What’s it like to learn with AWC?

The tutor was helpful & honest with their feedback & advice! Really appreciated the support over the last 5 weeks. And the assignments each week - it was exciting to research the variety of destinations.

With more practice, I am determined to get this travel writing right. I plan to complete more courses with AWC.

Highly recommend this course for the amazing support & advice provided by the teachers. If travel is your passion, what a great way to learn how to communicate this to the world!

I needed structure, I needed to get out of report writing mode and into creative writing mode, I needed some motivation, I needed to actually write.

Loved the feedback. Loved how positive our tutor was.

It gave me what I wanted and now I have the confidence and inspiration to get on with it.

I have three half-finished novels in my computer. They weren't going anywhere. Now they will.

A great big fat thank you.

The course gave me confidence to use Scrivener and the tools to use it immediately. I had downloaded Scrivener a couple of years ago but gave up because it all seemed so hard. Natasha's tuition has allowed me to import my novel, set it up properly and I feel so much more confident going forward.

Natasha's instructions are clear and concise. I liked that I could pause the tuition, go to Scrivener and apply what I had just learned, and then return to the course for the next instruction.

I have always wanted to use Scrivener but I found it hard going on my own to learn everything. I kept thinking that it would be better to spend the time writing, not learning new software. I had downloaded a free copy two years ago, but just found it difficult to learn enough basics to start using it. I don't write sequentially, so I knew that Word wasn't the best choice for me. Taking a workshop with Natasha, I liked her teaching style so decided to purchase Scrivener again as well as Two Hours to Scrivener Power.

The course was professional, interesting, and value for money. The resources were useful to refer to later, and I learned so much in just two hours.

Bernadette is a fantastic tutor, the course content was great, and the course went at the right pace. Bernadette was very positive and knowledgeable.

I enjoyed putting the learning into practice with the homework modules.

I have realised there are different ways to write. I have mainly written thematic reports in the past on specific industries and this SEO course has given me the ability and confidence to realise I can also write marketing copy and apply SEO. The use and placement of keywords is so powerful. Great course for online writers. Thank you!

I enjoy the stimulation of your courses, and this one being fortnightly seemed not too onerous while I'm busy writing my novel.

The way Pamela structured this course was excellent - I learned as much from hearing her critique other people's assignments as I did from hearing my own. Pamela's ability to see and clearly communicate the faults in or suggestions for a piece of writing, and do it quickly, was excellent. She allocated her time between all the students equally so that no one felt left out.

Pamela sprinkles her assessments with absolute gems which hopefully I'll remember the next time I'm tempted to make the same mistake. I learned to trust the reader to fill in the blanks.

The Australian Writers' Centre tutors are not only highly successful authors, but they're able to communicate the 'how' of writing. Thank you for such well-organised, well-staffed courses. The Zoom platform is brilliant.

This is the best writing course I have done (and there have been a few); all those skills the previous courses taught actually coalesced into something so practical I actually felt myself improving.

Pamela is a gift. Her ability to identify how something works, why it works, how to make it work better is just amazing. Even better were the incidental gems she dropped along the way that gave the most brilliant insights into writing.

The Zoom format had the group of students developing a real rapport and interest in each other's work as well as the immediate feedback that could be shared between the students and Pamela.

I feel I might actually have a book in me after all. That a book is not written in one draft and that it is okay to not get it absolutely perfect first time.

Do it. Just do it. Even if you never do write The Book simply giving yourself permission to put words out there is a bonus.

I thought the course sounded like the boost I was needing to improve my writing.

The tutor was great and I was given the help I required. I enjoyed the opportunity to interact with other people to gain feedback.

Do not hesitate to enrol in a course. There are plenty of opportunities.

I absolutely loved it. Pamela is a fantastic teacher and mentor. She is patient and gives you constructive feedback that is useful. The exercises, the teacher and classmates. I have some tools to start writing my novel.

In the last section, the exercises enabled me to summarise my story in a way that pulls out the key elements. I will find that very useful in planning future stories. Can't wait for Part B!

I've written several picture books but was keen to get practical advice on how to progress them and get them published.

I thought the course was excellent. It provided so many practical tips and resources and will allow me to take my writing to the next stage.

Zanni was very responsive, helpful and positive in her feedback. She is clearly a highly experienced writer and teacher and I was very grateful to learn from her.

This is a really high-quality course with an excellent teacher and course materials. I would highly recommend it to anyone!

The Zoom meetings each fortnight were excellent and really helped me to learn. Having helpful comments made about everyone’s writing in a Zoom format - much more useful than just written feedback.

It got me going so I am going to write that book. That it’s ok to keep learning and I can write no matter how good or not so good I might be.

I looked forward to the course each fortnight.

I thoroughly enjoyed these 5 weeks. It has given me a lot. I'm going to carry on with my writing and may do a follow up course in the future.

I gained a lot of practical knowledge from this course. Very helpful positive critique. Writing the assessments and listening to the audio lessons, and feeling that I had found a familiar tribe.

It's given me a much better idea on how to go about the writing of a novel. Also, it was a liberating moment to be told to "give yourself permission to write." To keep writing and not remain stuck going over and over one piece.

I would say the AWC is an excellent source of knowledge and experience. It is very helpful to anyone wanting to begin writing a novel.

Pamela is very knowledgeable and went to a lot of trouble to give feedback to each student which was relevant to the individual but also translatable to everyone in the group.

The regular technical exercises, set time for Zoom meeting each fortnight, no need to have a story underway. The discussion of broader points of technique. It's made me come up with a story.

Pamela saying we all have the ability to write a story, but we have to sit down and do it.

Well-organised and knowledgeable teaching leading to tangible improvement.

I'm not working at the moment due to Covid, and wanted to do something constructive with my time. A friend had 'liked' the AWC on Facebook so I googled and was impressed with how professional the website and courses sounded so signed up.

I was a little anxious about posting my assignments in a shared environment as I haven't received feedback from my peers before, however I actually found the feedback to be beneficial so got over this after the first week!

I valued Stephen's feedback; he knew the subject matter and picked up on things I had no previous knowledge of. I enjoyed learning about the 'technical' side of writing. I enjoy writing but have never studied it so learning about structure, scenes, etc, was very interesting. It's made me want to write more.

The AWC Creative Writing course will teach you how to turn your idea into a story. Thank you, I've really enjoyed this course and it's made me want to continue writing in some form.

I was interested in learning more about how to construct a picture book. Zanni was very knowledgable. Learning how technical picture book writing is, more specifically how books require a theme. That picture books require themes, they aren't just stories.

It has made me want to write more.

If you think writing a picture book is easy, you need to take the AWC Picture Book course!

Zanni was fantastic. She spent a lot of time looking at everyone's assignments and gave really great constructive feedback. The way she delivered the feedback via Zoom was great as it was like sitting down and talking about it, as opposed to just reading her response.

It has started me on my writing journey. A lot of the info in the course, such as tight writing and show don't tell, is not just relevant to picture books but other forms of writing as well.

The tutor is a published author and that the course is online so easy to complete when juggling work/kids.

I would say don't think about it, just do it.

I've been wanting to learn how to write humour for a while. I need a lighthearted break from the usual genres I write.

This course was absolutely brilliant. It's cleared up some massive issues I was having with my middle-grade projects. Thank you

I absolutely adored the information given and the activities.

It's revealed that I can actually do humour. And my story ideas aren't actually as out there as I expected. It's given me the confidence to try my hand at something I thought I'd never be able to succeed at.

I wanted to develop skills in writing for a younger market, with a view to publishing a work eventually. It seemed like a rare and unique opportunity to learn about a niche market.

The video sessions were fantastic. I valued having Zanni read out the stories in her lovely tone; it put me right back in the child's seat. It's a rare honour to have my fledgling stories read aloud by Zanni, with her warm and considered feedback.

Finding out that I could pen a children's story and have it not be half bad. It's a brief step into a vast new world. It opened a door and showed me a new way of wading into literature. I only wish perhaps it was longer, but with more practice I'm sure the impact will be profound.

The quality of information, clear presentation and extent of topics was amazing! Zanni seems really passionate about picture books and her feedback was on point, honest and positive.

How much more respect I have for writers of great picture books; I knew it was special but it really is an art. Also it gave me confidence that even though I am far from publishing a book, it is possible and I can start now.

It is a very complete course, very serious and professional. Worth the money.

Just, thank you, it was a great experience, and to do it during lockdown it helped to keep the creative juices flowing.

I want to thank AWC for the wonderful opportunity they have given to me, moulding me into what I had been dreaming of.

Because of this course, I am now confident that I can put my writing in the right way. It was incredible!

It is the best place if you want to be a writer.

I needed to start somewhere, and had had a good experience with an AWC weekend course, previously.

Louisa was very supportive and helpful. I should have "used" her more :-) She was very positive and helpful.

The most enjoyable part was getting over the fear factor, putting words on "paper" and sending them out. The realization that what you put down will not stay that way. The first write is just that, the first of several re-writes, just get it down! The obvious nature of writing: it's a genuine skill. It needs practice and sweat.

I'm gearing up for the next course, Novel Writing Essentials. The AWC pathway is very helpful for a novice, and suspect it's helpful for fleshing out subsequent ideas, too.

If you genuinely want to write, if you want to prioritize writing, this course is a great start.