C
Oct 10, 2022
This course provided the structure and accountability I needed to write my first novel. It was low pressure and fun. I loved reading the comments from my fellow writers and reading their submissions.
PC
May 1, 2020
This course helped me as a writer because of the teacher. He was not a quick talker, but he was not a slow talker. He was very understanding. I really would love to get teached by him again.
By ELMER M P
•Oct 5, 2022
excelent
By kolo k
•Feb 19, 2022
EXELENTE
By Deleted A
•May 27, 2021
6
By Diane D
•Oct 15, 2021
The course helped me complete the first draft of a fantasy novel. I was lucky enough to connect with a wonderful group of participants who were supportive and encouraging through the entire process. Some of us will remain connected as we go through the first round of editing.
I would love Coursera to fix a couple of glitches in the system. One is the formatting when uploading assignments. Understand that HTML can be glitchy, but it was really annoying in the beginning until I learned that uploading from Google Docs was better than uploading from Word. The second thing is being able to continue reviewing the same student submissions. By doing so, we can provide better comments when we can follow the same story. It's hard to critique someone's chapter randomly if we don't know what occurred in earlier chapters.
By Susan H
•Feb 3, 2021
The instruction was great; I gain some useful tools that I will be able to use in my writing in the future. However, what was frustrating for me was the fact that I could not receive one-on-one via chat, email or any other form when I felt only the instructor could provide the answer to my question. My other frustration stemmed from the peer reviews. In this class in particular, I was more comfortable in giving reviews to my fellow writers whose progress in their work I had been following since its inception. I was completely uncomfortable in critiquing my peers based on the chapter by chapter review process without knowledge of prior chapter work and was not appreciative of being review in that manner; something that may need consideration and perhaps revision,
By William B
•Nov 9, 2023
Excellent course, which did a great job in helping me establish a consistent writing routine. My only quibble is with the times in the course that called for table reads. That really broke my rhythm. Also, the assignment at the end of submitting the entire manuscript and reviewing 1-2 entire manuscripts seemed like a lot at that point in the course. I would have also liked to have seen better resources in the course for establishing critique groups or directing students to them. Other than that, this was a very useful course that I would recommend to anyone starting out in the writing world.
By Raja' S
•Jun 12, 2022
1. Helps you start and pick up the pace for writing.
2. A series of videos to help you stay on track.
3. Peer review assignments are hard to follow at some point. You have to read a chapter for five each time. The problem lies in having no criteria to give helpful feedback. You cannot stay on track for the same work you started reviewing except outside the platform.
4. The course might benefit from discussing the pros and cons of some known works.
Overall, it is a good experience for a novice and did help me sort my writing work properly.
By Ene G
•Oct 16, 2021
I like that this course gave you directions without hand-holding and definite directions. The instructor pretty much pointed you in the right direction with great tips and let you explore on your own, allowing you to develop your own style. He gave suggestions on where to take each chapter that were unexpected and challenging, but definitely improved your writing if you followed his direction. Also, having a cohort to exchange ideas and give feedback was most valuable. I'm really glad I took this course!
By Scott P
•Apr 3, 2023
The content from the instructor was excellent. Peer support was less than desired. However, there was good support from some dedicated students who actually knew what they were talking about. The constant signing of names for rights was ridiculous.
By Lucya S
•Jul 5, 2021
I loved the course. It helped me complete my first novel. Id give it 5 stars except that the software was a bit glitchy at times, making it hard to upload my chapters or doing odd things with the formatting.
By Bianca S
•Mar 7, 2021
This course has helped me complete my novel. I am very thankful to David Wheeler for guiding me through it and each and every person that has read and gave feed back. I hope you all are successful.
By Somaya A M
•Apr 12, 2023
The course is really nice and helpful, but there is a problem with old submissions not being deleted, so it causes trouble with the reviewing process. I hope it can get fixed.
By Raymond P
•Jan 28, 2024
It starts off great, but towards the end, the number of people doing the work drops off dramatically.
By Ahmed H
•Jun 27, 2022
I have learned a lot from this course. This course has proved to be very useful for us.
By James F
•Jun 29, 2021
Simple and easy to follow.
By Douglas M
•May 17, 2023
Worth your time.
By Adedeji A
•Oct 16, 2022
Very helpful.
By Ana C
•May 3, 2024
Dan Wheeler is a very good teacher. I learned a lot from this course, and hope to take more courses taught by him in the future. The only 2 issues I had with this course is that you have to share your writing with your peers in order to complete it. Although they do get you to sign an agreement stating you will not steal anyone else's work, I feel like the class leaves too much room for plagiarism to happen. The second issue is that peers are supposed to review each others work, which in essence isn't a terrible idea, but I feel like many of my classmate were also wary of sharing their work so everyone was vague and didn't follow the direction given by the teach, (which I'm not against because I didn't want to share my work either.)
By Rebecca P
•Apr 25, 2024
This course needs to be updated. The rules were changed regarding the feedback, where students' feedback from others on their work is withheld until the student himself completes the assignment to provide 6 reviews for others. It's also frustrating to see other students not committed to the course and this may be a function of the fact that it is free. other students will not take the assignments seriously and leave garbage text just to complete the requirement.
By Tatiana Y
•Dec 6, 2022
Certainly not a course for beginners. That is, it might be your first novel, but you should already know how to structure it, what is the story arc and how to create believable characters, as none of this is even discussed (or at least not before one is expected to write chapter one of the the novel, at which stage I would expect you'd have a plan of what you're writing, not just throwing random words at the page).
By Joan l
•Oct 12, 2021
I love the structure and the videos but cannot seem to get back to my submissions to edit them based on feedback. I also seem to have lost my logline even though it has been reviewed. Is there any way to scroll back to a summary of all the submissions we have made to keep track of what is needed. Also, I do not know how to join a writer's group so would like better direction in that regard.
By Mohammad I
•May 12, 2021
not bad
By Juniper F
•Mar 31, 2021
general premise is a good idea, but only having peer feedback gets really old. Conflicting opinions from people with no professional experience just becomes confusing after awhile. Who do you trust? I enjoyed the lectures though. But after about week 11 its obvious student participation is dwindling and no one wants to have to read 5 other books just to get through the course, so peer feedback becomes short and useless. I don't exactly feel like I've learned anything, but it has given me a nice structure to self regulate my writing schedule. Thats about it. Wish the professor was more involved, but I understand the course has thousands of people.
By Jorge H
•Apr 28, 2023
I think the first couple of weeks are great, but after that it just becomes a "write next chapter" simulator and it enforces a set amount of them, with a specific length. If you wish to write more/less chapters or with a different word count than what is enforced, this is where the craks start to show.
I'd recommend taking at least the first couple of weeks and then deciding for yourself if you can or wish to comply with the arbitrary restrictions of the following assignments.