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.

In this course, Amy Bloom teaches students the different ways of creating a character, whether by observing family members or friends or creating them from scratch—this course goes into detail on what it takes to craft convincing characters and understand them so that the reader is convinced about their actions. The course also goes into detail about the narrator's voice and the many different points of view that a writer can use (first person, third person omniscient, etc). This is a good entry level course for beginners and those that want to gain an understanding of character creation. The assignments were thought provoking and really helped with putting into practice the concepts laid out by the videos. This Course helps for writers that are just starting out by allowing them to develop setting, dialogue and actions for in-depth characterization of people in a story.

This the best writing course that I have taken. Only drawback is that while I appreciate the positive feedback, it would be helpful to have professional feedback.

With this course, I gathered a strong sense of how to develop a character for a story or scene.

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!

Course would be more meaningful if a mentor intermittently commented on a students work.

Very helpful :)

Auditing this course was a great insight to many writers' own method and approach to the ideas of character, dialogue and voice! It was incredibly informative and I will be trying these suggestions out in my own writing exercises. Thank you team!

The information provided is great, but there's so many "shop talks" aka interviews with other Coursera instructors that it misses out on so many possible true lessons.

A very interesting course, provided great insights into the in-depth process of creating character. The assignments were challenging and the peer feedback was very beneficial. I just wish the course focused more on the technicalities involved in character creation. Many of the points raised in each module felt repetitive. More energy and engagement from the main instructor would also have been helpful. Overall a perfectly satisfactory course that really got me writing. Thank you to the instructor and all the guest writers for their time and effort.

Excellent course for having the first insights about the different kind of narrator, learning about how to build background and subtext in order to show our characters trough details, actions, and locations. Thank you!

Helpful, but not very much.

I enjoyed Amy Bloom's teaching style and the way she relayed the message across. It really felt like being with a friend at a coffeeshop, analyzing different parts of books and stories that we've read and commenting on them. It was casual, comfortable, and very informative. The assignments allowed me to experiment and unlock new ways of getting and utilizing inspiration for characters, and for giving my characters a proper and interesting depth.

Estoy verdaderamente agradecida por la oportunidad de desarrollar mis habilidades trabajando en conjunto con personas que compartimos una misma pasión: escribir.

I see a marked improvement in both my confidence and skill as a writer from each of these classes.

Amy Bloom was amazing. I loved her style of teaching. I would absolutely take a class with her again

Have learnt many new tricks and Amy Bloom's talks are absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much!

Amy Bloom is such a caring, conscientious, nurturing teacher, who addresses the class (via video camera) as if only speaking to you. There's a kind of intimacy to her teaching style, and her sincerity and expertise at expressing concepts and examples of character craft allowed her teachings to truly "seat" in my mind. Thank you, Amy.

Not by far as good as the first module (Craft of Plot). This course seemed less planned and structured. The videos were mostly interviews that sort of touched upon the subjects but hardly ever got into detail. The assignments were often vague and harder to understand.

I learned a lot thanks to this course. The teachers are wonderful, and so is the information provided. I can feel my writing improve. Thank you:)

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.

The second part of Wesleyan's Creative Writing course is, yet again, a wealth of knowledge for aspiring writers of all types. Thanks to Amy Bloom, Coursera, and Wesleyan University!

The course could have been delivered better, but I enjoyed the challenging assignments.

Amy Bloom's way of taking you right down to the essence of things brings a debth to your understanding of creative writing and ups your work. Her focus in the course on character and how to reveal this critical part of your writing is an essential tool any aspiring writer should have. A must do!

My second course in this specialization. Definitely had me thinking critically about how I write characters and a lot of tools that I hadn't really considered before.