - 2020

Resident Artist, Cannon Hall, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.

Work Experience / Training

2021 - 2022

Gallery Attendant, Iolan’i Gallery, Windward Community College, Kaneohe, HI.

Studied Under:

Kelly Oakes, Durham, NC. 2019-2020. William Zwick, Honolulu, HI. 2020. Mark Brown, Honolulu, HI, 2020-2022. Daunna Yanoviak, Kailua, HI. 2021- 2022. Mark Norseth, Honolulu, HI. 2021-2023.

“Introduction to Figure Drawing,” Stacey Leanza, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2018. “Printmaking; Mono-prints,” Stacey Leanza, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2018. “Mixed Media,” Stacey Leanza, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2018. “Introduction to Portrait Drawing,” Kelly Oakes, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Painting Portraits in Alla Prima,” Kelly Oakes, Workshop, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Demystifying the Modern Portrait,” Marie Rossettie, Class, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Intuitive Painting,” Heather Gerni, Workshop, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Oil Painting Crash Course,” Vanessa Murray, Workshop, The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC. 2019. “Live Portrait Sessions,” Alla Parsons, Downtown Arts Center, Honolulu, HI. 2023. “Introduction to Watercolor,” Dwayne Adams, Class, Downtown Arts Center, Honolulu, HI. 2023.

Creative Writing:

“Writing the Killer Mystery,” C1121, Central Carolina Community College, 2019. “Flash Fiction Made Easy,” C1058, Central Carolina Community College, 2019. “Charting Your Path To Publication,” C1060, Central Carolina Community College, 2019.

Newspapers and Articles

Long, Maryanne, “Windward Artists Turn Impression Into Expression,” Windward O’ahu Voice, February 9th, 2022.

2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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