An Intro to Creative Writing Course for the Writer Who Hasn't Started Yet
What You Will Learn in This Intro to Creative Writing Course
This intro to creative writing course covers the fundamentals of the craft: voice, image, scene, and structure, through the Imaginative Storm method. Rather than handing you rules to memorize, it shows you how to reach what is already there: the stories, observations, and ideas that are yours alone to tell.
Through self-paced audio or video, you will learn how to put a moment on the page so a reader can feel it. You’ll learn how to find the voice that sounds like you and no one else, and how to turn a raw first attempt into something with shape and intention. Go through each module, and by the end, you will have a body of new writing, tools you can use on your own, and a clearer sense of what kind of writer you are.
Writing here is never only about technique. It is about coming to know yourself on the page, connecting with the people who read your work, making sense of what you have lived, and setting down what you don't want to lose. Those are the real reasons people write, and this self-paced video (or audio) course honors all of them.
The prompts are short, but they are stepping stones. Many writers find that a single ten-minute piece becomes the seed of something longer, the essay or memoir or book they have quietly carried for years. The craft is learnable, and the starting is the hard part this course is built to carry you through.
This Creative Writing Course for Beginners Is for You If . . .
You have always wanted to write but never known where to begin. You have started before, filled half a notebook, and then talked yourself out of it. Even though you don't consider yourself a writer, there's a persistent urge that brings you back to the page. Maybe a story you can't shake. Maybe just the quiet sense that you have something to say. Perhaps you’ve needed the convenience and privacy of an audio or video writing course, but could never find one worth taking.
If any of that sounds familiar, this taped beginner writing class was made for you. You don't need a plan, a genre, or a reason you can explain out loud. You only need the small, stubborn pull that brought you this far. There is no wrong way to arrive. Some come with a specific project in mind. Some carry a family story they don't want to lose, a history only they can set down. Others come with nothing but curiosity and a notebook they have been afraid to open.
The course is online and self-paced so you can visit the video or audio whenever you have the time and attention to spend. Midnight, morning, lunch hour—you decide what fits for you.
Fiction Writing Course Curriculum
We built the curriculum around the working parts of a story: character, voice, scene, structure, and the long arc that holds them together. Each week adds a tool and gives you the chance to use it on your own pages, so the craft is never abstract. Here is what you can look forward to:
You can expect 10 sessions, each about 90 minutes long. Each session includes a short intro, a warmup prompt, two 10-minute prompts with a shorter list-making prompt between them. (We do the timing for you.) Each session ends with a Surf the Storm prompt to do in your own time.
The course also includes access to the Prompt Archive, so you can hear what other course participants wrote to the prompts you’re working with. (We recommend you listen to these after you write your response to the prompt yourself.)
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Learn the principles of the Imaginative Storm method which includes: writing by hand, using a timer, writing what you don’t know.
What you’ll learn:
The benefits of not trying to write well, and why unleashing your imagination is the secret to powerful, original writing.
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Unlock the creative power that’s been waiting inside you
In this first session, you’ll discover the freedom of writing without second-guessing yourself. You’ll learn simple techniques to tap into your inherent creativity and write like you’ve never written before. This session opens the door to creative breakthroughs that will amaze you.
What you’ll learn:
● How to tap into your imagination and write with spontaneity, originality, and creative flow
● How to find your true writing voice and express your experiences, insights, and emotions with authenticity
● How to revive stories you’ve told before by uncovering fresh angles, deeper truths, and untold layers
How to write more powerfully and freely by letting go of perfection and embracing curiosity
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Unleash your raw, uncensored voice
In this high-energy session, you’ll write without rules or judgment. When you silence your inner critic, you’ll find it easier to develop characters, write realistic dialogue, and engage your readers. Your creative writing feels more alive.
What you’ll learn:
● How to transform your writing and produce material you didn’t know was inside you
● How to tell vivid, visceral stories that evoke emotion in the reader.
● How to make a character feel unique and grounded in their own reality by writing truthful dialogue.
● How to silence your inner critic, let the truth come forth, and develop your authentic writing voice.
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Write with sensory power
Great writing doesn’t just describe—it immerses. Get ready to engage all your senses—physical sensations, intuition, memories, and the vibe of a place—to bring experiences to life.
What you’ll learn:
● How to make your readers feel what you feel
● How to make scenes come alive using sensory language
● How to uncover rich details that create an emotional connection
● How to re-enter experiences through the body and the imagination
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Use details of place to deepen emotional connection
In great writing, setting is more than just a backdrop. It holds memory, mood, and meaning. In this session, you’ll learn how to use location as a tool for emotional depth, character development, and narrative movement.
What you’ll learn:
● How to avoid descriptions that read like laundry lists
● How to use sensory and spatial information to build atmosphere, suspense, or reminiscence.
● How to use a place’s textures and echoes to bridge the past, present, and future.
● How to re-inhabit past moments with honesty and depth
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Incorporate nature’s power and symbolism
Nature is more than scenery—it’s the original storyteller. In this session, we will explore ways to integrate the natural world into your writing. The natural world will help you explore your life and your characters’ paths.
What you’ll learn:
● How to use nature and elements to build impactful metaphors
● How to connect personal experience to universal cycles for deeper resonance
● How to transition from granular focus to an expansive perspective to craft a scene or memory
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See beneath the surface of human interaction
Great stories are constructed not only from words but also from subtext, tension, and unspoken elements. This session explores “Socialese,” the secret language of relationships, group dynamics, and social identity. This will teach you to recognize the subtle indicators of human behavior and to effectively translate them into your written work. This is where character, motivation, and emotional complexity take shape.
What you’ll learn:
● How to create life-like, layered, and deeply human characters
● How to use silent behavioral cues and nuances to convey identity, status, and affiliation
● How to infuse everyday moments with meaning by capturing social subtext
● How to allude to your characters’ lives outside the main narrative to make your world feel richly inhabited
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Create characters with depth and complexity
The essence of a gripping story lies in its characters being propelled by things they themselves don’t understand. This session explores how to look beyond surface-level traits and expose the emotional reality behind your characters’ actions and decisions, even when the characters don’t grasp their own inner workings. This is where your characters come to life, animated by their experiences, inconsistencies, and underlying drives.
What you’ll learn:
● How to create multifaceted characters—heroes, villains, or neutral figures.
● How to use voice, gesture, and emotional tone to capture the feeling of being in someone’s presence
● How to make minor characters memorable, even with limited page time
How to create characters different from yourself with empathy, credibility, and subtlety
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Use personal experience to deepen whatever you’re writing
Your own experience is your richest source material. In this session, you will uncover the deeper meanings behind your life experiences. Discover memories, perspectives, and emotional truths that can add authenticity and depth to your work.
What you’ll learn:
● How to identify the emotional arc of your personal narrative
● How to choose the life experiences that support your narrative’s aim
● How to make your readers feel connected to the experience
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Build structure and momentum into your story
Every story needs change. It’s how your narrative gains its shape, purpose, and emotional force. In this session, we’ll cover how to identify your story’s central theme, decide what to include or exclude, and maintain reader interest throughout the narrative. This is where your powerful material takes form.
What you’ll learn:
● The building blocks of strong storytelling in fiction
● How to recognize what comes next, even if you’re not sure where you’re going
● How to build excitement in your narrative by intensifying tension, stakes, or emotion
● How to make your story feel whole and satisfying with a strong beginning and ending
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Use contradiction and paradox to add dimension to your writing
Paradox is what thrills the imagination — and where readers lean in. The most compelling narratives thrive on conflict, balancing opposing forces like light and dark, certainty and doubt, or love and fear. This session teaches you how to use contrasts to build rich characters and settings, and how opposing forces make stories more layered, truthful, and engaging.
What you’ll learn:
● How to spark imaginative energy by embracing paradox and opposing forces
● How to reveal deeper truths accepting ambiguity and complexity
● How to reimagine conflict in fresh, compelling ways
● How to craft narratives that capture life’s nuances and avoid simplistic, predictable plots
● How to let go of uncertainty and start with confidence
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Our goodbye session. We will send you off into your writing future with one final prompt, and the hope that you will become part of our welcoming, supportive community.
Listen Now
Listen to extracts from the book and audio course Write What You Don’t Know
How to a playful approach leads to breakthbroughs.
How to find your authentic voice on the page
How to vanquish your inner critic.
Your most powerful material comes when you surprise yourself.
The secret to writing well is not trying to write well
Be vulnerable, explore the uncomfortable, and develop your confidence.
No Writing Experience Needed
The Imaginative Storm method was built to work for writers at every level, including those who have never written a creative line in their lives. The secret is the timed prompt. You get a few minutes and a starting point, and you write before the part of your brain that judges you can catch up. That small trick quiets the self-consciousness that stops most beginners cold.
You will never be asked to produce perfect writing. You will be asked to produce honest writing, and then shown, gently and clearly, how to shape it into something more. No grading. No pressure. You move through the video or audio course at your own pace and discover you had more to put on the page than you expected.
And your training doesn't have to end when the last clip plays. For many writers this is a doorway: the first step into a continuing community and a wider path of longer workshops, retreats, and the free weekly Writing Circle. You arrive as a beginner and leave with a creative home.
Ready to Get Started?
There are two Ways to Take Our Intro to Writing Course
You can take our 10-session self-paced course in audio or video formats. Both go in-depth into the Imaginative Storm method. It will teach you how to access your imagination and memories and get words down on paper. Then it will go into the craft of effective, memorable poetry writing.
Purchase with confidence. Try the course and if you’re not completely satisfied, we’ll give you a full refund within 30 days of your purchase.
Not sure if this course is for you?
You can purchase just the Welcome Session and Session One video for $39. If you like it, you can then purchase the rest of the sessions for $360.
Meet Your Creative Writing Instructors
Allegra Huston has taught writers at every level, from people writing their first honest paragraph to graduate students at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. An Oxford-educated author and co-founder of the Imaginative Storm method, she has a particular gift for the beginning. She knows how much courage it takes to start, and she meets new writers exactly where they are, with patience, clarity, and the unshakable belief that everyone has material worth finding.
James Navé has spent decades convincing people who swore they weren't writers to sit down and write anyway. He holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts, but what beginners feel first is his warmth. He makes the blank page less intimidating and the first step less lonely, then quietly raises the bar once you trust him. Encouragement and rigor, in that order.
You will not be lectured here. You will be guided by two people who genuinely love watching a new writer begin.
What Past Beginner Students Say
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“BRILLIANT! Your exercises are both common-sensical and revolutionary. I love this course. It's so true and so excellent and kick-ass!"
— Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist and visiting professor, Iowa Writers’ Workshop
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"Like a writer's recipe box! It helps you recognize the ingredients you already have at your fingertips, then its clever exercises help you create a banquet out of your own stories."
— Nicole Perlman, screenwriter, Guardians of the Galaxy
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"I used your exercise in a generative workshop. The writing turned out more original, more surprising, than what they'd been working on previously."
— Lan Samantha Chang, director, Iowa Writers’ Workshop
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"I felt encouraged to try new things. It brought joy back to my writing process."
Jahman Hill, poet, author of the award-winning one-man show Black Ebough, and professor, University of Alabama
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"It unlocked my writing abilities. I always nrecommend it to my students."
Judy Walgren, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and professor of journalism at Foothill College, San Francisco
