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via Udemy |
Go to Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/harwood1/
Certainly! Here's a comprehensive review and recommendation for the Coursera course "Show Don't Tell": --- **Course Review and Recommendation: "Show Don't Tell" on Coursera** **Overview** "Show Don't Tell" is one of the most fundamental and often misunderstood principles of effective creative writing. This course, led by esteemed author Seth Harwood, aims to demystify this concept through practical exercises, insightful examples, and creative techniques. Whether you're a novice writer or looking to sharpen your craft, this course offers valuable guidance on how to craft vivid, engaging scenes that draw readers into your story. **Course Content & Structure** The course is thoughtfully structured over four weeks, each focusing on essential aspects of writing that help "show" rather than "tell." - **Week One: Setting / Creating the Stage** Learn how to establish a scene quickly with just enough detail to immerse the reader without slowing down the narrative. The focus is on efficiently conveying context while maintaining tension. - **Week Two: Slowing it Down** Discover the importance of pacing and savoring moments to build a more immersive experience. The emphasis is on positive storytelling—what you want to highlight—rather than fearing boring the reader. - **Week Three: Verbs** Explore how to choose powerful, dynamic verbs that create movement and energy. Learn to identify static versus active writing to keep your scenes lively. - **Week Four: Dialogue with Bodies** Master the art of blending dialogue with action to make scenes more vivid. This week emphasizes how physicality and spoken words can work together to reveal character and advance the story. **Instructor & Credibility** Seth Harwood’s background as an MFA graduate from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, along with his bestselling publications, lends credibility and depth to his teaching. His experience teaching at prominent institutions like Stanford and Harvard further enhances the course's quality. **What You Will Gain** Participants will develop a clear, actionable process for creating captivating scenes that captivate readers’ senses and emotions. The course emphasizes practical skills, encouraging writers to approach scenes with confidence and creativity. It highlights the importance of description, action, and dialogue—not as boring or excessive, but as vital tools to connect and engage your audience. **Who Should Take This Course** - Aspiring and established writers aiming to improve their scene-writing skills. - Students seeking a better understanding of "show" vs. "tell" and how to balance the two. - Writers interested in making their stories more immersive, vivid, and compelling. **Final Thoughts & Recommendation** "Show Don't Tell" is an excellent course that cuts through the common misconceptions about storytelling. Seth Harwood’s engaging teaching style and practical approach make complex ideas accessible and enjoyable. If you are looking to elevate your writing by mastering scene creation, description, and character action, this course is highly recommended. Whether you're working on fiction, creative nonfiction, or any narrative form, this course will equip you with the tools to create scenes that resonate, entertain, and move your readers. Don't just tell your stories—show them with confidence! --- Feel free to personalize this review further based on your experience or specific interests!
"Show, don't tell." We've all heard this dictum time and time again. Seth Harwood is here to show you what it really means to do this on the page.Show don't tell. You know the advice. You've heard it more times than you can count. But what does it really mean? And why is showing necessarily better? Is it possible to show too much? What's the right balance?Seth Harwood is here to unpack the most-heard (and possibly most misunderstood) rule of writing through exercises and examples to give you a sense of how showing establishes a strong connection between your story and your readers.Start with the creation of visual scenes: think about setting, description, and characters' bodies in space to ground your reader. What does he or she need to know to enter your story's world?Description doesn't have to be boring, drawn-out, or a dirty word. In fact, it can be fun to write, gripping, and illuminating, even capable of moving the plot forward.Sometimes writers have a fear of showing-they don't want to bore readers-but this fear actually has killed far more good writing than it has led readers to enjoy.Know what? When your reader can see your story, he or she won't want to drop the book or stop seeing what your characters do next!In this course students will develop a process that enables them to wade into the unknown of new work and create scenes that captivate, move, and thrill readers.Seth Harwood earned an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has gone on to publish ten books, including the bestsellers Jack Wakes Up, In Broad Daylight, and Everyone Pays. His most recent work is The Maltese Jordans, the tale of the world's rarest pair of kicks. He also teaches creative writing at Stanford Continuing Studies and Harvard Extension School.Week One: Setting / Creating the StageWhere does your scene take place? Learn how to open with a quick series of the story's "given" information to clue in readers even while you get the tension and action rolling.Week Two: Slowing it downA key tenet of "show don't tell" involves taking time to enjoy what's on the page. Here we'll learn to work from positives, what we want, instead of being guided by the fear of boring readers.Week Three: VerbsHow can you identify when your writing is static (too slow) and dynamic (showing)? Identifying three key types of verbs will give you a new tool to evaluate what you're bringing to the page.Week Four: Dialogue with Bodies!Good action scenes often have quick dialogue. Here we'll work to blend dialogue and action together so that characters are seen and not just heard. Looking at the balance here will give you another strong tool for evaluating whether you're showing or not.