Gathering Of Dedicated Scribblers discussion

Create a new topic and copy/paste your sharable link there when you need a few more reviews. This will help readers connect with stories they like and authors connect with reviewers that were helpful.

Hi-hi, quick question, for coursea are we able to resubmit our work or edit it?

You can edit it but it has to be done using the Coursera app on your phone. (weird, right?) I've done it a few times. One note, if you already got notes from other readers they will disappear.

@B.C. I would recommend not resubmitting your work unless you did a complete change to the chapter. (Basically re-writing the entire chapter) You will lose all feedback and reviews from that chapter when you resubmit. The best course of action is to write down important feed back, makes the changes and continue on to the next chapter. When you reach a milestone, you will ask someone to read your work from that point on i.e. chapters 1-9. That reviewer will be able to read your updated version.

Andres wrote: "@B.C. I would recommend not resubmitting your work unless you did a complete change to the chapter. (Basically re-writing the entire chapter) You will lose all feedback and reviews from that chapte..."

Yes, that makes sense, I did huge changes to everything so that would help.

I am writing a romance novel about a dating couple graduating high school and attending separate colleges next month. In this chapter they are planning to drive to Jeremiah's college for the "new freshman weekend event" on campus. Since the college is so far away they plan to make fun stops along the way.

I need more reviews for one of my chapters. If you have time can you review it and leave feedback? Here is the link to Chapter 4:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Thanks

Hi Lisa, I have left you a review, good job!

If you have time check out my chapter 4 also, the link is just above your post.

I reviewed your chapter four and provided some suggestions to think about as you write to improve your novel.

Thanks for reviewing my chapter. I will include many of your suggestion when I re-write the chapter. Thanks again for the fast feedback.

Due to coursera's weird thingy I had to post chapter 5 AND 6 together, oh well!
Reviews appreciated, leave me links to your chapters and I will reciprocate also.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Lalitha wrote: "Thanks, Everyone. I joined a group on slack which seems to have disintegrated,
I am writing my first novel and quite enjoy the experience. My last upload on Coursera was Chapter 5.
The link for Cha..."

Hi Lalitha, I have reviewed both your chapters!

Hi,
Please help me to choose between two novel ideas
Link to my Novel Idea:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Please help me decide whether i should go on with "Love Standard Time" or "Spiritual Gangster" and it would be helpful, if you mention why.

I am looking for assistance with my table read of act one, chapters 1-7. Due to covid-19 restrictions I am doing this more of an individual reading instead of a group gathering. I am listing the links below to the individual originally posted chapters. Can anyone read each chapter (entire first act) and provide feedback on each chapter? Do the chapters flow nicely from one chapter to another? Are the characters acting believable? Is there anything overemphasized or under-emphasized? Is there anything out of place? If you have any suggestions for improvements, please let me know. Hope you like the beginning of my romance novel. Here are the links:

Chapter 1:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...


Chapter 2:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...


Chapter 3:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...


Chapter 4:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...


Chapter 5:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...


Chapter 6:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...


Chapter 7:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Hi Lisa, to make it easier to find someone able to read the whole thing, could you make a document for those that are up for it to just read it all in one go?

It will also make a big difference to the experience of reading it so people will be able to see better how it works.

Something I did, to find people to have an exchange of the larger manuscript was to do reviews here of the many people looking for reviews, and then those who reviewed back, if their reviews of my work seemed to make sense, I joined with them to do a larger manuscript read.

Doing good reviews of other people's work is not a waste of time, it is a way to first get better at doing reviews and second, find the ones that review in the same way, because you don't want to have someone say yes I will read it, and then all you get back is:

Cool, great job, seems nice!

(This is what I got back as a review of one of my chapters, in exchange for a review that I took an hour to do, and was almost two pages long, and this is all they bothered to say)

The fact is that many people need a larger manuscript read BUT they also have to do one for someone else, or if they want more than one review, they need to do more than one.

And you want to find people that WILL pay attention to the things you are asking for, and for that you need to be ready to also pay attention to someone else's work.

It is absolutely possible someone here has the time to read this, could happen. Also could happen they pay attention to right things and not do an unhelpful review.

If this proves hard to find though, I would advise looking at those that already reviewed your chapters if you have any good reviews (reviews that are thoughtful and helpful), and contacting those people and exchanging reviews with them.

If all your reviews are on coursera and not possible to contact them, start here! You can post link to latest chapter (or any chapter) here and review other people's latest chapters, so you start finding what people's reviews match your style and you find helpful.

Then these people can exchange a large manuscript review with you.

Hi Liavali, for your information, I do review other writers on the coursera platform every week. Sometimes I do ten peer reviews a week though only five are required each week. I invest alot of time each week providing feedback to others but it takes me weeks to get five people to review my story. I have only been on Goodreads for about a week. I posted one chapter on Goodreads last week and you were the only one who reviewed it. Right after you reviewed mine, I reviewed your chapter four last week and this was my 8th review I did last week. I only have to do five for this class. I did belong to a writer's group on coursera. I even created an online writing website for the group (with a unique private URL just for members to join) where I posted inspiring quotes and videos for the members each week. I put up information about writing tips and events as well. By no reason of my own, the writing group fell apart. A few people chose to drop the class, another person became "invisible" for a few weeks and then tried catching up but it was not possible as they were too far behind. Another person wrote slowly and never reviewed anyone else's story etc. Due to the pandemic, I do not feel comfortable doing a face to face table read which is why I thought Goodreads would have readers who want to help me with the table read which is the week I am on in the class. Lastly, posting the entire story (all seven chapters) into one document and posting it online is NOT recommended because it can be easily misused by others. Not everyone is honest you know. This is why the teacher said more than once in an email and as a discussion response to post it on the coursera website with your copyright information because it provides legal safety to the writer. You can not copy and paste the material from coursera and if someone does use one's story incorrectly coursera site will be able to prove who owns it by who and when it was posted. So my links are going to remain. You are in the class, you have received the same information from the teacher. I am trying to be a stronger writer and get feedback on my writing and to complete this class. I have done my reviews each week and yet I do not receive reviews from others, that is the reason I came to Goodreads hoping people would be more willing to help after many people on Goodreads had the same bad experience as I did on coursera.

Hi Lisa,

I was not in any way saying you did anything wrong.

The problem with coursera is exactly that, the course is set up so you do random reviews, but there is no guarantee that you can get reviews. AND you cannot find the people who reviewed your work to exchange reviews with them.

I understand your frustration, I also did more reviews than required on coursera until the time I realized this was getting me nowhere.

It's just a badly designed course that does not meet the students needs.

Like you I found writing groups outside and one of them never became active, another is so and so but really the people there give one paragraph reviews that are not to the point. And here it has been easier, because I found some people that did reviews that made sense so we joined to exchange work.

I am not in any way saying you SHOULD do that, just saying, it's hard to find someone willing to read all your chapters if you haven't got someone already in mind, whose reviews are helpful to you. Because you can get someone to read yours, that asks you to read theirs, and you spend a lot of time doing a reading and put effort into a review and understanding their story and they send you a review of your seven chapters that says nothing useful or pertinent.

There are no guarantees on exchanging reviews, of course, BUT if you at least exchanged reviews a couple of times to get a sense of how they read and review, it is a better situation to get actual helpful reviews of such a large manuscript.

Not saying you did anything wrong, just pointing out that what I think you want is people who review all the chapters and can give you helpful reviews, not just say things that make no sense and do not help you at all in continuing your story or in improving it.

And I was just sharing with you what i found to be the best way to get this.

If you are not interested in my advice just ignore it, it is not a rule. It is just advice.

If anyone has time or able to reciprocate reviews, here is my chapter 7

https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

chapter 8 is here:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Do you mind if I add a chapter or two? I did Coursera and it is worthless.

Hi Rachel, absolutely, add it or give a link to a google doc, as you wish.

Will get back to reviewing as soon as I feel more able!!

Thank you. I will try to participate as much as possible, but there will be times when I can't b/c of my job and MS.

Liavali wrote: "If anyone has time or able to reciprocate reviews, here is my chapter 7

https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

chapte..."

I just responded to your story. Very nice. Thank you.

Yash wrote: "Hi,
Please help me to choose between two novel ideas
Link to my Novel Idea:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-......"

I just responded to your first chapter.

Anyone else struggling with Coursera? My chapters are missing or better yet I can't access the shareable link. grrr

I am writing a book of historical, fantasy and romance genres.
The story is about:
Seventeen-year-old Issia doesn't fit in the world she lives in. She looks and thinks differently than other people she knows. She believes in a better world where money doesn't mean everything. She lives in a poor kingdom, where as a result, people are desparate for money. They surrender to no one but those, who are rich and can offer them more wealth. Those people forgot about gods, the highiest existance. But somewhere inside she still believes in them, because her existance is tightly entwined with theirs.
The Crown Prince Kydean is forced to marry sombody, whom he never met. One concrete person: extraordinary girl named Issia. However, he thinks he isn't capable of loving a woman, since he spent his whole life as a soldier of his father's army and put romance aside. But what he learns of his betrothed completely changes the way he looks at the world.
A war is drawing near and it's up to them to join their powers and save the world. Nonetheless, the task cannot be done until Issia accepts who she really is.

I intend to make it great, hopefuly you will like it.

Here are links for my first three chapters:

Chapter one:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Chapter 2:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Chapter 3:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

Enjoy

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T...

Try this one.

Daniela wrote: "I am writing a book of historical, fantasy and romance genres.
The story is about:
Seventeen-year-old Issia doesn't fit in the world she lives in. She looks and thinks differently than other peopl..."

Daniela, do you have a working title to your story?

Andres wrote: "Daniela wrote: "I am writing a book of historical, fantasy and romance genres.
The story is about:
Seventeen-year-old Issia doesn't fit in the world she lives in. She looks and thinks differently ..."

Yes, it is called Rebirth of hope. Is there something in particular why you are asking?

@Daniela, nothing in particular. I'm also a fantasy writer and was interested in your story because of similar genre writing. I thought it would be nice to know the title of your story before I began getting into it.

@Andres, if it inspired you in a way, I'm glad. I wish you good luck with your story.

Hi guys, I'm new and would like you to review my story.
It's fantasy/superpowers/YA

The Protectors: A teenage girl discovers she has superpowers after entering a new school and learning that she had been living a life sheltered from a dangerous secret about what she is capable of.

I'm currently writing chapter 4 and due to helpful discussions and reviews, chapters 1 and 2 are already different from what is uploaded to COURSERA, but I think it's readable still.

Chapter 1: http://shorturl.at/jsDGV

Chapter 2: http://shorturl.at/psGM5

Chapter 3: http://shorturl.at/enuDI

Looking forward to meeting some writers!

M.L. wrote: "You can edit it but it has to be done using the Coursera app on your phone. (weird, right?) I've done it a few times. One note, if you already got notes from other readers they will disappear."

I have tried just now but no, you only have access to the videos. Nothing more.

Andres wrote: "@B.C. I would recommend not resubmitting your work unless you did a complete change to the chapter. (Basically re-writing the entire chapter) You will lose all feedback and reviews from that chapte..."

Where do you find anyone to review your work is the BIGGEST problem I have. I resorted to beg friends and family...

Christine,

Create a new topic on this thread with the title of your book as the topic. In coursera click the sharable link then copy it from your http and paste it as a new comment. This way we can click on it and instantly be taken to your work.

You can also create a creative writing tab under your profile here on goodreads. It will be open to public view but we can read your work there and write comments below. The third option would be to ask someone here if they can trade work through emails.

When I had 10 chapters completed I traded work with 2 others who had 10 chapters as well. This is nice because you are giving your time to review someone else's work but they are giving you that same time back in return.

How many chapters do you currently have written?

Hey there! I'm new to this group, but I think it is an amazing idea!
My story in short: Two young adults from the elfin and dragontaming folks happen to stumble upon each other in the woods while hunting and turn out to be the main characters of a centuries old prophecy that might bring peace back in Dresenga if they manage to see past their differences and unite their powers.

It would be amazing if I could get some reviews on my first chapter!
https://www.coursera.org/learn/write-...

I will also try to review some of your chapters this weekend!

Hi Danee, welcome to the GODS.

When you get a chance can you create a new topic under Coursera Reviews using the title of your book as the subject. I've got some time I'll hop over and read your first chapter now.

So the only problem is that it takes my word document and compacts it all together lol. I swear it looked much nicer when I wrote it. There is no edit button so I cannot go back and space things out to make it more easily read. Either way, I hope something in there helps you.

Hi Kiana. How's the course going so far? What chapter are you on?

That's great to hear. I read your first chapter and left you some advice. If you have any questions just let me know. Keep going, regardless of what you read or feedback you get. Finish the book and from there you can strengthen it but it's best/easiest to work with a completed project.

You're very welcome. Don't get stuck in that loop, the redundancy and frustration from trying to achieve perfection at the first chapter can be a book breaker.

When I wrote my first book it was awful. However, it was at that point where I could visually see the completed process. From there, understanding the story myself, i was able to go back and work on the project as a whole knowing the plot twists and ending.

Happy New Year to you. I wish you well on your journey to become an author.