What’s it like to learn with AWC?

Great feedback, very constructive.

It has made me cry several times haha! Amazing feedback and hearing people have an emotional response to my writing and believe in my story was life changing.

I learned that I am an over-writer! Was such a great piece of feedback which I can now recognise in my work.

I have already recommended the course! I said it gave me some amazing motivation, encouragement, and perspective! Great theory mixed in also!

Margaret loves her work! She is very positive, and when she critiques both on loom and in writing, her deep experience as an editor shows. She was caring yet professional.

I enjoyed reading the varied responses to my own work, as well as to particular students whose work I believed was of a high standard. I enjoyed the camaraderie of our group. I think everyone was respectful and many were absolutely friendly and supportive.

Just as past graduates say, the critiquing really does help you by providing a thoughtful distance from the work (in any genre), using the structure and resources provided by AWC. This more dispassionate approach in turn you can then hopefully apply to your own work.

The advice to "just keep writing your first draft, and finish it" rather than keep editing! Once that is done, then go back and start the re-edit. You cannot publish a book if it's not written. Also I listen to Valerie Khoo's pod, as well as many others. This constantly broadens my knowledge, and a more realistic approach to the industry.

I was very buoyed by many positive comments about my 3000 words. This encouragement was part of why I enrolled in the Write Your Novel 2025. I'm almost halfway in my book now, and hope to be further by Feb 2025 for the course.

Tremendous and experienced facilitators, excellent resources, constant updates to keep abreast of developments in publishing/ the writing world. The resources were both written and audio, and in plain English, which really engages many types of learners. I find Nicole in the AWC office very helpful as well.

I enjoyed receiving feedback from other members. The group chat. Being able to work at home, on my own schedule. The support materials (audio tutorials especially - excellent).

It kept me accountable not just in quantity of writing, but quality. I didn't want others to think I couldn't write. It was actually fun.

Most incredible was how much I looked forward to logging on every day, reading chat and responses, workshopping, and getting down to writing. I loved how motivated I became.

I'd say go for it.

Margaret was great and I particularly appreciated her specific feedback on my synopsis and 3000 word submission.

Got me focused on writing my novel and words counts and I now have a 1000-words-a-day practice in place.

Thank you for an excellent course! I loved it and am now well on the way to the first draft of Finding Elsie.

I wanted to take the next step in my writing. I want to finish this book, and then another 😄

A great community has formed with some of my fellow classmates and I am so grateful to have the support of others on similar journeys. I learned a lot from the audio lessons and handouts.

The feedback from Margaret was helpful to watch and learn for how a professional editor would go through my work. It was eye opening.

I enjoyed the student interaction. Giving feedback and reading all the different stories. Getting feedback and how much that helped.

I think kicking off with the synopsis really made me think about the structure of my story and the way I could write it. This helped me plan a bit better. I think I'd like to be a pantser writer, but that was never going to work for me.

Thanks for all the support from AWC. All the extra things that happen with AWC people during the course really helped. I joined in with Nat a couple of times at the ungodly hour of 6:30am when I was unnaturally awake, and know the next step I take in Write Your Novel will be supportive as well.

Reading other works as they are being birthed is amazing! I enjoyed the variety of genres that I got to read and comment on. Getting feedback from other writers and readers was also helpful and eye opening.

It has got me to show up for my writing. I learnt how to set time aside and get over humps. I was able to write the first turning point and the mid-point through the duration of this course.

I would say that AWC don't faff about like most university courses do. The lessons are packed with information that is valuable and practical.

Margaret was absolutely fantastic, and I especially benefited from her video feedback. So enlightening!

I most enjoyed the people in our cohort, the social interaction, and the wonderful feedback I received from everyone involved in the workshopping process. I also loved reading and giving feedback on others' stories.

Workshopping is crucial and so beneficial.

Just do it - the best writing course I have ever taken.

Thank you to Margaret and AWC!

I struggle with procrastination so I wanted something to push me to make progress and commit to my novel. I was also drawn to the technical aspect, and the opportunity to receive feedback from both the tutor and other writers.

Margaret was helpful in resolving any queries posted to the course chat and her line editing feedback on the pieces was great, good to get an insight into what an editor would identify. Appreciated her enthusiasm on everyone's pieces, and the method of delivering feedback was also effective.

I enjoyed connecting with other writers on the course chat and my classmates who organised writing sprints; that was great for accountability and lovely to have people to bounce ideas off and discuss shared struggles.

I have more time for writing than I think!

This course was such a great tool for keeping myself accountable and making time for my writing. The opportunity to receive feedback from a developmental editor was fantastic, and it has been so lovely to connect with other writers on what can often be a solitary journey. The other writers were so lovely, there was a great sense of community where we could share struggles and bounce ideas off each other. I will continue doing writing sprints with them to keep up the momentum well beyond the course.

Thank you AWC :)

I enjoyed the audio lessons of each module, the other writers, reading their submissions and their feedback for my submissions, the deadlines.

I needed the commitment to the community and the deadlines to discipline my writing. I think about my story on a daily basis and the feedback was essential to know where I am going with it. The writing community was brilliant, such good people and I like that we had guidelines for feedback.

Thank you! You helped me in the right direction on my writing journey, and gave me a valuable writing community. Excellent work! I have listened to your podcast since 2018 and I love it, I really hope to publish my memoir next year.

I really felt that my writing improved greatly after doing this course.

The tutor was very focussed and able to quickly drill into the key issues and then help you to improve your writing.

I enjoyed sharing our writing, reading different genres, providing and receiving considered feedback and support.

I now understand POV much better and am able to show rather than tell - this has opened up my story and freed up my writing.

AWC courses are excellent, led by experienced writer/tutors, and providing the tools you need to improve your writing.

Nat's feedback was on point and she gave excellent examples of how to correct where I had gone wrong. She is an asset to the AWC. The professionalism in which she ran the course was second to none.

Although I wasn't sure how the student feedback component would work, I found it the best part of the whole course. It's one thing to read about how to write but seeing and reading feedback from others and giving thought to their works as well was an excellent way to learn.

I now know where I have been going wrong in my writing. Point of view is more important than I could have imagined. It was Nat's commentary that was a lightbulb moment for me regarding POV.

If you want to be a writer, you can't go wrong with a course run by the Australian Writers' Centre.

I feel like a new person and have a solid direction with my writing now. In 18-24 months' time I expect to have a decent draft for the Write Your Novel course.

Nat was able to pull my writing apart in a way that left me feeling positive about how much room I had to improve. Her humour in her video feedback was great fun.

I enjoyed the workshopping aspect - I learnt an enormous amount by pulling other people's work apart and now view my own work very differently.

I actually call myself a writer now!

I had started writing my novel but had stalled. This was the incentive to get back into writing.

Nat is awesome. She is entertaining and her feedback is hard-hitting. Especially entertaining when she acted out most of the facial expressions I'd included in a scene.

The Australian Writers' Centre has courses that suit most writers' needs. The tutors are approachable and know their stuff.

LA Larkin was excellent! I didn't realise she was a thriller specialist before starting, but as this is the genre of my book i was very happy about it.

I enjoyed giving and getting feedback. It was very interesting to see how other writers wrote, and how that came through in their feedback on my work.

The course increased my confidence in writing, and has given me some very practical immediate help in building the plot and structure of my novel.

Please keep going, it's all useful! Definitely worth doing.

The format is terrific with the opening and closing zoom and the weekly writing and workshopping. Loved it. Great to have tutor moderation and feedback too. Also love the weekly lectures. It was all a great learning curve that was spread out.

LA Larkin (Louisa) was fantastic. Very engaged, supportive, encouraging and knowledgeable. Wonderful that she's a published author and also remembers her journey as a beginning writer. Very consistent and reliable and always felt like we were in expert hands.

It was really positive vibes in every respect as well as facilitating great break throughs and confidence building. Inspiring to meet other students at the same stage of their journey, great to do the structural synopsis to gain clarity, great to submit chapters to get feedback on writing style, great to have the lectures to carry you along week to week. All fantastic.

I feel like the breakthroughs and learnings have probably saved me three rounds of drafting. The course helped me identify my main character, helped me realise what needs emphasising to meet the structural requirements, helped me realise my scenes need to be orientated to real-time-action rather than reflection/flashback/exposition. So I feel like the 10 weeks has saved me a few years of writing in a less focused way. Was also a very gentle way to get over the fear of showing people my work. This feels really significant for the future.

Just an enormous thank you!!! I have felt so supported in my writing journey and so grateful for this phenomenal resource. Everything about the AWC is so incredibly well conceived and executed.

It's brilliant and invaluable! Do it!

I had done Creative Writing Stage 1 and really enjoyed the structure. I finally have the time to do more writing, so I decided on NWE so that I could try to get a story I've been thinking about for years started.

I was worried I wouldn't have the time, but I decided that everyone else in my family (husband and three kids) have things that they like to do that they just do without worrying about if it'll be too hard for everyone else to manage around, so I could do that too :) And it turns out that they can all manage without me while I'm writing (although it did take a few weeks of "would you interrupt Dad while he was working?" until the kids understood that I was doing something important to me).

I thought I'd struggle to get the 20k words. I've just hit 37k, and it doesn't feel like it's been that much of a challenge.

I was really impressed with Louisa. She was upbeat and honest and talked us through her writing processes and what she does when she's working on a novel. Her feedback was clear and helpful, and she gave me a lot of ideas to work with.

I've started writing regularly and enjoying it again. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about the scenes I need to write, or what my characters might do in a particular situation and it's fun.

It was a fun and manageable way to get back into writing and the coursework was so helpful to make me think through my story and my characters.

The tutor was so helpful. Always very constructive, and helped me pick up on a lot of big picture issues that I had missed completely. e.g. My story didn't have a protagonist!

For me having deadlines and accountability is the most helpful part.

I only had about 500 words beforehand. I'm now nearing the 20,000 goal because I actually believe it is possible.

Do it, do it now.

Excellent! Nat's passion is infectious and her feedback is concrete and specific. I also really appreciate Words@Dawn!!

Feedback is not as scary as I thought. It made me more confident in giving feedback and helped me meet more writers at a similar stage.

Great course, the materials were also very useful! A great way to build on writing craft, meet good people and learn how to give feedback.

I was looking for structure and accountability to finally make progress on my first draft, and this course seemed like the perfect fit!

At first, I was worried about how this would fit with full-time work (but you honestly just make time, so it was worth it!) and I had a few concerns about the online format and how the feedback would work, but those worries quickly disappeared once I got started. The setup was fantastic, and the feedback I received was incredibly helpful.

Nat was absolutely brilliant! She has such an eye for detail and spots things I would never have noticed. Her feedback was invaluable, and I felt like I was learning something new every week. She was encouraging, insightful, and brought out the best in everyone.

I absolutely loved the sense of community that developed among my coursemates. It wasn't just a writing course—we're still in touch with our WhatsApp group now and still go on Zoom writing sessions once a week. The diversity of stories was so rich, and the feedback from both Nat and my peers was always thoughtful and encouraging. I felt supported at every step, which kept me motivated and excited to write each week. Honestly, I would do it again in a heartbeat!

This course had a profound impact on both my life and my writing. I've not only become more disciplined, but I've also learned to trust my instincts as a writer and gained so much confidence in my voice. The community support made such a difference; it's helped me feel more connected and inspired to keep pushing forward with my work.

Every week felt like I was unlocking something new about my writing process, whether it was learning how to deepen character arcs, refine plot points, or simply approach feedback in a more constructive way.

150% YES DO IT NOW! You won't regret it! This course is hands down one of the best investments you can make in your writing journey.

Overall, I can't say enough good things about this experience. I wish the course had been longer, but I'm grateful for everything I learned and the community that came with it. Thank you!

I really enjoyed connecting with other writers during the course. It was reassuring to know that others shared the same fears, hopes, and dreams as I did.

Nat was a fantastic tutor. Her feedback on my novel was insightful and educational, helping me grow as a writer. While I didn't get the chance to listen to the feedback she provided to the other students during the course, I plan to go back and review it now that I have the time, as I'm sure it will be incredibly valuable. I highly recommend Nat as a tutor.

Completing the course reignited my passion for writing. I had reached a point where my enthusiasm had waned, and I even started doubting whether I was a decent writer, considering giving up altogether. Nat was refreshingly direct in reminding us that every writer feels that way at times. The feedback from my fellow students was not only encouraging but, at moments, it made my heart sing. I'm still unsure if I'll pursue publishing my work, but I know I will continue to write. Best of all, I'm enjoying the process again.

My 'aha!' moment came when I realised I had developed a bad habit of word dumping in my stories. Addressing this issue has greatly improved my writing, and I now understand how much more you can convey through dialogue while keeping readers engaged. I also have to thank Nat for pointing out that I never used the word 'said'. Years ago, an editor advised me to avoid it, and I took that advice to heart. It was like being hit with a four-by-two when I discovered it's perfectly fine to use 'said' - something I should have been doing all along. Thanks, Nat!

I would absolutely recommend AWC, and in fact, I've already done so at a recent work conference. I shared how completing a course with like-minded people feels like finding your online community. Even if you never go on to write a full novel, you can still learn, grow, and gain so much from the experience.