Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques

Overview

Course No. 2541

Award-winning novelist and Iowa Writers’ Workshop instructor James Hynes teaches you the craft of fiction writing in this 24-lecture masterclass. You’ll learn essential techniques for creating compelling characters, building immersive worlds, crafting dialogue, and structuring plots that keep readers engaged.

From first drafts to final revisions, this course provides practical tools to transform your ideas into polished stories. Whether you’re writing literary fiction or genre novels, you’ll gain insights into point of view, pacing, scene construction, and the business of being a writer.

Video Lectures

01: Starting the Writing Process (30 min)

Overcome blank page anxiety with effective opening strategies.

02: Building Fictional Worlds (29 min)

Master “show don’t tell” to create vivid settings.

03-06: Character Development

03: Characters vs. Real People (30 min)
04: Character-Building Methods (30 min)
05: Introducing Characters (30 min)
06: Character Types (29 min)

07-08: Dialogue Crafting

07: Dialogue Mechanics (29 min)
08: Integrating Dialogue (30 min)

09-14: Plot Construction

09: Story vs. Plot (30 min)
10: Freytag’s Pyramid (31 min)
11: Complex Plots (31 min)
12: Plotless Narratives (31 min)
13: Strong Beginnings (30 min)
14: Satisfying Endings (32 min)

15-17: Point of View

15: POV Fundamentals (30 min)
16: First-Person Narration (31 min)
17: Third-Person Narration (31 min)

18-20: Advanced Techniques

18: Evoking Setting (32 min)
19: Pacing Control (32 min)
20: Scene Building (32 min)

21-24: The Writing Life

21: Drafting Strategies (30 min)
22: Painless Revision (31 min)
23: Research Methods (33 min)
24: Publishing Paths (35 min)