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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Write Your First Novel by Michigan State University

4.3
stars
298 ratings

About the Course

WRITE YOUR FIRST NOVEL From Inc.com - The 30 Most Popular Online Courses of 2020 "Write Your First Novel" made the list at #15 https://lnkd.in/gZqscmn If you’ve ever had the dream, the desire or even just a vague notion that you would like to write a novel, this course is for you. Whether you are a full-time student, have a full-time job, a family to take care of or all of the above, you can do it. Really! And I will help you get there. In this Course, you will write your first novel. Many people say they have often thought about writing a novel and are planning to do it someday, but very few ever actually do. However, in this course, you will do it. You will learn how to form a basic idea, any idea, into a structure and discipline that will allow you to create, write and complete a fully-realized novel ready to submit for publication. If you have any concerns regarding the protection of your original work, Coursera's privacy policy protects the learner's IP and you are indeed the sole owners of your work. Here is a link to a trailer for the course. To view the trailer, please copy and paste the link into your browser. https://vimeo.com/385761391/c5e7f873cf Learner review: "It was a great experience, I really enjoyed it." In Write Your First Novel, you’ll learn to break down your creative endeavor into components and you’ll discover a process that will allow you to do what few have done: produce and complete a full-length work of fiction in the form of a 50,000-word novel. Learner Review: "You teach storytelling like no other teacher. I cannot put in words how much I appreciate it. This daily writing, and the product that comes with it, have been a great mental support during the pandemic time. Art is a support for life, as Stephen King said, and thanks to you I experienced it first-hand during this time. I think I will keep writing 500 words per night for the rest of my life. I owe it to you. You taught me how to write a novel, and it works every time. Huge thanks, and wishing you all the best." I am a proponent of experiential learning (also known as active learning). My lectures are short and to the point, designed in a step-by-step process essential to your success as a writer. I will guide you, I will show you how to get there, hopefully I will inspire you. You will learn through your own activity - which is writing! I firmly believe that the only way to become a writer is to write, write, write! Learner review: "As a published author, I took this course to relearn the skills. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every lecture and quiz. This course was very, very helpful and the videos were very well executed. Cheers!" Writing fiction is a truly beautiful thing. Putting your own words on a page to tell a story which enters your readers minds and allows them to share the thoughts, emotions and lives of your characters is a very satisfying, rewarding experience. Learner review: "BEST TEACHER EVER! LOVE THE COURSE."...

Top reviews

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.

LL

Dec 7, 2022

I loved this course! The pacing was good. The instructor was clear without being too wordy and the feedback was helpful and appropriate. I would definitely recommend this course to a friend.

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101 - 125 of 128 Reviews for Write Your First Novel

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 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.

By Suneel K G

May 12, 2021

very short video. For 26 weeks of work, all you get is only motivation, though its importance cannot be discounted.

By Hannah G

Aug 5, 2022

Nothing you can't find out about writing a novel for free elsewhere (for goodness sake, NaNoWriMo has been a thing for YEARS and has been more helpful than this; do that if you want to write. It's much easier to connect to other writer on those fourms than in this class) Got very litttle helpful feedback from peers (you get tired of seeing "Good job!" or "Interesting" over and over again. Those aren't critiques) The videos are so vauge about story structure to cover every type that they aren't helpful. There are books, podcasts, and videos on other platforms that cover much more (I'd actually suggest things that rip into what doesn't work. Learning what doesn't work can help to better stucture things in a way that actually does)

Other issues that drag the class down is there's no way to follow a story from a fellow peer unless they're in a created group OUTSIDE THE CLASS, which negates the need for it in the first place. It doesn't help that I have sites I've used before this class to get feedback. There also isn't any staff intereaction at all. Anything goes wrong there's no help. This already gives off abandoned vibes.

Also, you don't actually have to finish a novel to finish the course; just jump to the last section and answer an open-ended response question on the course itself (I'm sure it doesn't actually check anything, going by the rest of the course's content) and it's fully complete. That's the only thing that's actually graded in the WHOLE course. Again, NaNoWriMo has existed for years now and is free to do. Look that up. You can do a similar setup to that at any time during the year.

By sif

Nov 3, 2022

this course definitely didn't give me what I personally needed. It is ideal for someone who needs to learn the habit of writing regularly, and can benefit from having others to keep them accountable. My review is based on it not meeting my needs, however, there are many folks whose needs it will meet.

By Ricci P

Oct 2, 2023

Find a local writers group instead. And if you want to learn the craft of fiction writing, try Coursera's offering from Wesleyan, which gives lots of advice on technique.