Coursera children's writing course

JetFueledCar · Sep 11, 2015

I was reading an old thread that mentioned writing courses and, since it's too late to get into an official one this term, I decided, hey, let's look and see if Coursera has anything for creative writers. And they do, at least for children's writers: https://www.coursera.org/learn/writing-for-children

It looks to be pretty basic, but just in case anyone's interested, I figured I'd put it out there. I'm going to try it and see how it works out.

heza · Sep 11, 2015

I hope it's helpful to you. Let us know how you find it.

Looking strictly at the descriptions of the modules, it's very generic and doesn't seem tailored to children's writing but rather fiction writing in general. It may be that content is very tailored. Do come back and give a report!

JetFueledCar · Sep 11, 2015

heza said:
I hope it's helpful to you. Let us know how you find it.

Looking strictly at the descriptions of the modules, it's very generic and doesn't seem tailored to children's writing but rather fiction writing in general. It may be that content is very tailored. Do come back and give a report!

I write everything from MG up through NA, so whether it's tailored or not I can make use of it. Assuming it's not so basic I already know everything. I'll definitely come back with updates as I work my way through it.

neandermagnon · Sep 11, 2015

No idea about their writing courses but their human evolution course was excellent.

JetFueledCar · Sep 14, 2015

This is very much geared toward beginning writers. They insist that you'll get something even if you've written a whole book, but then there's ten minutes of video with such useful advice as "set aside time to write" and "read" and "keep a notebook to write down ideas." Hopefully it gets more useful later on, I'm still at the beginning.

heza · Sep 14, 2015

JetFueledCar said:
This is very much geared toward beginning writers. They insist that you'll get something even if you've written a whole book, but then there's ten minutes of video with such useful advice as "set aside time to write" and "read" and "keep a notebook to write down ideas." Hopefully it gets more useful later on, I'm still at the beginning.

Good to know. I mean writing for all categories starts with the same basics, pretty much, so sure, I'd expect some of that. But if it's labeled as a children's writing course, I'd also expect it to eventually drill down to issues in writing kidlit, specifically.

JetFueledCar · Sep 14, 2015

heza said:
Good to know. I mean writing for all categories starts with the same basics, pretty much, so sure, I'd expect some of that. But if it's labeled as a children's writing course, I'd also expect it to eventually drill down to issues in writing kidlit, specifically.

I took (part of; that was the year I dropped out for health reasons) a short narrative course and we never talked about "making a writing life." The teacher assumed everyone knew how to set aside writing times and get ideas for things. But then, that course also wasn't talking about turning writing into a lifelong pursuit, so that might be part of it.

JetFueledCar · Sep 16, 2015

There's so much information that I either know or that doesn't apply to me that I'm probably going to drop this. I get more information from the Odyssey podcast, which I can listen to on my commute with no effort, and that information is geared to habitual writers. This is geared toward people who don't know how to get ideas, which is one thing I never have a problem with.

Chris P · Sep 16, 2015

Thanks for providing updates of your experience on this. It sounds like I can get the same type and quality of advice from the "write your dream novel" books that are perpetually coming out. I learned the most by participating here.

I've taken a couple Coursera and FutureLearn courses (not on writing, though). I agree they are geared toward beginners, and in that way are very good, but the quality depends on who put the course together.

Coursera children's writing course

JetFueledCar

tiny hedgehog

heza

JetFueledCar

tiny hedgehog

neandermagnon

Nolite timere, consilium callidum habeo!

JetFueledCar

tiny hedgehog

heza

JetFueledCar

tiny hedgehog

JetFueledCar

tiny hedgehog

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred