Good course

thx for all

Brilliant!

excellent!

very great

Excellent.

Thank you.

A vibrant

Awesome!

Amazing!

Great!

Typically writing courses deal with either the business of writing, or the pretentious art and literature side of writing. Almost nobody deals with the science of writing. Where is the talk on motivational arrows? Character likabilities like being unrelenting? Where is the meta-analysis of good techniques in writing? meta-data is the future of defining the science of writing, but it's not mentioned here even slightly. What about will he/won't he moments? Backstory interacting and being relevant to the plot? What about fish out of water? This course doesn't even touch upon foundational pillars and tenets that make good writing. I couldn't imagine paying for this course, since I've already paid too much with my time. As it stands, I could have taught a better course than this, and maybe some day I'll be so fortunate as to move writing studies in the right direction, towards the truth that older generation teachers are unwilling to accept: that good writing is empirical, and therefore can be learned.

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.

I am ok with everything about this course EXCEPT that I have had to critique pieces written in Spanish and just got my first "my submission" comments in Spanish--my name is not Hispanic and this should not have happened. And although I've tried very hard to be tolerant and supportive, some of the non-English as first language speakers are writing pieces that are barely passable as English. I got the feeling that first-language English speakers were a minority in this and other Creative Writing Block courses I've taken on Coursera.

Lyn Sedwick Shuster, lasmd925@aol.com

I didn't love the videos in this course very much – they just weren't very helpful. They had some interesting thoughts, but for the most part they felt repetitive and for someone who hasn't written much creative writing.

However, I really liked the assignments and peer editing. This course challenged me to create characters I wouldn't have otherwise, and made me think more about how the heart of a story is really in the character's hands. I got a lot more out of challenging myself with the assignments and getting surprising feedback than watching the videos.

I am deeply grateful for Coursera, as they approved my financial aid request for this one. This is why I am being kind of generous with the rating. Unfortunately, the course did not live up to my expectations. In comparison to the Craft of Plot, this course spoke very vaguely and did not use other well-known books to elaborate on the ideas. I was also expecting we delve into the types of characters in this one: round, flat, etc. and get to know how to use and create such characters.

Nevertheless, I thank Ms. Amy for her efforts and experience put into it.

I learned a lot in this course. The learning materials (videos and assignments) are great. The only criticism I have is the vast majority of students have extremely limited English skills. It's odd that a writing class, taught in English, would cater to students who don't have a reasonable command of the language. Nor is it fair to those fluent in English to have their grades tied to peer reviews when the work they are reviewing is written in incomprehensible broken English. I imagine, that's part of the reason so many students give one word critiques.

The course is very informative and goes into great detail as to the key points of creating interesting and fleshed-out characters. I did, however, find the course topic a bit disorganized, as there would be videos or units with a name indicating a focus on a certain aspect but would then handle a completely unrelated, if still useful, topic. This was the only flaw I found in the course, and it is relatively minor, but it would be a very useful change in the future. Otherwise, it is highly recommended so long as you don't mind a bit of a messy syllabus!

The course is intense, in fact MUCH more intense than the course on plot. I felt challenged and inspired to complete the assignments. Peers reviews were exceptionally objective and therefore helpful. What I felt was lacking was in Week 4 of the course - the section on points-of-view in narration. External reading to understand the different voices of narration and voices of narrative are highly recommended. Would have appreciated more help from the instructor in that particular week.

Craft of Character did a lot for my ability to create characters, and I learned a lot about writing dialogue, and the different points of view that those dialogues can come from. Instructions were always perfectly clear and easy to understand. Of course I wasn't always expert at the week's process involved, but that wasn't because of the directions being in anyway unclear. I loved taking this course, and will definitely be continuing on in the Specialization.

I enjoyed this course and I would recommend it to others. I enjoyed the assignments and felt like they challenged and stretched me in good ways.

Criticisms include: some confusing titles - why is the third section called Location, Location, Location, when it is the second section that is about location? Some of the wording in the rubrics seem to refer to things not discussed before. So, some revision and clarity would be much appreciated.

I like Amy Bloom, but the lectures don't provide the explanations or the processes for creating characters. In the Craft of Plot, Skyhorse gave us the tools we need to develop plot and structure, and even how to start to develop characters. But in this course, the lectures don't do that. They seem more philosophical than instructional and all of the lectures go right over my head. Craft of Plot gave me hope, Craft of Character confused me.

Excellent course. The video presentations are well done with information that is vital for developing the skill required to be an effective writer. They include videos that discuss concepts and interviews with successful writers. The assignments are challenging but enjoyable and well paced. This the second course I have taken in the specialization, and I am pleased with the big level of expertise that is shared by the instructors.

Like other courses in the specialization, I learned a lot in this course especially about defining and shaping the characters in my fiction stories. There is one thing in this course that I particularly liked more than the others and that was having us, the author, state what we wanted feedback on for each assignment. Doing this yielded better feedback than that received in the first course in the specialization I took.

A great course overall. The peer feedback is sometimes informative, sometimes lacking. One word peer reviews should not be allowed. Perhaps there needs to be a preliminary assessment of of participants to see if they qualify for the course. Perhaps have a reporting function that allows the learner to report insufficient feedback. The power in MOOCs is learning from one another as well as from the instructor.