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.

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.

This was a helpful course and it worked for me as a first time writer. The advice and guidance of the teacher is valuable and it helped me through my first ever novel. The only factor that makes it a four star instead of a five star is the part where we have to give feedback to other learners. Some of the feedback I recieved was great, but most of it was vague. Furthermore, sometimes only work submitted years ago was available for review. Overall, I'm glad I took this course and I'm very happy with the results!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

It starts off great, but towards the end, the number of people doing the work drops off dramatically.

I have learned a lot from this course. This course has proved to be very useful for us.

Simple and easy to follow.

Worth your time.

Very helpful.

Hi, This course is great for both first time writers and those with a manuscript that is developed to a degree. First time writers who have a 9 to 5 job will feel rushed because the very short 3-week timeline. Writers with partially done manuscripts will probably benefit the most because they will be compelled to complete their drafts within a short time. Because of the aforesaid, the peer reviews lack depth and are probably of no much use. The requirement to submit six reviews is not necessary at all. Three are more than sufficient. I think Coursera or MSU should create editing/peer-review groups and not leave it to the writers. Have the writers complete a form showing their loglines and genres they are working on and create the working groups of three or four. Or, facilitate a Zoom call where the writers do the same. The 2-minute lectures are probably pep talks as opposed to lectures. Not sure why these could not be expanded to about five to ten minutes and provide for more concrete guidance on selected areas, e.g.: character development, pacing, genres, development of diction, voice etc. Finally, the elephant in the room. Plagiarism. I would give the course a 1-star on how this risk is managed. MSU/Coursera need to explore ways of formal registrations, affidavits, face-to-face Zoom calls, removal of fake accounts, repeated stern warnings etc. The consequence of writers feeling that their work was being plagiarised was that some exceptional writers stopped posting their work. I noted a few sentences here and there that felt as though it is how I write, but I was certain it was not plagiarism. I know it is a free course but I do not think what I am suggesting is massive changes. Just a tweak here and there to improve delivery. Would I take the course again? Yes, because it compelled me to finish my manuscript in double time. Would I recommend the course? Highly.

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.)

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.

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).

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.

I didn't like his BS 3 week deadline for 50K words at 500 words a day but it was fine overall

not bad

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.

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.

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

Dont pay for this.