Udemy
    •  
    •  
    •  
    •  
    •  
    •  
    •  
    •  
Subscribe
Turn what you know into an opportunity and reach millions around the world.
Learn More
Your cart is empty.
Keep shopping
Fiction Writing 101
Rating: 4.4 out of 5(2 ratings)
66 students

Fiction Writing 101

Internal and External Essentials of Novel, Short Story and Screenplay Fiction Writing
Created byMJ Politis
Last updated 3/2025
English

What you'll learn

  • Essential nuts and bolts of engaging and marketable fiction writing.
  • Little known but essential tricks of the trade.
  • How to find the best story to write, and integrate it with what you know, who you are and what you value most.
  • Converting novel to screenplay and vice versa, conveying what you want/need to say to the world in every line.
  • Integrating sound story structure with emotionally engaging comedy, drama and/or satire.

Course content

3 sections • 53 lectures • 4h 13m total length

  • Challenge and Stakes4:09
  • Introduction2:35
  • Finding Your Audience2:39
  • Rules That Let You Write Your Own Rules4:21
  • Of Heroes and Villains6:09
  • Loglines, Summaries, Synopses2:56
  • What If's? Your Best Friends9:51
  • The Most Important Commandment for Writers4:11
  • Write What You Know (but you know more than you think you do)1:56
  • Cultural Appropriation, and You3:52
  • Writing for a Show or Genre You Hate (and converting it to one you love)2:18
  • Getting Out of The Box, A Win-Win Situation6:36

    Explore writing by embracing challenges across genres, discovering what you love or hate, and using flexible methods—from outlines to discovery-driven writing—ending with inevitable, character-driven conclusions.

  • Humor, More Than Just A Laughing Matter2:20
  • When Is The Best Time To Write?4:00

    Uncover that the best fiction writing often emerges under trauma, stress, or transition, when reluctance fades, uncertainty sharpens, and transition moments reveal plot direction—without music that unsettles rhythm.

  • Writing Nuts, Bolts and Screwdrivers3:47
  • Story Structure and Character Arcs15:26

    Learn the three acts, from the protagonist's world to a catalyst-driven conflict and inner transformation, and craft protagonists, antagonists, and the second character with concise internal and external descriptors.

  • Descriptors6:15

    Use minimal descriptors—two or three details—interwoven with dialogue, staging character descriptions as scenes progress, and employ innuendos and colorful similes to humanize the narrative.

  • Utilizing The Five Senses1:30
  • Perspective6:06
  • Stylizing Dialog3:15
  • Tools Of The Trade2:46
  • Making Verbs Dynamic4:24
  • The Hardest Part3:02
  • Editing0:25
  • Setting Up Your Day1:44
  • Objectively Evaluating Your Work8:25

Requirements

  • Willingness to write prose and scripts from your heart, mind and soul.

Description

A guide for writers new to writing screenplays and/or literature that fills you in on the essential elements of storytelling as well as tricks of the trade that enable you to write innovative stories that you believe in which can be shared, appreciated and sold to the world. For those who have written already, effective strategies to improve your craft and reach a wider audience. Demonstrations of literary de novo improvisations for screenplay and novel contained within the course, with explanations for why each word, phrase and line was written.


This is a course designed for writers at all levels who write fictional stories as novels, novellas or short stories as well as screenplays in a wide variety of genres. Special attention is made to the differences and similarities of screenplay vs book writing. Numerous tricks of the trade are related in a manner that is entertaining, informative, inspiring and honest.


Screenplay and story are structure but they are also embedded with believable characters. The intimate relationship between plot and character is also given special attention so that freedom of expression is related in a way that is understandable and relatable to a wide variety of audiences. This course best suits writers who want and need to put their heart and soul into the endeavor on their own terms but in a language that is maximally relatable to the world, and to potential buyers. Writing is both an art and a science, the course being presented by a prolific screenwriter/author who, in a past career, was a highly accomplished and biomedical researcher and lecturer specializing in neuroscience, who knows the importance of integrating logic with intuition in writing, and life.


Who this course is for:

  • Anyone who aspires to write quality and marketable short stories, novels or screenplays; as well as experienced writers who seek to improve their craft or expand it to new literary canvases.

Report abuse