I recently completed the 5-course specialization in creative writing. For the most part the course material presented was good, especially the courses on plot, on setting, and on style. The course on characterization was a little vague. From the syllabus, it looked like it would be a good course, but the instructor did not follow the syllabus and was often very unfocussed in her presentation.

The weakness with this specialization is that all the feedback to the writer is provided by peers in the course. This I found very disappointing. Many of the other students were honestly very poor writers, and as a result, the feedback I received on my assignments was very superficial. In addition, rather than being able to learn from reading the writing of others, I found for the most part that the pieces submitted by others were very lacking.

If you take this course, know that it will provide you some good information about writing fiction, but the feedback you receive on your assignments will not help you learn. You will need to find another peer group of writers to help you with that.

Excellent course by Salvatore Scibona. The range of subjects covered was so wide and the practical tips given in the course are really helpful. Thanks a lot Salvatore, a well-designed course :)

Beautiful course, I've been writing for years, and this experience has been of great help and polishing. You are creating great writers. Thank you for the opportunity and all the knowledge.

The mandatory reviewing the work of your peers becomes a problem when there is no work submitted for review. I have completed all the assignments of week 1,2,3, and 4 and am waiting on other students to submit their work. It's been five days where I have received the "no work to review" notice. This is really taking the enjoyment out of this program. I'd like to complete the course sooner than later to begin my capstone short story.

Don't start writing without doing all four certificates. It sets you on a right path and this last one wraps it al up! As you go along the four certificates you understand how to set your writing on a whole new level, isn't that where we all want to be. Scibona's team has a 'show don't tell' approach that even reflects in their teaching.

Great class for the content I needed. I audited this class and benefited from the theory discussion and practical exercises. The class guided me to improve my writing style which was my ultimate goal.

Lessons were well done, good mix of teaching and illuminating discussion between accomplished writers. Exercises are creative and well thought out. Feedback from classmates is generally helpful.

Merci à toute l'équipe de Coursera pour ce cours! Je le recommande vivement à tous ceux et celles qui aimeraient avoir des connaissances sur la rédaction d'une oeuvre littéraire ou fiction.

Excellent teacher, excellent course. Exercises and reviews are very helpful.

Very limited teaching and contradictory assignments. For those with English as a second language be aware this course uses grammatical terminology but in a stylistic way and can cause a lot of confusion. Assignments are weak but as a whole for the four courses making up the Capstone just grit your teeth and get through it, the least enjoyable and instructive of all four.

After successfully completing NaNoWrimo in 2017 I was exhilarated to reactivate my passion for writing but I realized I had a lot to learn about writing, that it was more than just writing a story. The ideas come to me very easily but I did not want to write my stories blindly (as NaNoWriMo promotes), I want to do it well. So, i set myself on a learning journey reading a lot of eBooks I bought on Amazon as well as subscribing to writing channels on YouTube. Yes, it was overwhelming, a lot to learn. Those in fact helped me in this course as I see peers that seem oblivious to those facts.

Then one day I found this specialization in Coursera and I was (still am) very excited. I have learned a lot on the exercises and have also read some great story excerpts (some peers are very good and write awesome stories, my hat off to them as I hope to reach their level someday!). I just wish the lecturer or an assistant (Staff) were active on the course forums, usually you also need some AUTHORITATIVE feedback from someone who is already there (where you want to be) rather than from those that are on the same boat as you.

Do I recommend this course, or the specialization? a resounding YES to the square!

wonderful course, clear assignments, informative lectures. of all the classes this one changed my writing the most. I thought it would be the most extraneous of the series. I thought the plot and character class would be more important but in fact, just paying attention to style helped the movement of my stories - it forced things to happen, it forced a plot, it forced a character to do things. Scribona's advice is practical - use more nouns and verbs, pay attention to how you describe the world through the eyes of the characters, learn how to edit and so on. He helped me finally get a handle the POV i use all the time in writing, but never really understood, and so I used it badly.

Some of the other classes in the specialization were too heady, and not practical. But most importantly, Scribona's love for the written word was so apparent during the lectures that it elicited the same reverence in the students.

I really loved this part of the course. All these creative writing course exercises force you to concentrate on different aspects of writing, developing plot, character, background, adding lots of details, subtracting details. I felt they opened possibilities of writing that I had never considered, and offered different ways of looking at one thing.

The critiques forced us to remember the instructions for each assignment, and to really study each writer's story and to objectively judge it, but still be kind and fair and highlight what was correct and good.

I liked the reviews I received, even the negative ones. I think when we receive negative ones, we inwardly already know it, but it is nice to have someone confirm it and take an interest.

The lectures by Amy Bloom, Salvatore Scibone, Amity Gaige, and I think Rondo Skyhorse were a treat.

Thank you.

For a beginner, this course was a challenge in comparison to the other three base parts of Craft of Writing, but as a result of the challenge, it is by far the most rewarding as well.

The concepts discussed, and the material provides the learners with both broad perspective into several topics that I would argue to be crucial in becoming a writer, and also a deep look at some very key concepts to writing.

I would recommend taking this course last of the four, before beginning the Capstone project - if you're planning on going through all the parts. If you're a more seasoned writer, I would recommend starting with this course, and seeing how you fare with it.

I've enjoyed all of the base courses, but for me personally, this one struck the strongest chord.

As were all of the preceding modules, this was extremely informative, encouraging and rewarding. I cannot count the number of times I had started to write something and never finished it. I have had some really good ideas, and I've had a lifetime of really exciting experiences, yet they are bits of scrap paper in long-lost boxes. No more !! Now I carry notebooks and pencils everywhere I go. I number the pages, write and make illustrations constantly. I am trying to remember and resurrect the old stories and poems and am diligently trying to do the same with new things. These Wesleyan courses have been a turning point for me. The instructors seem like old friends, even though we've never met. Wonderful program.

~Jack Hayes

I really liked the contents and assignments of the course. It helped me improve my writing. Nevertheless, I think the way peer review is applied in this course needs to be reconsidered. Some people don't seem to take this very seriously or would need more examples of what helpful critiquing is supposed to look like. Unfortunately, this means one doesn't learn much from peer's feedback as quite a few people write just “good” instead of giving real feedback. It's not okay to be able to get a certificate if people don't really do the work that is necessary getting it. Also, it's quite a bummer if you have invested time to write a detailed feedback for someone and get “good” back.

Excellent course! I appreciated the instructor's enthusiasm for the topic, and found his lectures thoughtful, interesting and enjoyable. I had several "ah-ha" moments, where things I had learned before but never solidly grasped came into sharper focus. (For example, the concept of "no ideas but in things," which Professor Scibona explains very well.) I think my writing will be greatly improved by putting into practice the things I learned in this class. I would love to see a "Part 2" that delves more deeply into the topics covered, and covers other aspects of the craft of style.

I have completed 4 of these: Craft of Style, Characters, Plot, Settings and description and each and every one is packed with learning. Easy to understand, yet intricate, in how it it to write, whatever you want to do with it! I am a writer and have been, but this course and all in Creative Writing Specialization taught me things it would have taken me decades to understand, if I ever came to in the first place. This one is probably my favorite, though. The instructors in all of them are excellent, but the instructor for this one, Salvatore Scibona, is my favorite.

I was fascinated with this course. I think it raises the bar on how to become a better writer fro the reader's sake. Writing is more like painting and less than retelling. It's important to respect the reader's intelligence, she/ he can figure out the obvious, and as writers we want to entertain, engage the reader's curiosity, provide pleasure in the human senses. I also found it one of the most challenging of the courses because of the emphasis and care we should take in word choice. Words are the substance of all good writing, they should not be squandered!

My favorite of the four courses in this specialization! While many people may be fantastic at what they do, they are not always great at teaching it, but this is not the case with Salvatore Scibona. He is a fantastic teacher and I learned so much from taking his course. Not only do I now have insight into everything I read (I find myself constantly analyzing other writers' work), I also feel that I have the tools to compose my writing efficiently and intriguingly. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who loves to write fiction!

I really recommend this course. The content is clear and concrete and has helped me in a great way to understand the bases of what is important in style and what is not. Professor Salvatore Scibona transmits his experience and enthusiasm in a way that is easy to follow. Also the comments and contributions from the other teachers of the Creative Writing course and other writer guests were very useful for my understanding of this subject and practice in writing. The assignments were challenging for me and very interesting exercises.

In The Craft of Style, Salvatore Scibona tackles the different ways to stylize your writing so that it becomes clear and succinct as possible. He also teaches you how to get rid of extraneous words that may affect the flow of your writing. After completing the other courses in the Creative Writing program, this is a must for any beginning writer who wants to smarten up their prose and take their writing up a notch. Thank you for the course! I enjoyed it.

This course really challenged me to think outside the box. I had to create feelings without expressing or saying what the feeling was. I have always had issues with descriptions with emotions. In this class, I had to rely on verbs and nouns to describe what I wanted to say and carry the story's emotions. This is a good course to take to help elevate your story and show your character's feelings at a deeper level than saying what the emotions are.

The course, content, and such were fine; however, trying to get people to review your assignments was excruciating. In fact, if one person rates you zero with little-to-no useful information (like a few words), they can give you zero points. One individual rated me "zero" because I had made some comments in the review of his work. I gave him 1/1 points on the assignment, so I believe this to be the reason for his flawed comments or evaluation.

This was my favorite course. I liked the breakdowns that the educator gave on the dry erase board. There was a passion and a method to the way the he carried out his lessons, and a structure to the overall course that made it very easy to absorb. I can still remember two of the visual aids he used in the course and I don’t think they’re going anywhere soon. I liked how it was broken down, and the assignments were fun and challenging.