This free course, Start writing fiction: characters and stories, helps you to get started with your own fiction writing. It provides a practical, hands-on approach, focusing on the central skill of creating characters.

You will listen to established writers talk about how they started writing and consider the rituals of writing and the importance of keeping a journal. You'll learn how to develop your ideas and the importance of reflecting on writing and editing, and you'll hear other writers talking about their approaches to research and consider ways of turning events into a plot.

This course is intended for those with an interest in starting to write fiction or improving their fiction writing, and does not require any previous experience of studying this subject.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• create characters for your own stories
• understand the importance of keeping a writer's notebook
• reflect on your writing and edit your work appropriately
• generate and develop new ideas in writing your own fiction
• analyse and discuss creative writing.