I wondered why I never got personal feedback on my novel from a professional writer. I would have loved to get professional feedback. However, on the other side, the process to stick to 500 words per day 5 days a week, submitting each week a chapter, and doing the group reading each act turned out a good process I was able to stick to. I have to admit that I have taken in parallel the four modules of the creative writing course. I would have never been able to write the book I wanted to write for years. Now I ended up with one first volume of three in a total.

Thank you for having me brought up to this level.

PS: the technical process that one cannot edit a chapter is cumbersome, that Coursera repeatedly shut down the saving process.... this is very hard to take.

Much feedback has been not helpful, and some are, so, I took those and indeed they inspired me to change things.

This novel writing course was impressive where I have learned how to use my creativity to convey to others what I want to share as a writer with them. I took this course with pleasure through the entire step-by-step process that helped me complete a full-length piece of fiction in English. Of course, this process helped me write my novel. Writing regularly helps to keep yourself in good shape, teaches to be disciplined and promotes orderliness. Without a doubt, I will use these tools and techniques in the future in my writing and teaching practice. Thank you for such a thoughtful and quality course.

Exactly what I was looking for. A challenging, yet mellow course to start me on my way.

I was enjoying the lectures right from when the instructor, David Wheeler, spoke his first hynotizing sentence. I know I picked the right choice and look forward to putting such good advice to work in my future endeavors. Thank you!

Being a full-time student was not a problem in achieving the goal that the course offered. The technique and tips taught will always remain in my mind for the next time I write. Awesome course! 100% recommended.

An excellent course. The trainer guided us thr=roughout the course. Deadlines helped us complete all tasks.

I am planning to self-publish my novel.

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.

I really learnt a lot. Sir you have inspired me to write. The course is so good can make any one a good writer. Thank You for sharing all the information

Self discipline was of course a necessity, but I was given the tools I needed to write a full-length, 50,000-word novel. Thank you, Professor Wheeler!

I really enjoyed while I was watching those useful videos <3 many thanks

I would prefer the professor to review my writings during the course.

I don't know which is at fault with the stupid opening page of the website...Michigan State or Coursera. I open it and get the stupid thing that asks me to tell you about me. Every damn time. And then, just below that is a Welcome back, and then the bloody stupid little blue lines that say Home Progress and Completed. If you click on Home and Progress, you get the exact same thing....nothing! Progress doesn't show your progress. It frequently shows an assignment THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY COMPLETED and the most stupid thing of all is if you click on Completed, you don't get what work you completed yesterday, or the day before, so you can review your own work. You get a thing about courses you took THREE YEARS AGO. Who cares???? I want to know what I did yesterday or the day before to see if I have any comments from my peers. Or to verify exactly what I wrote. I don't give a flip what I did three years ago. In another location, it would be fine if you had a button that shows what previous courses you may have taken three years ago. AND THEN, the most stupid thing is, I try to find my submittals, it takes half a dozen clicks or more....of clicking on this or clicking on that to find my submittals. How bloody stupid of your website to make things so difficult. Jesus! And then, I spend hours and hours and hours trying to write a logline, or a dramatic question, or a chapter of a novel, and post it, and then get zero or maybe one comment from my peers. What kind of teacher/learning exercise is this? How do we get feedback? It is one thing for Coursera to say we're not getting a grade, but we don't get any feedback.

This class is a joke. The first couple of weeks have actual assignments, but no real instruction. As a student, you have to do your own research to learn about the topics he briefly mentions. I was okay with that, but I should have looked ahead because after you write Chapter 1, you get short videos that tell you to 'Write Chapter X' and that continues until you get to the end, where you get more short videos that tell you nothing. I only know because I looked ahead and decided not to waste my time here. I'm taking my first chapter and moving to another site where I can actually learn about writing a book. The other thing is that the feedback is really hit and miss. You might have a couple of serious students, but most of them are people who can't even form a complete sentence correctly and are judging your work, all because it's required to continue. That being the case, it's difficult to get good feedback. Mostly though, it's just the lack of instruction. As an adult, I don't need a 15-second video telling me to write the next chapter. I think I can figure that one out on my own. Very disappointing.

This is without doubt the best course I have ever taken. It excels in pedagogy, content and collegial form. My only regret is that I didn't come to it 15-years ago at the start of my lectureship career at University; it would have changed my teaching methodology and probably made me a better person!

MORE COURSES PLEASE BY COURSE LEADER, DAVID WHEELER.

I really enjoyed this course. It taught me a lot on how to be a better writer. David Wheeler is a great instructor, I like his style and he made learning to write a novel fun, and easy. It takes work, but it's fun engaging work. You get to also know if you are good or not, but having fellow students crtique your chapters. I'm glad the course.

Great course. I'm restarting it right now to work on another project. I like the guidance the professor offers in each video lecture, plus the 20 chapter structure is extremely helpful towards creating a book that I feel like I can complete.

I enjoyed this course. After at least three started, but unfinished novels over 40 years, I have finally finished one, and I have 4 others in various stages. Coursera always helps you learn what you need to learn.

This made me realize how much potential i really do have in writing and it made me find out that I love writing and reading books.

A wonderful course. Received writing tips from a very talented instructor. Thank you so much sir.

Great course to get you to the end of your first novel. The platform is a little frustrating sometimes. But, if you stick to it, and write every day...you WILL have a finished book at the end of the course! (Albeit unedited, of course.) :) I highly recommend this class to anyone struggling to finish a project. Thank you!

Nice course. David was great but would have been better to let the lecturer edit people chapters better. Instead of always getting feedback from group. It was not always good but discouraging.

It was a great experience ,I really enjoyed it.

While I really think this is a great course idea (as doing anything else like this would require a more expensive payment option), there are areas where I would suggest Coursera and the host come back to fix. First, in every video the host says that we are expected to give 5 peer-reviews/feedback, however, Coursera makes each person do 6. This can be hard as we are expected to read 2500 words per chapter, so multiplied by 6 and you have a total of 15,000 words per week (and that's only for the "Write the Chapter" parts. Second, a lot of writers nowadays are worried about plagiarism, and with the inclusion of AI in our society increasing each day, writers want their work to be protected. Even though Coursera doesn't allow anyone to copy another person's submission, that doesn't mean it's safe. Here's what I would suggest: make each person join a group through a Coursera-made one, where it's limited to 5 people who are writing at the same time in real time as you, and have all 5 members review each other's work by accessing it through Coursera. Similarly to having your own private Discord, but on Coursera, and have them be notified when a group member has uploaded their work (for example, if some people are behind, a person can continue on in the course instead of having to wait, then come back to give feedback). Given that we are all trying to stay on track with each other, having deadlines for these assignments should be crucial as well. Please do consider revamping this course. We love being a part of it, but times have changed and we need to make sure things are up to date.

I'm in the 3rd week and for some odd reason I am unable to receive any feedback on my work. Though, I should review and give feedback on others which has me to think this isn't supportive. The other thing is you cannot reach anyone for help. You'r simply on your own and if I would've paid for a certificate. This would have been a very frustrating and unfair course.

I did submit a question in the forum and still no answer as if I'm invisible. This wasn't so for the first 2 weeks.

I'm not done.

Too many people here that really have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to peer reviews. Not everyone falls into this category of course. There are some great story tellers in this course. The reviews are based on a criterion required to complete an assignment. However, there are so many terrible writers on here that when it comes to reviews, they only implement negativity towards your story. Then they try to change it, break you down, and leave you without the ability to respond back to them. I read the required writing assignments from these people and was appalled to discover how terrible all of their writing and storytelling came to be.

My suggestion is to just believe in yourself, take a creative writing course, grammar, and editing to help develop your writing skills. Engage in an active community with other writers such as poetry readings for example or join library clubs in your local areas. There are too many people here that are not great and will tear you down just for a grade because that is the only way they can contribute to the community from this platform.

On a positive note, the instructor here is quite passionate, and you can learn a lot from him. There is just zero control for the toxic element that comes from this course.

To all the great writers out there discovering this path, flee the wretched winds of toxicity. To all the others, do not quit your day jobs.