What’s it like to learn with AWC?

Entering the world of picture books is like entering the TARDIS for the first time. The course opened my eyes but has given me the tools and knowledge to work through the maze.

Zanni is great. Her comments were relevant, useful and encouraging. I gained a lot from listening to her feedback on everyone's work, including my own.

I enjoyed the challenge of writing simple text to create big ideas.

I feel ready to join the world of children's book writers. Now I just have to find a publisher who agrees with me. Thank you to Zanni and AWC.

Doing this course has really broadened my ideas of what writing is and has improved my writing. I struggled with the 'show don't tell' before, but I have a better grasp on it after listening to the lessons and reading the handouts.

I thought Pamela gave good and varied feedback. She was good at doing the sandwich technique for constructive criticism.

My writing has definitely improved and I feel I have what it takes to write the first draft, if only just to bin it afterwards and start again. I really thought before you needed to have a clear idea of what your story is before writing, but realised that's not the case after this course. I think writing the first draft then binning it (or keeping it if it happens to be worthy) will really help with developing the story and what I want.

Definitely try it! It's life-changing, and also fun. Even with full-time work and language study, I still made time to complete the assignments and listen to the materials every day. The advice is really sound and inspiring, plus the weekly feedback is super beneficial to improve your writing! I can truly say I've come out of this course more knowledgeable, but happier and more confident with myself too. Plus there's the secret bonus of being invited to zoom events and receiving AWC weekly newsletter too.

Thank you for the wonderful course! I'm definitely looking forward to doing another one in the near future :)

I liked the balance between the more technical info and the pure copywriting content. The best part was listening to the review of the assessments - this is where I saw the ideas in practice, learning from others in the course.

I've already started writing blogs for other people (thanks to a course with AWC years ago) and this gave me a deeper level of understanding about structuring keywords for improved writing and SEO results.

I was concerned that the material provided may be too difficult given I do not have a background in journalism. However, it was very easy to understand.

I feel more in touch with my strengths in writing and rediscovered my passion for words. I really enjoyed discovering that I love writing.

Fabulous course. Self-enriching in every way! Anything is possible. You just need to discover the pathway to reaching it.

I have had so many ideas, have written in the past and am looking for a new career that I decided it was time to try.

Thankyou Zanni - your feedback was invaluable, very relatable to me. It was of a high quality while also showing me what to do.

I have written my first children's picture book but it has also shown me and given me a taste for other types of writing.

I took Copywriting Essentials and loved it. This was the next step.

Bernadette is a great mentor and delivers the course material clearly and concisely. Her anecdotal infusions are funny and enlightening. She is amazing.

I loved the practicality. I have a journalism and creative writing degree but this is much more hands on and actually gives you the tools to make a freelance career as a writer or even use the tools of writing in your work. I am very impressed by the content and Valerie Khoo has a dream voice to listen to!

I feel more confident now on how I can establish myself more as a freelance writer. I have had some articles published but this model and system could really take my career to the next level and potentially a full-time role which is ideally my goal.

The course gives you a practical step-by-step guide that actually works. There is nothing else like it in the marketplace.

I'm interested in writing a children's picture book. Started researching how to do this and get published online. It all became very overwhelming. Found this course and thought, "what a great way to get introduced to the world of picture books."

I found the content extremely valuable. I really enjoyed learning about the world of pictures books and its complexities. I loved listening to the lessons. There was so much good stuff to take in.

Do it! It's a fun learning environment. Thanks Zanni :)

I have been interested in profile writing for quite a while and seeing David was running it helped make my decision. David is a wealth of knowledge and made the course a pleasure to participate in.

I actually feel that this is definitely the direction I want to follow with my writing; I feel much more confident in pursuing this.

I have often recommended AWC to people interested in writing, I have done multiple courses now and each one has helped me fine tune my craft in ways I didn't expect.

It was exactly what I needed. Although I have always been fiction focused, the course gave a great overview of different writing types - I hadn't even considered some of them being an option.

I found each module easy to listen to and the tasks helpful for thinking through what I needed to consider about myself as a writer. Having to intentionally consider my values, what I wanted my writing to convey and what I would or wouldn't compromise was something I hadn't thought of prior to being challenged by Valerie to list them. The interviews with authors and their expertise added extra weight and reality - hearing their stories made me think - 'yes, I think I can do this'. The craft of writing is something for me to further explore, but the inspiration and excitement I feel after the course has given me what I need to actually take the plunge to reinvent myself.

I feel invigorated about writing and about owning 'writer' as part of my identity. In the past my writing has only been for me, a secret pastime that has mainly been musing. I now feel as though I have permission to add 'Writer' to the list of answers to the question "What do you do?"

Just do it - there is nothing to lose. The fact that the courses are professional and so well endorsed by both emerging and professional writers speaks volumes.

Having a dedicated tutor that was able to provide real-time feedback and weekly assignments were both really valuable aspects of the course.

Zanni was highly professional, available as needed, and her feedback was very helpful! I would definitely consider scouting her out for ongoing personal mentorship in the future!

I enjoyed reading the ideas and stories of other participants and being able to build upon new skills introduced each week.

Picture book writing is so much more than a good idea and cute characters. There is a whole structured process to picture book writing than I originally thought! It's quite a carefully thought out process with many components and ingredients!

Do it! You will definitely learn something new, or at the very least, you'll have a lot of fun and get to exercise the creative side of your brain!

The course content was inspirational and I am going to pursue profile writing, starting with my family. My mother is the last in her generation so I am going to interview her (no doubt more than once) about relatives.

The content helped me identify that I have some skills already and has given me the confidence to make a start.

The Australian Writers' Centre is a community of writers who support and encourage you to write, providing the opportunity to learn the skills you need to deliver on the goals that are important to you.

I saw it on an AWC newsletter and it was timely because I was just quitting my job and looking to build a more creatively based work life (with more balance!) after a long career in advertising and marketing research.

I was surprised at how engaged I was in the topic. Every lesson seemed interesting and exciting. I could see how this built on my past experience and how I could parlay that into a new skill that I would enjoy and be stretched by.

I liked the flexibility of a-synchronous learning and the deadline was easy to meet. Homework was a great tool to embed the learning and yet was not too onerous in terms of time and the amount of work involved.

I feel very confident about what SEO copywriting is, how it will be useful to me in building my business and secure in knowing I have the tools and materials as backup if I need to refresh my memory.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course and have now signed up for Copywriting Essentials. Thank you, Bernadette, and all at AWC!

Being able to read other people's works and feedback was amazing. I never expected a "classroom" environment in the comfort of my own living room.

The tutor was fantastic! Nicole was very generous with her comments and I felt she read every word we wrote. It was great to get such detailed feedback. And all the examples she provided in our lessons were so valuable.

AWC provides you with the tools to write whatever you want to write. Their range of courses is amazing and the flexibility of doing it online (whenever and wherever you want) is a necessity in this day and age, when we are so time poor.

Thank you!

The detailed insight of how publishing works plus the real-world examples were great.

I never realised just how hard it was to get published, but there are lots of options and don't give up! Stephen King's fourth book, Carrie, was his first published; JK Rowling went to twelve publishers. In other words, rejection is not the end of the line.

Very professional, flexible yet detailed training - it's a must if you want to enter the publishing world.

Was looking for a course less formal than uni. Weekly feedback was very appealing. The lack of a pass/fail system very appealing also.

I had little to no expectations as I have not studied in years. Course was run very well and extremely informative with the tutor's feedback and handouts etc. It felt relaxing as well as challenging due to the open format and presentation.

I am definitely encouraged to continue studying writing for now. I have always enjoyed it but felt I do not construct stories well. I feel I might develop better plot and structure with further course study.

It's very accessible and easy to use. I have had no difficulties using the site or course material.

I've always wanted to give writing a go and when I looked online at the course information I thought it presented very well. There appeared to be scope for trying lots of different aspects of writing with the different courses on offer.

I was a little hesitant to share my writing attempts with others on the course as I wasn't confident about my writing skills. I thought it could be a bit embarrassing but I got over that idea pretty quickly.

I thought Suzanne was good at giving constructive feedback which included positive comments and pointers about areas to work on and improve writing.

I enjoyed reading the other participants' work and seeing the variety of approaches. I liked the challenge of doing the assignments each week. I found the audio lessons and handouts very informative and useful.

It has renewed my interest in doing some writing in the future. I've learned about the components of a story and thought more about dialogue, character, scenes, settings etc. It has given me a structure to build from if I do decide to do any writing.

It has taught me it's ok to let go of words and sentences I've worked on and become attached to or thought were clever. Having to stick to word limits has made me pare things back a bit and I think it has made the end product better.

I would recommend the AWC because it is well organised and provides very useful and usable information about various aspects of writing. It gives participants a chance to try out writing pieces following clear guidelines and with the opportunity to hear feedback on your pieces.

Going through the modules and doing the exercises was very enjoyable. The homework was not too onerous and got to the point. Very practical.

Bernadette gave objective feedback based on her experience as to what works and what doesn't.

I now realise that it is possible. I don't know what the next step is, but I'll dabble and find something. Knowing where to look for a newbie and having the confidence to give it a go is something that is important. It's easy to talk oneself into not taking action.

Thankyou!

I found the course gave me so much information about writing an actual novel rather than crafting just a few prices of writing. I enjoyed actually doing the writing and having completed the assignments.

Suzanne is lovely, very insightful and not afraid to point out the bad bits as well as the good bits :)

All my fears were discussed by Valerie, which tells me everyone has the same fears and that is OK.

I now believe I can write a book. Above all it takes dedication and commitment to the process.

I can't speak highly enough of Bernadette's presentations and feedback. I enjoyed the continuity, the course content, the ease of working online.

I can see an exciting pathway that involves writing which is what I wanted but was unsure about the format of how I could do this. I have since enrolled in two more subjects to complement the first.