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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot by Wesleyan University

About the course, top reviews.

Nov 16, 2018

Great information about plot and scene structure. The information about revision was entirely new to me - thank you! The exercises were good and difficult in a good way that helped me hone my writing.

Nov 5, 2019

The course was informative on how to build, structure and develop the plot of our own stories. It was also very helpful in guiding us through the editing process. A useful course for aspiring writers.

1 - 25 of 1,596 Reviews for Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

Mar 26, 2019

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.

By Charles W

Mar 10, 2018

I don't see the point of having other writings who are at the same skill level as me critique my work. It's like the blind leading the blind. I was expecting a professional to grade my work to provide insight and direction. Total waste of my money.

By Deleted A

Oct 13, 2017

Very little content. It is useful, but definitely not worth paying for it. Also, the exercises aren't truly exercises to practice what has been taught: just writing exercises with different lenghts, with a slight focus on what's been spoken about through the week. It looks like they wanted to make money from a minimum input, and that is disappointing.

Dec 2, 2016

Great course to take as the first step in the sequence of the "Creative Writing" certification. Exercises are fun, professor provides useful methodology, load is manageable for someone with a day job.

By Brenton M

By Mikhal F

Jun 5, 2020

The material in the videos were very helpful, inspiring and informative. Unfortunately our assignments are graded and reviewed by our peers. I'm deeply disappointed because there appears to be no screening what so ever of the students who enroll. So my experience was extremely nerve wracking and upsetting because I had no idea if I'd pass because people kept failing me even though I certainly met all the assignment criteria. Often I would get feed back like "..." or "-" or "yes" and "no" meanwhile I had to attempt to review submissions like "t" for a 1000 story? They literally submitted one letter!!! The group I ended up in was so grossly incompetent (or full of people that plain didn't care) I'm extremely angry that I was charged $69 for this. Honestly if I'm to pay I'd expect a professional to grade our work. Peer reviews are fine, but for this to be worth it, someone who knows the craft should at least take a look.

By Gitlin, M

Aug 1, 2019

I never received any feedback on my assignments. I have not gotten credit for submitting the final assignment. I see there are other people pleading for others to read their work as well. The instructors and videos give good ideas but there is no reason to pay for this course.

Mar 22, 2017

Auditing is pretty useless with how this class is updated. I can't get peer reviews so my assignments get zero feedback. Coursera didn't used to be like this.

Asked about how to be more involved in class discussions and peer reviews a couple days ago and haven't received feedback.

Apr 3, 2016

Felt very much like an exercise in writing-by-numbers. Assignment instructions were too vague and the pass/fail grading system meant lots of classmates were upset that their work was not appreciated or understood. So many people on the course do not have English as a first language that the marking is often erratic. Great that non-native speakers are trying to write in English, enriching the canon, but in those circumstances a pass/fail system seems misguided.

By Suzanna D

Jul 14, 2020

It seems easy at the start; give it a week or two and you will be very surprised -- with yourself and your reaction to the feedback.

The instructions are easy to follow, the insights are priceless.

By Annabel B

May 5, 2017

I found the wording of the assignments really difficult to follow so I didn't really understand what was expected of me. I spend a lot of time (and therefore money!) on this course but in the end I made a conscious decision to stop. I was taking it for personal pleasure and it was not worth the stress each week of trying to work out what was being asked. I have taken a number of other courses in creative writing elsewhere, and other courses on Coursera - this is the first one I have actively chosen to stop because I just wasn't engaging with it - either for education or for enjoyment.

By Spandan B

Feb 23, 2016

The material isn't bad, and it does provide some interesting prompts to think and write about. But, the curriculum is not at all creative. It focuses on easily teachable and repeatable lessons that teach a certain, standard way of doing things. It tries to reduce creative writing down to a formula instead of acknowledging that many compelling and successful stories can have almost any imaginable form. If perhaps many types of structures had been emphasized or structures had been pointed out as optional, this would have been mitigated, but the time period is so short that there's no time. The result is a class that feels more like "Writing: How to Make a Formulaic, Sellable Book" than anything with "Creative" in the title.

Jun 6, 2020

I feel like each week's videos didn't go into great enough detail. The peer review experience was very poor too. I don't feel like I received any meaningful feedback and felt that the way the system is structured promoted lazy reviewing. Overall the biggest weakness of this course is a lack of example assignments. If there were example assignment for each module with detailed descriptions of how everything fit together, the poor peer review experience wouldn't have mattered nearly as much. I learned some valuable lessons here but I think I could haven gotten just as much from watching youtube videos.

Aug 9, 2016

The peer reviewed assignments are next to useless, as there is no oversight on them. I think there needs to be a basic comprehension assessment done first, before allowing fellow learners the ability to pass/fail students in the course.

May 26, 2020

This is not worth the money or time. There was too much of the course that involved teaching by the numbers. I don't think creative writing can be taught that wasy. Any 21 step process is absurd and that is only one phase of the course.

By Sasha K C

Apr 4, 2018

This course got me off on the right foot in writing. It gives specific structure on elements of a good plot. There is no failing, just constructive review of your work by your peers. Very good course

By Cristina M

Feb 20, 2018

Assignments felt forced and incongruous with the weekly lessons. The assignments did not feel like an opportunity to practice the skills focused on in the lessons.

Jun 13, 2019

Great course for beginners. I must admit I was not sold at first with the peer graded review but seeing how seriously the great majority of students take the feedback portion of the course, I couldn't help but feel more motivated. I have learned to structure my ideas and tell a story properly using the least amount of words while keeping my readers interested. Highly recommendable for beginners.

By JoLaine J

Jan 9, 2018

There is some decent information in the course. The assignments didn't do for me as much as I would have liked. Every single person I peer reviewed (15 people) has English as a second language. I did my best to disregard that, but some of them were so difficult to follow that it was impossible to make heads or tails of their submissions. Also, I would have appreciated some downloadable handouts that covered the main points, rather than having to go back through the videos and finding the information I was looking for.

May 1, 2018

I thought this course was very good in breaking down the basics. I learned a lot of helpful information. I highly recommend it, especially for those new to the writing craft.

As a suggestion, it would have been helpful to know all assignments are peer reviewed. Meaning you are responsible for not only writing your homework, but critiquing 3 others as well. Some how I missed this in the course description. You are not done until your reviews are done, then you can move on. If you are like me and don't have the type of job where you can write or even view your course while working, this can be time consuming. Especially when the reviews you need to submit have a deadline. Sometimes it doesn't take much time. Other times writers submit a thesis when the assignment limit was 500 words. Those take much longer. If you are pressed for time, it can be quite frustrating.

By GLADSON V C

May 3, 2020

By Carlos M

Jan 8, 2017

I liked the way Mr. Skyhorse explains the secrets to construct a great plot. It was excellent in every sense of the word. However, my only complain of this course it's that you can't report those "funny" peers that write "reviews" like this one:

" ' "

It's so unfair that some of us, the real students, took our time to write detailed reviews about every peer assignment AND expected at least WORDS as reviews. You need to implement some kind of report system to ban those "funny" peers that only check your work to put the point and to get their course done. And to start that "system" I will tell you that:

SHOKRY MOHAMED FATHALLAH EL SAYAR

That guy, gave me reviews as I described before. Not only in this course, but in The Craft of Character. So PLEASE, someone needs to make justice and punish this guy. I can even send you captions of his "reviews."

By Yuliya K

Jun 1, 2020

My experience with the course was not fulfilling, because I didn't get professional guidance throughout the course. The instructor provided some information and required to submit some assignment, so we did some writings and reviewed our peers' writings. This is OK. But I didn't enroll in the course in order to see opinion of those who just started writing, exactly as I did. As the beginners, we needed feedback from those who already accomplished some level, but didn't receive it. I would not recommend this course to those, who really wants to learn how to start writing.

By Justine B

May 4, 2021

Some helpful material but a lot of it was superfluous. Also, you cant 'complete' the course until 3 other people have to review your final assessment before you can pass. This took a very long time and there are lots of posts up on the forum begging for people to review their work. This is a poor format and I would avoid doing classes like this again in the future. Also, because all your submissions are marked by peers, rather than anyone with any actual writing knowledge or experience (and with English as a second language in a lot of cases), the feedback you get often isn't helpful. Peer feedback definitely has it's place, but tutor feedback would have been the most useful. I am really disppointed I paid for this and would strongly discourage others from wasting money on this course or tutor.

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Creative Writing

Below are the top discussions from Reddit that mention this online Coursera specialization from Wesleyan University .

Coursera Online

Craft Your Story Like the Great Writers

Offered by Wesleyan University. Craft Your Story Like the Great Writers. Craft an original story that will absorb a reader’s interest from ... Enroll for free.

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Taught by Brando Skyhorse Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and 22 more instructors

Offered by Wesleyan University

This specialization includes these 5 courses .

Reddit Posts and Comments

2 posts • 41 mentions • top 19 shown below

Coursera will host Wesleyan's Creative Writing course starting February 9 - auditing is free.

This is actually a Specialization , but if you try to enroll through that page you won't get the "audit" option. View the individual courses if you wish to enroll as an auditor.

This is a new course, so I don't know what to expect in terms of quality. Auditors don't get graded, but I'm hoping to still get the peer review mechanic Coursera usually uses with free courses.

Does anyone want to take this online creative writing course with me?

My advice is to the this Coursera Creative writing class so you make up better stories.

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/creative-writing

Coursera has a very extensive Creative Writing course. It is paid but you can request financial assistance, which covers the whole course for free.

As others mentioned, Brandon Sanderson's lectures are great. I also recommend the book How Fiction Works by James Wood.

Este es buenísimo y empieza hoy en Coursera, gratis. Es de los mejores que he tomado. También en Stanford (aunque esos sí cuestan) hay unos excelentes que te dan escritores reconocidos y revisan tu trabajo.

Coursera Creative Writing Specialization

I hadn’t written in a long time either. Take one of the Wesleyan creative writing specialization courses on Coursera. This truly helped me get back in the groove without feeling overwhelmed. The assignments had a very small word count. The small word count really brought my creativity out of hiding. So I always felt like I had a worthy piece without having to write a novel. The course is only free for the first week now (used to be totally free), but you can apply for a scholarship if you can’t afford it. The process is super simple and short. If you can pay, it’s worth every penny. I believe each course is only 5 weeks long. Best of all I really enjoyed doing every assignment. Check it out... https://www.coursera.org/specializations/creative-writing

Thank you for asking this question. It reminded me how much I enjoyed doing the course. I’m going to sign up for the next one.

You may want to sign up for this Coursera specialization on creative writing . It's free to enroll and you might find the instructor videos useful. You only have to pay if you want to submit assignments, receive feedback, or get certificates.

I'd also encourage you to make a point of reading more fiction in general. Explore different authors (amateur and professional) and genres (beyond BL) so that you can enhance your writing and your literary standards.

Here check this out Free ..

Google is the top sponsor in conjunction with now top accredited schools in and out of the country. From Computers networks math writing etc etc. FREE ..

Lots of free online classes like this…

I took this series of courses (free unless you want a certificate). It helped me a lot as a writer.

This is a really good course. Helpful and informative. The best part is the lessons get you writing and force you to try your hand at writing with a goal in mind and your peers evaluate it afterwards.

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/creative-writing This one is free

I was wondering about the same. I looked for some free Moocs on creative writing. I found one on FutureLearn - " Start Writing Fiction" and another in Coursera - " Creative Writing".

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/start-writing-fiction

Maybe these courses can help?

one, two , three , four

Not sure what constitutes good... but if you want an actual online-based course with instructors who will read your shit and provide professional feedback try this: https://www.nzwriterscollege.co.nz/

You can pay by credit card from anywhere in the world. You will be mentored by published authors and you can work your way from a novice to novel writer in a couple of years. It's not too expensive - if you already have a job, i.e. you need to pay upfront.

You can go for cheaper courses through Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/creative-writing

You are peer-assessed and in my opinion, does not make you a better writer as it's a bunch of amateurs criticising your work - so a lot more subjective.

Hi - you've got some really good stuff here, content wise, but before you worry about what is 'scary' you have to master the basics of English grammar. Not a dig, but if you're seriously considering writing, you'll need to be able to discern where one paragraph ends and another begins. That first page, man, it's not a run on sentence, per se, but it may as well have been because there is only 1 paragraph on that entire first page.

Suggest you have a look here ------> English Grammar 101

Secondly, and most importantly, you have mastered narrative expertly. You've really got a knack for describing scary stuff, but the thing with creative writing is to SHOW not tell. Now what does that mean? I've done a search for you and the results are here --------> Show, don't tell

If I were you, I'd be checking out the creative writing sites on the web - there are many to choose from. Secondly, I'd pick up an English language/grammar class and/or creative writing MOOC. A lot of them are free (audit the class) but if you have the spare jack, then you can pay some nominal amount for the verifiable cert of completion - that would help to prove you took the class and passed it. May even be able to impress colleges (assuming you're going that route). You can also apply for financial aid. Start with Coursera. It's very intuitive (user-friendly). I'm taking a creative writing class offered on that platform, currently, and getting a lot out of it. I'm also supplementing the class with independent research, as well, since there is no one-on-one with the instructor of a MOOC.

Coursera - Creative Writing Speciality

You're on the right track if you want to be a writer. Focus on English classes in HS. Try to pick up some AP stuff. Do anything you can to write -HS newspaper, yearbook, clubs, etc. If your school doesn't have any of that, it's OK because you can find all of it on the web. Start a blog. Whatever gets you writing. The best way to be a writer is to write. Everyday.

​PS: If you're interested, we can feedback each other's stuff. Contact me via the form on my website ---> Contact PoB

This one is a free one and gives you some really good basic knowledge: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/creative-writing/start-writing-fiction/content-section-0?active-tab=content-tab

And I also really liked this one, because they interview real authors and they have really good tips on rookie mistakes: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/creative-writing

Reedsy has some lovely 10-day courses for writing and they are also completely free. https://blog.reedsy.com/learning/courses/writing/

​

The GreatCourses Plus is a great site for some really in depth courses. My favourite was this one:

https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/how-to-write-best-selling-fiction?tn=Also+By+This+Professor_0_0

The first month is for free, so you can check it out and there is no need to continue if you are not happy with the site.

CREEES Professional Resources Forum

Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin

Grad Program: MA in Creative Writing in Russian (Moscow)

Application opens February 2019

For fiction/non-fiction writers in Russian.

MA “Creative Writing”  is:

• Practical and theoretical/historical courses, such as  Creative Writing Workshop ,  Storytelling in Different Media ,  Literary Editing , Poetics of Novel and Screenwriting ;
• Unique professors and teachers, among them famous Russian writers, screenwriters and critics –  Marina Stepnova ,  Lyudmila Ulitskaya ,  Lev Danilkin ,  Sergey Gandlevsky  and  Maya Kucherskaya  as well as prominent philologists, authors of academic and non-fiction books  Oleg Lekmanov ,  Ekaterina Lyamina  and  Alexey Vdovin ;
• Participation in open readings, discussions and  literary expeditions ,  publications in students’ projects ;
• International exchange  – lectures and workshops of the leading specialists in Creative Writing, students’ exchange in the best world universities;
•  Help and support in the process of  employment  in various publishing houses, editorials, Mass Media, high schools and universities and PR;
• Creation and participation in  cultural projects ;
• Flexible timetable  enabling students to work while studying.

Our graduates already work in the best publishing houses, universities and schools in Moscow. Their writing is published in the authoritative literary magazines. Their projects (such as prize  “_Litblog”  for the best literary blogger and first Creative Writing Internet resource in Russian  “Mnogobukv” and collections of prose) have gained much attention.

Language of instruction: Russian

You can apply to non-paid place as a foreign student in February. Looking forward to seeing you at Higher School of Economics!

More information about the programme:  https://www.hse.ru/en/ma/litmaster

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