Online Creative Writing Degrees Bachelor of Arts (BA)

There are a wide variety of writing degrees that can help prepare you for your ideal writing career, including a BA in Creative Writing and graduate programs such as our online MA and MFA in creative writing programs and low-residency MFA in fiction or nonfiction.

A creative writing bachelor’s degree will give you a strong foundation of writing skills and help you hone your craft. You’ll also gain a better understanding of the publishing industry and build a portfolio of writing samples you can use when applying for jobs.

SNHU's creative writing degree offers 4 concentrations to help you focus on a specific genre, improve your knowledge, develop genre-specific skills and help you become more marketable in the workforce.

“It’s important to have a degree in writing or English because you’ll learn how to write properly and get practice writing in all different forms,” said Anne-Marie Yerks, adjunct faculty for the MFA in fiction writing program at Southern New Hampshire University.

As a creative writing major, you'll build a strong understanding of the English language and learn how to use the elements of storytelling to write everything from nonfiction essays to poetry.

But writing won't be your only subject of study. You'll also read well-known literature, analyzing the work of writers like Shakespeare to inspire and inform your own writing.

You'll learn from professors with real-world experience as authors, publishers and literary critics and will explore the workings of the publishing industry.

Nicholas Patterson '22, has found that many of his professors are passionate about the subjects they teach.

"For example," he said, "I took a Shakespeare class and my professor had been studying Shakespeare for most of his life and shared his passion in the course by encouraging his students and their ideas."

As a creative writing major, you'll graduate with the key critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills you need for a career as a journalist, editor, copywriter, author and more.

The best writing degree is the one that helps you prepare for the job you want and gives you a strong foundation of writing skills and experience.

At Southern New Hampshire University, creative writing students dive deep into the English language and great works of literature. By reading and analyzing great works of literature, you'll be able to learn the art of storytelling and develop your own writing style.

Interested in a particular writing career? Degree concentrations allow you to focus your learning on a specific genre of creative writing and can give you a leg up when applying to writing jobs.

If you dream about becoming a novelist, a bachelor’s degree in fiction writing will prepare you for a life of storytelling, helping you hone your writing skills and enhance your understanding of plot, narrative voice and character.

A bachelor’s degree in nonfiction writing can prepare you for a career as a journalist, author or communications manager, helping you combine research and observation with compelling storytelling.

If poetry is your passion, a creative writing bachelor’s degree with a poetry concentration will help you develop your personal style and build a portfolio. You’ll study the poetry of others and regularly write, read and critique poems with your peers in poetry workshops.

A screenwriting degree offers a special focus on story structure, character development and the visual medium of film. You’ll explore writing for feature-length and short films, television episodes, commercials and internet-based video.

It depends. SNHU’s creative writing bachelor’s degree program requires 120 credits to graduate and typically takes about 4 years to complete.

If you’ve attended college before, you may be able to transfer credits to your degree program and save time (and money). We accept up to 90 transfer credits toward your program here, with free transfer credit evaluations that let you see how your existing credits can be applied to your new degree.

It's also important to consider your other responsibilities. If you can attend school full time and take on a full course load each semester, you’ll complete your degree faster. If you work full time or have a family and need to fit your learning into an already busy schedule, you may need to complete your degree at a slower pace.

Starting a writing career doesn’t have to mean becoming an author. In fact, writers are needed across a variety of industries, from business and entertainment to engineering and marketing.

The many writing jobs you may explore include:

• Author: Use storytelling skills to write everything from children’s books and novels to biographies, essays and memoirs.
• Editor: Apply your understanding of the written word to plan, review and revise content for publication in books, periodicals or online platforms.
• Copywriter: Promote a product, service or organization with content for advertisements, marketing campaigns or websites.
• Journalist: Research topics, investigate story ideas and interview sources to write compelling nonfiction articles for newspapers, magazines, blogs and television news programs.
• Screenwriter: Use the power of writing to create visual and auditory experiences for everything from major blockbuster films to television episodes and commercials.
• Speechwriter: Write speeches for business leaders, politicians and others, using words to engage with and move an audience.
• Technical writer: Prepare instruction manuals and how-to guides to clearly communicate complex ideas and technical information.

Of course. Screenwriting requires a strong foundation of writing skills and creativity to take a film, television episode or commercial from an idea to the screen.

Screenwriters are the storytellers of the entertainment industry. As a screenwriter, you’ll use character, dialogue, setting and other visuals to engage an audience.

A screenwriting degree can help set you apart from others in the industry and give you the skills you need to bring a story to life on screen.

For Yvette Freeman '15, an actor known for her roles on shows like “ER,” “Days of Our Lives,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Pretty Little Liars,” earning an online screenwriting degree at SNHU was critical to her move from acting into screenwriting.

“Everybody in Hollywood has a screenplay in their drawer,” said Freeman. “I want to pull mine out and get them made. No more hiding.”

SNHU’s Fall Fiction Contest is an annual short story competition that provides writers a chance to show off their skills and be rewarded for it with an SNHU scholarship and publication in The Penmen Review. Beginning and seasoned authors alike (excluding SNHU faculty and staff) are welcome to enter if they are 18+ and based in the continental United States. All guideline-abiding submissions are carefully evaluated by a panel of experts and put to a public vote based on criteria like originality and character arc. The end result? Five lucky winners who gain both bragging rights and tier-based prizes!

Learn more about SNHU’s Fall Fiction Contest and what you could win.