The Writers College

What The Writers College is

The Writers College is an online writing school for adults who want to write fiction, journalism, business documents or specialist copy, taught by a personal tutor rather than through videos. Its homepage headline reads "online writing courses since 2005," and its figures are 20+ years training writers, 35 specialist courses, 1:1 tutoring and "Zero" peer reviews. The pitch is direct: "Most online writing courses give you videos and forum posts. We give you a real tutor: a working, award-winning writer who reads every word and responds with personal, editorial-level feedback." Students work at their own pace and submit assignments to that tutor, who returns line-by-line feedback on each one.

The four faculties

The catalog is split into four faculties, with a set of short self-guided intensives alongside.

Creative Writing. Basics of Creative Writing is a four-month course with dozens of exercises covering the skills behind all creative writing, and Advanced Creative Writing builds on it toward polished, mature work. Fiction writers can take Short Story Writing, which includes tips on getting published in print and online journals, then Advanced Short Story Writing, aimed at a collection for a personal anthology. Write a Novel is tutored by award-winning novelists who give feedback on every chapter; Advanced Novel Writing picks up once the first chapters and a proposal exist and is built to get the manuscript to the final word. Write a Romance Novel offers one-to-one mentoring with multi-award winning author Tania Hutley. Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy covers speculative fiction in novels, short stories, scripts and games. Scriptwriting takes a stage play, radio play or movie script from idea to saleable product, and Advanced Scriptwriting supports a complete script for film, stage or a TV series. Writing for Video Games is a ten-module course on dialogue, concept documents and in-game text. There are also two poetry courses (the introduction covers line length, figures of speech, metered verse, tone, imagery and lyrics), two memoir courses, and a two-part children's book course that ends with a chapter book for 7- to 12-year-olds.

Journalism. These courses run under the guidance of a professional, award-winning journalist and teach how to find newsworthy angles, write and edit features, submit stories and invoice correctly. Freelance Journalism for Magazines and Webzines comes with the chance to get published. Writing Articles for Websites and Blogs targets income from web articles and blog content. Travel Writing ends with a publishable travel piece, and Advanced Freelance Journalism offers the chance to write three publishable magazine articles with supervision from well-known journalists. Write a Non-Fiction Book is a ten-module course with ongoing feedback on the manuscript in progress.

Business and Grammar. Pitched at everyone "from CEOs to administrative staff," these courses cover workplace writing from e-mails to business reports. Grammar Skills is for students, entry-level employees and anyone with English as a second language, while Grammar for Writers is for first-language speakers who want to stop repeating old errors. Mastering Punctuation, a seven-module Business Writing Toolkit and Better Writing Skills complete the faculty. Better Writing Skills is the most personalized: the tutor first assesses the student's writing, then the student picks five targeted modules, and it can start anytime.

Specialist Writing. Copy-editing and Proofreading, Copywriting, Press Release and Media Writing (ending with a saleable press release), Writing SEO and GEO Content for Websites, and Write with AI, which the site pitches at writers who want to use AI tools and then surpass them, at any level.

The Writing Intensives are shorter and self-guided: a 14-Day Creative Writing Intensive, a 14-Day Story Building Intensive and a 5-Day Awaken Your Senses Intensive.

How the teaching works

The model is one student, one tutor, no peer review and no group workshops. The homepage says each tutor is "a working, award-winning writer" who reads every word, and the course descriptions repeat the point: personalized feedback on every chapter of a novel, one-to-one training in memoir, specialist supervision on journalism pieces. Several testimonials name the tutor. Jeanna Thomson, on the Advanced Freelance Journalism course, wrote that "Sarah was a thoroughly professional tutor"; Tatiana Goded credits "Helen’s guidance" on Basics of Creative Writing; Angeline Engelbrecht says her tutor Karen took her "from an abject fear of working with WordPress, to totally loving it." Hannelie Lombard, on the Copywriting course, described the attention as "being treated like I was the only student."

Students set their own pace around work and family. The homepage lists extra benefits for enrolled students: free lifetime access to future course updates and to the school's writing resources, a Facebook community with daily writing tips, 500+ bonus articles on the blog, news of writing competitions, and work opportunities, since top students are invited into the college's writers and editors for hire service.

Beyond the courses

The college runs an annual short story competition, open for entries in 2026, and publishes free material: a monthly newsletter, free articles on writing, Writers' Circles and an anthology of writing tips called The Writer's Journey. It also sells writing services: writers and editors for hire, publishing services, and manuscript assessment, critique and editing. Courses can be given through a gift voucher, and the site lists a student loyalty referral program. A contact form on the homepage invites anyone unsure of the right course to describe the writing they want to develop and get options back, and the college also answers by phone and e-mail.

The homepage and course list show no fees; payment terms have their own Payment Options page.

Who it suits

The Writers College suits writers who want an experienced reader on every page they submit: a first-time novelist who needs chapter-by-chapter feedback, a would-be freelance journalist who wants to learn pitching and invoicing as well as writing, a memoirist working toward a finished manuscript, or a professional who needs cleaner business writing. Learners with English as a second language have a grammar course written for them, and the Better Writing Skills course fits someone who knows roughly what is wrong with their prose and wants it fixed.

It is a poorer fit for anyone who learns best in a group, since the college deliberately has no peer reviews or group workshops. Students who want quick video lessons to skim will find the assignment and feedback cycle slower by design, and the short self-guided intensives are the lighter option for them.