What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I am currently doing the Write Your Novel course with Pamela Freeman and I felt this genre specific course would complement it. My genre is psychological thrillers. It did :)

Louisa was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humour which added to the enjoyment of the course.

I have done many AWC courses recently and each has always delivered a gem or two that hits the mark for me. Writing an elevator pitch was one of those gems. To come up with a short and punchy pitch is a skill we all need as writers with a desire to be published. The genre-specific material helped push me along with my writing. This is one of the great benefits of AWC courses: it keeps feeding the motivation beast within.

Louisa was an engaging presenter and made sure to answer questions. I enjoyed learning about the genre and its features as I have had limited exposure to it.

I enjoyed learning about the conventions of the inciting incident, turning points and climax as they relate to crime and thriller writing. I was able to come up with a new and improved plot for my story.

Go for it; it's just so useful and demystifies writing.

I'd heard positive feedback about this course on social media. I'd also heard Louise being interviewed on a podcast and I'd read a few of her crime books. While reading her books I was so impressed by the technique of her writing that I was interested to know more about the mechanics of what made her novels such page turners.

Louise was a positive, encouraging and supportive tutor. She was engaging, had an infectious sense of humour, made me feel comfortable and a valued member of the group and her handouts were thorough and presented in an easy-to-understand point format. The course content was extremely useful and pertinent to my writing.

I loved the group interaction. The homework tasks gave me the incentive and the confidence to plan and structure my current work in progress and this is coming from a serial pantser! Now, I have direction and clarity with my storyline. This course also made me go back to a crime novel I had completed a few years ago, while completing the Associate Degree of Professional Writing and Editing course at RMIT, and re-work aspects of it to give it more suspense and intensity. It was exactly what I needed at this point in time of my writing journey.

This course gave me the courage to be a more daring writer. It gave me the confidence to venture deeper into the psychology of what makes a twisty and suspenseful crime thriller.

Not only was Louisa knowledgeable, she was lovely - friendly and approachable.

I changed the climax of my book to make my main character much more proactive.

The AWC has the best writing teachers in Australia.

I thought Louisa was a very positive and helpful tutor and provided a lively course. I really enjoyed the lesson on structure as such an important aspect of writing.

I have been keen to write but now will try and achieve the goal.

The online tutor is very competent and answered everything very well. I enjoyed the writing exercises and the breakout rooms.

I want to thank the tutor for her brilliant tuition. It has been enjoyable 5 weeks. I'm self-confident now. I dare to go on writing.

I am currently writing a crime novel but needed some structure to help finish it.

Louisa is a great crime writer and I would highly recommend her support as an author to anyone. I loved her handouts and she was very thorough. I feel the course helped me structure my work better.

All the courses I have done with the Australian Writers' Centre have always been amazing in terms of supporting me as an author and being able to do them online with a well-known author is an amazing experience.

LA Larkin was very warm and open to all questions. She was clear in the explanations, giving multiple examples and encouraging the students.

We learned a lot and the environment created was very supportive and relaxed. I understand the process of writing a crime thriller much more now.

Louisa was SO great! Her enthusiasm & wealth of knowledge were brilliant. She's a fantastic tutor. She goes above & beyond to make sure everyone has time to ask questions and understands the content. Her content depth was fantastic & the exercises were very helpful to get me thinking.

The character profiling exercises were fantastic - made me think about things I hadn't developed yet.

It's a brilliant starting course to get your head around the building blocks of crime writing, full of easy to digest content and fun exercises.

Thanks Louisa.

Louisa was great. Very friendly and very affirming. I enjoyed the resources, the exercises and Louisa's personal anecdotes.

I am now confident that I can structure and plot to meet the expectations of readers of crime fiction.

Great courses, great tutors and a great way of meeting other aspiring writers.

Love the work you do!

I have completed courses with the AWC before and found them to be both informative and enjoyable. When this course turned up in my emails, I thought that it sounded interesting.

Louisa was an excellent presenter. It was great to have her personal experience as an author interwoven with the course theory. I enjoyed her engaging delivery of the course.

Louisa had the best tips and really got my gears working for plotting and all the things I'd never even thought of. She was easy to interact with. An honest and genuine person. She has enthusiasm for the genre and the teaching. That's always nice.

I enjoyed learning something new. Compact yet concise format. Small group. Interactive.

I would recommend this course in particular. I would also say to sign up for the newsletters and enter the competitions when you can. Join in on the free sessions and learn what you can. Who doesn't love free stuff?

Louisa was fun, engaging, witty, enthusiastic, genuine and led us through the course content with flair. Her humour was infectious. She was generous with her ideas and honest about her experience.

It gave me the structure I need to write my novel. A worthy investment of time and money.

I think Louisa is a great teacher, very personable and clearly enjoys teaching and talking with students. She has a methodical approach and gave a very good introduction.

I would recommend the course for providing a structure and also as motivational. It's nice to hear other stories and views from fellow students, especially those with different backgrounds.

The course was fabulous. There is never anything better than being in a course with like-minded people. I got a lot out of the course and have now got the structure for writing in this genre.

The real treasure in this course is Louisa - L A Larkin. As a published author she was very generous and extremely encouraging to our group who ranged from starting out to writers on the verge of publishing. I sat through each 2-hour session with a big smile the whole time just from the enjoyment of the course. I recommend the course to anyone who is interested in crime and who is also interested in understanding the structure to make your story compelling.

Louisa is professional, funny, clever and made talking about killing, blowing up, and shooting people more fun than I could have imagined. Most of all she was very encouraging, generous and a skilful teacher.

I would say - if you have any desire to write novels in the crime/thriller genre this is the course for you. If you lack confidence in your writing - this is the course for you.

This has been a wonderful experience. More than I expected.

I found Louisa to be a great tutor, down to earth and with a great sense of humour. She made everyone feel comfortable and at ease.

It was helpful in allowing me to take the fear out of plotting and structure. I found the whole course enjoyable and it was nice to meet others in the break-out groups.

Just do it; well worth the investment.

I am currently editing a draft of a crime novel and hoped to find tips on what works best. I found it really helpful. Helped me hone many points in my draft novel.

Louisa was excellent. Friendly, presented the information in a clear and interesting way. Made for a really friendly environment for discussion and putting forward ideas.

I enjoyed learning about the important points of writing about crime. Listening to everyone's thoughts and ideas.

I have drafted a first novel and, as we had the discussions, I found ideas kept coming to me about how to improve the novel (which I am currently editing so it was great!) and I just jotted down the ideas as we went and am making the changes now.

Loved the course and hope to do more in future. Many thanks to AWC and Louisa.

I'm working on a murder mystery. I was particularly interested in writing suspense and action scenes as I had learned some of the basics from previous courses.

Louisa was fantastic. Friendly and personable and with a lot of experience to share. I felt her feedback was really constructive, positive but also giving places to improve and think about more. Absolutely fabulous. Even in those areas I had previously studied like character and structure, I learned new things relevant to my genre which was great.

I wasn't overly keen on the zoom format, being a typically introverted writer type, but I loved it! Great to bounce ideas off each other. The breakout rooms were really useful.

This and Novel Writing Essentials have been so helpful to my dream of writing a book. Well worth it. The courses are positive, helpful and constructive.

I wanted to learn how to develop my limited thriller/suspense writing skills and my fiction writing skills because I had only written a non-fiction self-help book. The course description showed it to be very hands on, which, from previous writing courses I have done, was essential.

Louisa is a highly skilled writer and excellent trainer. She was positive, generous and complimentary in all her feedback. She provided helpful examples of alternative options, suggested books relevant to specific genres and questions. She always found positives in what was read out or discussed, and offered variations as well. Her enthusiasm and interest were infectious throughout the group it seemed to me.

The wonderful combination of providing information in an interesting and accessible way, the many examples of different types of crime writing, the additional information provided including links to videos of real crimes. Louisa was very generous in her range and depth of information, so that the attendees would have information about their writing focus. She answered all questions in detailed but easily understandable ways.

Having read dozens of 'how to write' books and attended courses previously, I found that after this course I am more confident and much better informed to write in the crime genre. I am excited now to finish my short stories and publish them.

Increasing my knowledge and confidence about writing fiction was the most precious outcome. And having my eyes opened to the numerous ways of going about the different aspects of writing. The positive feedback and discussion between group members, either in break-out rooms or as a group was great.

I learned how to go about planning and shaping a book. How to include bricks of details, pace stories, include plot twists, create interesting characters, and much more. I am more confident about my ability to write and how to go about it.

Having a highly skilled presenter who is also a brilliant and successful writer is paramount. I'm so glad I did this course. Thank you, Louisa, and AWC.

Louisa was wonderful. Very generous with her time, advice and feedback. She was encouraging and helpful and encouraged respectful and positive feedback from across the group.

The format and approach and the genre-specific nature of the content was great. Louisa was wonderful and I really appreciated her generosity in sharing her real-world experiences and her encouragement.

A great opportunity to understand the bones of a great crime fiction novel. Thank you to Louisa and my fellow participants!