What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I have literally been in the process of wanting to reinvent myself career-wise. My background is in teaching.

I wasn't sure at first how I would find the time to complete the course during my week. I ended up finding out this was no cause for concern.

I loved the case studies of writers speaking genuinely of their experiences in starting out to becoming published writers.

I have grown up thinking a creative career was not a sensible choice and generally not possible. Now, I see the possibility through the step-by-step guidelines and hearing from other authors about their successes.

I recommend you think seriously about studying a course with AWC as the courses are so practically well-structured and delivered it makes your life as a learner so much easier. Your learning process is so well encouraged and supported.

Louisa planted so many seeds within me. From all her questions and the homework set, I was able to fill some of the missing pieces of ideas that were loosely floating in my mind. She helped gel things together for me. Her teaching approach was supportive, patient and engaging - just what I needed.

I received 'aha' moments each week from LA Larkin. The small exercises prompted me and identified missing links with my ideas. A simple exercise question by LA Larkin "What if..." triggered a range of ideas.

I am so happy with L.A. Larkin! She is a fantastic writer and teacher and I learnt so much from her! She provided amazing feedback and encouraged us in every writing activity! I also really loved the homework!

The writing activities that we participated in really helped motivate us to strengthen our writing and then share aloud our ideas and offer each other feedback. It helped me to improve my writing and narrative structure and encouraged me to pursue writing as a future career.

Fantastic course with an amazing and inspiring teacher! Lovely classmates with brilliant ideas! I will certainly miss everyone!

Thank you so much, L.A. Larkin! You are an amazing teacher and I really enjoyed this course!

I found Bernadette very professional and knowledgeable. I loved her sense of humour and her feedback was useful. I love that we can hear everyone's feedback as we can all learn from each other. Having taught online myself I thought it was great how engaging she was. Thanks Bernadette :)

I enjoyed the assignments as they were bite sized but practical and gave good practice of what we were focussing on that week

The tips and formulas mean my writing is more to the point and systematic now.

It is practical and a useful skill to learn ... and competitively priced.

Thank you.

Already a freelance copywriter, I've been taking on increasing amounts of editing jobs. I already know the AWC through completion of Bernadette's copywriting courses, so knew it would be a good course. Wasn't disappointed!!

Michelle is a great course leader, and very knowledgeable!

There were a few small elements of grammar usage I had either forgotten or never learned previously. I am now fully armed and dangerous!

Well worth it - AWC offers such a great range of courses for pretty much any writing purpose. Easy to interact with them via website and always clear communication. Regardless of delivery method, the courses always deliver, with wonderful tutors, and are value for money.

I really loved all the short story examples given. I don't take the time to even read short stories anymore and this re-ignited my interest in and admiration for them. Through them, I came to know what works and what doesn't and that it really is a whole separate craft to the novel. The basics of the craft were laid out in really easy to follow steps. I loved the course.

It got me interested in writing again.

You've got nothing to lose, only to gain. It's supportive and inspiring.

I didn't think I'd manage to produce the bulk of a novel in the 6 months, but I've come much closer to achieving that goal than I expected to.

Pamela is very knowledgeable about all aspects of writing and publishing, and very committed to transmitting her knowledge to her students. She is very open to all kinds of writing and very encouraging of all participants. Her feedback was always very focussed on specific problems in my writing and gave me a clear path for how to proceed.

I enjoyed the regular feedback from the tutor and the camaraderie of the group - knowing that everyone was struggling with the same things I was.

I've produced more material than I ever have before, and the focussed teaching has improved the quality of my work immensely.

Many thanks to Pamela for the detailed attention she's given to all of us, and her unwavering encouragement.

The tutorials were great - lots of great information. I learnt so much. Accessing the tutorials was very easy and I had no hiccups with the technology.

I found Zanni knowledgeable and her feedback was thoughtful and appropriate. I appreciated that she gave verbal feedback and it was very timely.

Having this course developed and delivered by published authors gave the course great credibility and I felt like I was given an insider’s perspective of the picture book industry in Australia. I liked that I could access the course in my own time.

The second module called for us to submit a picture book and I created a new picture book one morning for this assignment. I love the book I wrote - which I would never have even conceived if not for the course. I learnt so much and I took a mountain of notes. I've started to really look critically at each written word and consider their value and impact on the text and of course concentrating on making my words sparkle! The course has also excited me about becoming an author and given me so many things to think about that I'd never previously considered - some nights I have so many ideas spinning around my head I can't sleep :)

If you are genuinely keen to pursue a writing career, seriously consider courses with the AWC. They have current, easy to understand and practical tutorials packed full of information about the nuances of writing, how to enter the industry, and everything you need to bring your writing career to life.

Thank you to the AWC and to Zanni. I really enjoyed the course and am looking forward to the next one!

This course was amazing. I finally started writing the novel I've had floating around in my head for 2 years but had no idea how to get on paper. It taught me all the tools I needed to get those words on paper, in an interesting way. My novel has begun!

I enjoyed the flexibility of it, the small assessments, the way it was broken up into bite size chunks - I could fit it in around work/life. The content was also extremely good - a really good level of detail given the short time frame and really well structured. Like layers of an onion, building on what was learnt the week before and then coming together so logically.

I've finally started writing my novel! I managed to not only start while doing this course, but got a full 6,500 words done while studying this program. Sure, there's lots I need to go back over and can improve, but it got me exercising the writing skills I learnt straight away, and motivated me to actually start writing.

If you want to write a book, this is where you need to go to learn.

It was exactly what I was looking for - practical and concise information to get me started on my freelance writing journey.

It's given me the confidence to begin my freelance writing career.

I toyed with the idea of writing picture books after completing my Certificate IV in Professional Writing and Editing. I felt that my stories would suit an audience that was slightly older ... then I found this course and knew this was the age group I wanted to write for.

Lesley was a pleasure to listen to. She was thorough in her explanations and made each lesson easy to work through.

The entire course was enjoyable but the most enjoyable was the enthusiasm it has instilled in me to go back to the chapter book I started in 2016.

The desire to get back to writing for children had gone into hibernation, but it's now back with a bang!

Don't think about it ... just get on with it and enrol

Thanks for making these courses available :)

I've learnt so much in 5 weeks! I have a much better idea of what used to be a completely unknown practice and industry.

I'd say the course I've completed has been money very well spent and that it was super practical and very easy to fit in a busy lifestyle.

Thank you!

Pamela was great. Her feedback for myself and everyone else was really eye-opening and she gave great insight into things I could work on and you could tell she really enjoys her craft.

I felt challenged in this course. Before starting this one, I had taken a course through another place and that one felt very comfortable as their intro course really focused on just getting pen to paper and writing, even if it's junk. I feel this course made me raise the bar as far as quality of writing which challenged me but felt very rewarding as well.

This course made me feel like completing a project is much more achievable than I had previously thought.

Definitely go for it. AWC is a great place to dip your toe into the waters of writing or to find a course specific to whatever your need is. They have lots of options no matter what style of writing you’re interested in.

I just think this place is amazing and will definitely be signing up to classes in the future. Thank you so much for helping to build my skills as a writer.

I think the feedback was really helpful and constructive and I'm grateful to have received it!

I enjoyed learning more about developing characters and plot because that's something I wasn't sure how to do before the course.

I really liked getting feedback on assignments to know if I was on the right track. I also learnt a lot from the audio lessons that made me think more about my story.

Thanks!

I was able to come up with more story ideas in the five-week period than I have in many years. I was inspired and couldn't wait to wake up each Monday and get stuck into the next module. I learnt so much and loved listening to the audio in my own time and now have the worksheets to refer back to for life!

Make time to write and writing something is better than nothing. You never know what amazing stories you have within you.

Do it! There is so much to learn and so much fun to be had.

As a former journalist trained in Malaysia, I felt that having that Australian perspective from the AWC will further hone my writing skills. Having Valerie Khoo lead this course has helped me further - journo to journo.

Cindy is succinct and to-the-point. I like her matter-of-fact analysis of my work and appreciate her frankness.

I learned the basics of writing as a cadet journalist 30 years ago. The elements of this course made me reminisce what I loved about writing and on being a journalist. I may not be a journalist now but I can still write for a variety of publications using different formats, angles, taking my own photos and developing contacts again.

The course is rich with content and makes it easy for all even budding writers to embrace their passion for writing. Each lesson has a positive, encouraging nudge just to edge the writer a bit closer to their writing goal.

Well done to you all for this great effort.

Pamela has been fantastic, providing simple and necessary critique that I feel has helped my writing somewhat. A good tutor overall and very helpful.

I enjoyed that we could read others work and it DID give some insight to our own; as well as the group being able to hear all the critiques from Pamela about our work.

As a novice writer I was unaware how little I had developed many of my supporting characters; now I am able to go back and write about each character and help refresh everything I have done so far.

I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested in writing creatively, whether for enjoyment or for work-related purposes.

Zanni was extremely helpful. She gave constructive feedback that was encouraging even when it was about something that wasn't working well. It is obvious that she is experienced as it often felt like she was reading my mind by knowing what the intentions of my characters were without it being directly stated.

It's made me feel like my dream could actually become a reality.

It's a great introduction to writing and gives you a framework to begin your stories from.

My daughter gave me Scrivener as a Christmas present, but I had no idea how to use it. However, the tutorial that comes with the software was huge, and the simplicity of this course was an attractive alternative.

I can now use Scrivener with confidence. It means I can now have photos of the scenes I'm writing, right where I can see them, as I write. This is something I found lacking in Word.

AWC has a course on every aspect of writing; there's something there for everyone.

This course made me feel better about my writing. There were many aspects of the course that were 'Yes!' moments for me. But there were also some points I can use to improve my character's interactions within the scenes and settings. Reminders such as write the scene/setting from the POV of your character, not your own.

As I went through the how-to's - I thought about the scenes I have already written and planned how I might change them in the second draft. Planning ahead to the next scenes to be written. The course itself was easy to follow, and the handouts excellent.

This course is the perfect tool to add depth to your characters, the plot, and your story as a whole. It helps you recognise when to summarise a scene and when to give a detailed description. Set up in earlier scenes for events that happen in later scenes and ensure your scenes are written in the voice of the POV character. This course can be used as you write your first draft or as an editing tool if you are at that stage. I highly recommend it.