What’s it like to learn with AWC?

Logical, clear, comprehensive, engaging style. Inspired me to help an organisation I volunteer with to improve their website.

The group pushed me to improve my writing. And getting a full manuscript done was incredible. Editing novels at the end of the course was an important part of the course.

Margaret was a great facilitator. She was very encouraging but also gave clear feedback.

It made me start writing properly and finding that I can write.

If you a serious about writing, doing a course like Write your Novel is like going to school for writers. You go from year 7 to 12 in a year.

This course is fantastic. Kudos to AWC!

I've learnt an enormous amount about my writing from my tutor and the other students.

They'll teach you everything you need to know about writing.

Thank you so much for welcoming me into this wonderful community.

I enjoyed the step-by-step instructions. The process is simpler than I thought so I feel confident now.

Great courses at affordable prices.

I enjoyed the nature of the course with Valerie and Katrina and the many examples provided and discussed. These writers' professional experiences were invaluable.

The zoom sessions were excellent and really helped.

It is excellent, well planned, delivered and professional, accessible content. Has given me a very good foundation to pursue a writing path.

I found it valuable to have the online modules available throughout the course - made it easy to re-visit them and check that I was on track. I also found it valuable to read the other participants work. I got a lot from trying to understand their approaches and also from Nat's feedback to their work which greatly added to my own learning.

I got a lot from the feedback not just in content (the technical elements), but also from Nat's enthusiasm for words, language and story-telling. The feedback was delivered with genuine care for the work and thoughts of the contributor and the advice was always constructive. I've since re-written most of the tasks based on the feedback and they're so much better. Thanks Nat!

I enjoyed the variety of experience presented in Valerie's videos. The views of each of the authors made the experience of writing so much more attainable. While not all of their experiences were perhaps relevant to me, the act of writing and story-telling resonated strongly throughout the presentations.

I am now far more happy to just sit and write, either by hand in my personal pages, or at my laptop when capturing key scenes that may end up in a memoir of sorts.

Do it. Straight forward, accessible, with quality and timely feedback, and a building block approach to understand the basics (in this case) of personal story-telling.

Thanks to the AWC and thanks to Valerie and Nat for your support.

Nat gave great feedback on our writing: it was specific and made a difference. She was great at pointing out the positives as well as where to improve - and the littles tweaks that she suggested made a huge difference.

I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to share the writing of the other students. I am very grateful to the other students for the amount of sharing.

Through Nat's encouragement, I think my writing is becoming more clear and more 'in the moment.' It feels like the reader is more able to get into my mind as a memoir writer.

I would say that the AWC is a great way to target skills in a specific area e.g. Memoir writing, reflection. It is a perfect opportunity to get feedback from a professional writer.

I have been feeling like I need to find a mentor writer. Through this course I feel that I am a little on the way to that because of Nat's feedback. I feel that the course has gone so fast - I was hoping to write a book! I would really like to thank Nat for her support of all members of this group and for the wonderful suggestions that she has given to improve our writing. Thank you so much.

So much great stuff contained within. The whole 'register' rabbit-hole was super interesting and I think it will bring a level of extra nuance to my dialogue.

I loved that there were multiple examples ranging from basic to more interesting of how to write dialogue in a way that builds tension, reveals relationships and poses unanswered questions. And then there was the example of how the addition of body language could change the whole scene's meaning. I especially loved the explanations of the differing versions of clown story. But I also appreciated the build of the 'don't dos' list throughout the course. Super handy, thank you (now going to go through and check for all the adverbs and speech verbs).

Just gave me things to mull over about as I go back for a heavy edit on draft two. Plus, I think it's helped me find a way to fix a plot hole that I'm struggling with.

If there's an element of writing you're struggling with, or you'd like to become better on - character, plot, structure, dialogue, etc or you just want to go deeper on your writing craft, AWC is a great place to start and/or continue your journey. Even though I've decades of writing experience, when it comes to fiction, I'm a novice. However, Valerie's sound explanations and Pamela's beautifully crafted examples from her own writing provide outstanding models for using different techniques. If you're wondering about it, do it. You won't regret it.

I've wanted to write a memoir or book about my travels for years, but I wanted to learn how.

Nat gave really useful feedback and was very fair. I enjoyed her sense of humour and fairness. We are a diverse group, but she gave practical and supportive feedback that we could act on with sensitivity and kindness.

I enjoyed the tasks as they gave us the opportunity to practice what we learnt on a small scale. With feedback they were invaluable.

This course has got me thinking about how I will go about writing the book I've always wanted to write. I've started a Substack to begin writing regularly and flesh out some of my experiences.

In the past, I just thought you'd write a memoir in the past tense. But learning multiple ways to write a scene and incorporating dialogue and the five senses really helped me see there are better ways to tell a story.

Do it! AWC have comprehensive courses that can help any writer. I've done 5 courses now and every one of them has provided new knowledge and skills to make me a better writer. The community of writers on the courses and the wonderful tutors are also second to none. You will learn new skills in a supportive environment and get practical assignments to practice the skills without being judged.

This course has given me a much better understanding of how to write a story. It has also given me more confidence in my ability. In addition to being very practical, it's full of insights from professionals within the industry. It's been a very fun and inspiring course!

Nat is very knowledgeable and insightful. Her feedback has been very helpful and I appreciated the humour with which she has delivered it. Nat has also been very friendly, helpful and prompt whenever anyone had a question. Thanks very much, Nat!

This course is very well thought out and I loved the way it was delivered too. It made writing a novel seem a lot more achievable.

Thanks, this has been a wonderful course.

I found the tutor's feedback very helpful and easy to understand. I'm inspired to write my own memoir.

If you're interested in learning the basics of writing, this will be a good course for you.

Nat is lovely - and she is knowledgeable and speaks up confidently and replied whenever a student queried anything. I would do another course with Nat.

Loved the learning and then writing attempting to incorporate the lessons. Val introduced us to lots of authors and I have bought Patti Miller's book Writing True Stories and am continuing to learn.

The course is so comprehensive that I am going to watch all Val's instructive videos again.

Thank you for a very clear presentation of the essentials, with good examples provided throughout, and guideposts to confidently continue my writing journey.

I enjoyed exploring new writers, gaining confidence in my own voice and understanding how short story writing changes throughout history. It was interesting to learn how technology and different art forms impact on writing and reader expectations.

I have gained the confidence to write and work on different stories. I am reading now as a writer who can appreciate the skill required to create an engaging short story.

The Australian Writers' Centre provides a disciplined learning space, and encourages students to develop a daily writing routine. It supports students with opportunities to write and receive feedback. Excellent resources and readings are provided during the course. It's good value.

I have an interest in writing a memoir and this course looked like the one I wanted to try! I wasn't sure of my ability to write, but I feel more confident now.

I've realised that I do have something to say. I am more confident and realised that I really want to continue. Everyone has something important to say even if we ourselves don't think so.

I'd say without hesitation 'do it!' It's a fantastic course and you will gain so much from it.

Thanks for the opportunity to be able to be part of this course. It's fulfilled me in many ways.

I really enjoyed getting feedback from an actual author and found it very useful for writing my stories.

I enjoyed the assignments and the descriptive paragraphs we had to do.

It has encouraged me to find more time for writing.

Thank you so much for creating this course. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I really enjoyed the Creative Non-fiction course as it was very motivating during the process of writing my memoir. The course outlines many layers that come with creative writing-e.g. techniques and skills which are taught throughout each module. The interviews with great authors, who shared their insights and helpful tips, were so encouraging.

I have gained more confidence in myself as a writer and hope to improve with skills I have learnt and put some great ideas on paper.

I realized that it's never too late to start writing and with hard work and passion I can achieve good results in writing my memoir.

AWC is such a professional and wonderful community, with a variety of amazing courses.

I'm 70k+ words into my first fiction work and hit plot holes and wondered about my structure.

I loved the detail in each module, the examples given and the templates for applying what I'd learned to my own work.

It wasn't super prescriptive and hence, I could tailor it to my own work. It's making me feel that I'm on the right track with my book. A couple of things might need fixing (lots needs tightening up), but the more I learned, the more I could see how the structure had already been innately applied to much of what I'd already written.

I loved the idea of counting words between plot points to check your pacing. Brilliant.

If you're going to write a work of fiction, particularly as a first timer, Valerie and the AWC team will ensure you're treading the right path - either from the beginning or wherever you find yourself stuck in your writing.

I wanted to challenge myself to learn a different style of writing and have always valued children's' books and reading. It was a big change from the type of writing that I usually do for work!

There is an amazing amount of information in this course and the industry-specific information was very useful for me. The structure of the course is very cleverly thought out also. Thank you for all the information and resources provided.

It's great to have a tutor with industry experience providing feedback. The comments received were valuable and insightful - thank you.

I enjoyed the challenge of having to come up with different stories for a few weeks. I also enjoyed listening to the recorded modules.

I think the course was great value for money and provided amazing insight into the world of children's picture books. It's provided me with a lot of things to think about and I am keen to keep working on my story/stories!

This is my third course at AWC - I have been very impressed. Thank you.

I look forward to the next course!!

I decided to go through all the Fiction Essentials courses, to help me to strengthen my understanding of what I already know about writing, and to supplement with what I hadn't already internalized.

It has encouraged me to stop being so perfectionist about my first draft: get the story on the page, then go back to edit.

Consistently excellent instruction that can help good stories become great stories. Thanks.

I wanted to get better at creative writing, because I want to be a published author when I'm older.

I found Miss Riccioni very helpful, and provided excellent feedback that really helped with my writing.

I really enjoyed the assessments in weeks one, five and ten, because they challenged me and entertained me at the same time.

I really think about what the course has taught me over these ten weeks, and I changed how I write. Now, when I catch the bus to school, I try some of the tips, like re-writing conversations I overhear and describing people I see. It's been really fun.

When it talked about using all five sense to describe a setting. That really set of a lightbulb for me, and it's definitely improved my scene writing.