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.

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

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.

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.

Incredible instructor. He was the most engaging instructor in the series specialization in my opinion. I loved the assignments. Loved the class. Really enjoyable and great for any writer.

the idea are well presented and i think have made me a stronger writer.

Thank you!

It was a great course and experience. I learned so much from the challenging workshops.

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!

Great course.

Course 4 of 5 for me in this specialization.

All of these have been fantastic and this one was another example of how great and informative these courses are. Once again I was made to think very critically of my own writing and start thinking about how I want to write.

I loved this course. I even read the books that were referenced. I'm learning slowly but surely.Wish I'd discovered Coursera years ago.

I really enjoyed the course, I thought the assignments were challenging and the lectures were really inspiring and clear.

very good and participatory

Fantastic course!! I loved the challenging assignments :)

Fantastic! I like the streamline part and usage of punching word ( nouns and verbs). Prof. Scibona Thank you for pointing out the do's / don'ts and other valuable tips

Content and instructor praiseworthy! Good structure and very interesting exercise. The course was a joy to take. Cheers, Raul

This course demonstrated more clearly than I had ever seen before the difference between "show" and "tell" when evoking a character's thoughts and feelings. It was highly valuable for me both as a writer and a professional editor.

I've only done week 1 so far, but I just love the way Salvatore Scibona talks about writing, his enthusiasm. I'm looking forward to the next weeks!

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.

This is the course I had been looking for, but didn't know it! I enjoyed the professor and the exercises, which were about putting pen to paper, so to speak. Just what I needed and wanted. I feel very much myself as a writer after doing these assignments, reviewing the work of other writers, and receiving insightful peer reviews. Thank you for offering this course and specialization!

Loved every bit of it! Gets the creative juices flowing!

Excellent course I appreciate the conversations with visiting writers. Prof. Scibona is an engaging teacher and clearly presents useful information. The list of words to avoid was worth the entire course.

I did not know what this meant when I started. I thought you just right once you get the flow. now I can write and review my work checking my style of writing and learnt a lot form the interviews from visiting professors.

teacher is cool and sometime I loved your way of teaching.

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!