I learned a lot in this course. The learning materials (videos and assignments) are great. The only criticism I have is the vast majority of students have extremely limited English skills. It's odd that a writing class, taught in English, would cater to students who don't have a reasonable command of the language. Nor is it fair to those fluent in English to have their grades tied to peer reviews when the work they are reviewing is written in incomprehensible broken English. I imagine, that's part of the reason so many students give one word critiques.

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!

I liked the classes, I learned a lot but I don't like the essay review system. Some of the people taking the course don't care about the effort of those of us who take this seriously and that is very discouraging.

Maybe Coursera can fix that and make the revisions through a program or something better. It's sad to find out you took so much time writing an essay to find out that whoever that had to read it just placed nonsense words just to fill the blanks. I rather read that my work was criticized, than to see "dhfgdhfhf" in the comments.

The sometimes very restrictive and challenging assignment criteria helped me to step out of my comfort zone and learn, that yes indeed, I can write a believable and engaging story snippet, even if I do not at all identify with the framework I am required to follow. I definitely improved my technique and became more comfortable to consider writing something, that at first glance seems futile. I would have given it 5 starts, if the question prompts for reviews would have been a bit more related to the specifics of the assignment criteria.

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.

Craft of Character did a lot for my ability to create characters, and I learned a lot about writing dialogue, and the different points of view that those dialogues can come from. Instructions were always perfectly clear and easy to understand. Of course I wasn't always expert at the week's process involved, but that wasn't because of the directions being in anyway unclear. I loved taking this course, and will definitely be continuing on in the Specialization.

I enjoyed this course and I would recommend it to others. I enjoyed the assignments and felt like they challenged and stretched me in good ways.

Criticisms include: some confusing titles - why is the third section called Location, Location, Location, when it is the second section that is about location? Some of the wording in the rubrics seem to refer to things not discussed before. So, some revision and clarity would be much appreciated.

I like Amy Bloom, but the lectures don't provide the explanations or the processes for creating characters. In the Craft of Plot, Skyhorse gave us the tools we need to develop plot and structure, and even how to start to develop characters. But in this course, the lectures don't do that. They seem more philosophical than instructional and all of the lectures go right over my head. Craft of Plot gave me hope, Craft of Character confused me.

Excellent course. The video presentations are well done with information that is vital for developing the skill required to be an effective writer. They include videos that discuss concepts and interviews with successful writers. The assignments are challenging but enjoyable and well paced. This the second course I have taken in the specialization, and I am pleased with the big level of expertise that is shared by the instructors.

Course content and exercises are so good = they are worth 5 stars. However, the peer reviews on exercises are failing miserably in that most people don't even bother filling in the answers to the questions with any real content, just a few nonsensible characters to get past the required field system checks. Thus, I down graded overall to 4 star. Disappointing peer but I will pursue genuine feedback in writing groups. Recommend.

Like other courses in the specialization, I learned a lot in this course especially about defining and shaping the characters in my fiction stories. There is one thing in this course that I particularly liked more than the others and that was having us, the author, state what we wanted feedback on for each assignment. Doing this yielded better feedback than that received in the first course in the specialization I took.

A great course overall. The peer feedback is sometimes informative, sometimes lacking. One word peer reviews should not be allowed. Perhaps there needs to be a preliminary assessment of of participants to see if they qualify for the course. Perhaps have a reporting function that allows the learner to report insufficient feedback. The power in MOOCs is learning from one another as well as from the instructor.

I really enjoyed this course. The lectures were particularly interesting. I think one thing that could be improved is the phrasing of the assignments. I wasn't entirely sire of what was required for each week (especially week 2). But saying that I feel a lot more prepared in regards to approaching characters and I feel equipped with many different thoughts and techniques to tackle character in the future.

The course content and some of the assignments provided me with insights to approach and review my own writing with better understanding of sculpting of characters. Also, I got perspective on the dynamics of dialogue, the selection of POV to tell a story most effectively, and the tone of voice of the author that underlies the narrative between the dialogues and monologues. Grateful for the learning.

I gained a lot from the program but all four courses would benefit so much more by even minor contact from the staff. I've written questions and often get no response. There needs a higher commitment from Staff to engage with students enrolled in the Creative Writing Program. After completing all four programs and now doing Capstone, this is definitely a failure that could be so easily addressed.

Good course (I did the free version, full disclosure). Learned enough about character development to help me with my fiction - and non-fiction. I teach creative nonfiction and you need to understand how to make the people you use compelling. Wish there was more exposition, factual step-by-step and less interviewing. Liked the Plot class better for that reason

I found this course a little less enthralling than the other three, mostly due to the fact that the videos lacked the interactive element that the other courses had, and due to the fact that there was a lot of repetition in what was being said. Contents was interesting, and I loved the assignments, but the whole thing lacked a little pep.

I took this course after the Craft of Plot. The videos and writing assignments were not as helpful as those in the Craft of Plot. The peer reviews were mostly non-existent, some with one word feedback ... good, yes, no. With that said, I still learned a lot about voice, dialogue, point of view. Good for beginning writers like me.

I liked the course -- there were plenty of useful tips throughout. However, I felt some of the assignments were unnecessarily oblique and complicated (particularly the second assignment). Ultimately, it was a helpful course, though I feel much of the information, expectation, and specific instruction could be more streamlined.

I learnt a lot! The assignments and the videos helped me understand more about character building and dialogue writing

However, the videos were rather vague at times without precisely hitting the topic it was supposed to cover. It would be great if you could ensure people only typed appropriate feedback in peer-review segments

Two things: 1) these courses are advertised as "at your own pace" (I think) yet I get a message that an assignment is past-due; 2) I don't understand why some of the submissions I am given to review are 4-5 years old?

On the VERY positive side Amy Bloom was an amazing teacher. I learned so very much in this course. Thank you!

The course content, lectures, and writing assignments are interesting, engaging, and appropriately challenging. The course suffers from lack of feedback on writing assignments. It is extremely disheartening to have AI "check the box" rather than receiving feedback from actual people. This is how writing improves.

Some really good inputs on creating characters (and on creating the voice of the narrator), as well as creating the tone of a piece of writing in general. I found the writing tasks quite challenging, but they also offer great insights, especially in terms of the possibilities of which point of view to write from.

Very useful instruction and exercises throughout the course. Only problem is the generally weak peer review process. At a minimum, some quality control is required to eliminate the one word "peer reviews". It is very dispiriting to people taking the course seriously. Thanks for the opportunity to learn.

Teaching is great. Course is good but there is just one problem that the assignment reviewed are by other people taking the course. I would love if we can get grades or feedback from the instructor or by qualified Mentors. It will give us more perspective on writing if reviewed in a more critical way.