What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I respect Pamela's work ethic and how she talks about how she's listened to feedback and adapted her own writing over the years, which is very encouraging to hear as a brand new writer. She brings a lot of practical knowledge to the table and I really appreciated how she's worked with so many different genres and publishers etc.

I enjoyed interacting with other writers and having people read my work for the first time ever! I haven't even shared it with family yet.

Finding out people enjoyed my first 3000 words gave me a lot of hope. It propelled me forwards in writing my first draft. I'm 56k words in now and hoping to do Write Your Novel soon once I've reached 75-85k.

Pamela was excellent. She was direct and didn't hold back which was great. But also provided positive feedback too so it kept me inspired.

I feel more confident in my ability to actually finish this book. I have more questions than answers at this stage, but definitely inspired to keep going. I couldn't write during the course cause I'm quite time poor, but it gave me a lot to think about and move forward with. I found the handouts and exercises really practical and helpful.

Just keep writing. Don't procrastinate and perfect things even when you know they're not right. Just get to the end and save things for the second draft.

Pamela is great! She's obviously got so much experience to impart and her guidance was terrific.

I enjoyed the weekly video lessons. I learnt a lot! And the reassurance that it's not unusual to find it tough 20,000 words or so in!

I am much more conscious of when plot points emerge in the books and movies I'm watching! It's helped me navigate the way to unfold my story into a more compelling novel.

AWC courses are useful and well-constructed. The calibre of writing was really strong in my course!

Petronella is very knowledgeable and a great mentor. She always provided helpful feedback in an encouraging way.

I really enjoyed the workshopping component. It was great getting feedback from Petronella and the other students. I learnt a lot from giving feedback too.

It's given me the confidence to keep writing my novel.

The advice to write the first draft as "brain vomit" (or similar) and then refine your story over subsequent drafts was really helpful.

Petronella was encouraging, and she gave me a lot of useful feedback.

It has made me believe in my abilities as a writer.

Louisa was supportive and encouraging and her detailed feedback was invaluable.

I was really inspired by the opening modules, and the structural outline and other templates were super helpful.

It's got me writing! Just get the first draft down. Everything can be fixed on the second draft.

An excellent investment in exploring whether your novel has legs and if writing is for you.

Margaret was a great tutor, giving so much information on submissions. Her feedback was both positive and informative.

I enjoyed reading the submissions from other students as it gave me a chance to learn what others were doing - which was the same as what I was doing / not doing. I also gained a better knowledge of how to critique my own work.

The course moved my story forward in leaps and bounds - both in terms of word count, character building and embodying of characters. I found myself thinking about my novel and jotting notes everywhere - on the train, in the mornings, at the gym - for 10 weeks I lived and breathed as if I was a character in my novel. I didn't want it to end!

It was a great course throughout.

I waited for almost a year before deciding to enrol in this course. I wish I had not waited so long as who knows where I would have been now. My advice for anyone considering this course: Do it! Don't hesitate and wait. Do it! Your novel will thank you for it. I wish I had started this sooner.

Margaret is so knowledgeable in her craft. I really enjoyed how she tackled the 3,000-word submissions and let her inner editor come through. I learned a great deal about sentence structure and what it means to trust the reader (and *how* that looks!). She picked up on small things that I feel would improve a manuscript (like filter filler words and how they take away from a story rather than enhance it, for example).

I found the videos to be very useful in elaborating on some of Margaret's comments and also contextualising them. I learned a lot about my areas for improvement from her comments. I wanted to learn where my strengths were and what I could improve on, and I found her comments were very useful in providing me with the starting point in improving my work.

I liked her direct approach because she cut straight to the point, explained why she didn't agree with something, why it didn't work for her, and how it could be improved. What I loved most was that she never made it seem like it *had* to be done - it was always a suggestion, but one that I felt added value to a draft. I loved her encouragement, too - when something worked, she'd make sure to tell you as much.

The level of feedback we got from her was one of the best parts of the course. I didn't expect that much detail! I would definitely do another course with Margaret as the tutor.

Other than receiving feedback from Margaret, the workshopping was the best part of the course. I've never put myself or my work out there like that before, so this was a new and terrifying experience for me. The students were so generous with their time, compliments and constructive feedback.

I get to walk away from this course not only with more confidence than when I entered, but also with people whom I hope to be friends with and share my love of writing with. The relationships you make in the course are invaluable. Writing is no longer a solitary thing for me.

Workshopping was very useful in helping me be a bit more critical of my own work.

The tutor was very professional.

I feel more motivated and committed to progressing my book.

It doesn't matter how bad your first draft could be; keep writing. Re-drafting over and over again will eventually lead you to a compelling, well-written book.

The AWC courses are excellent. Workshopping and receiving feedback from a teacher who is an expert in the writing field is invaluable.

I found the feedback invaluable. I had trouble with commenting on other people's work due to my own issues about being critical of others, but I eventually got to notice the benefits.

The tutor was good. Supportive and direct.

I feel more self-confident with the words I'm writing, and understand little steps all the time lead to something bigger.

Go for it, you never know what part of the learning will sneak up on you which you didn't know. It's a great hobby.

I think Petronella did a wonderful job. Her feedback was thorough and helpful. She was very encouraging and approachable. I really enjoyed the Zooms and reading her feedback on my and other students' work. She responded promptly to questions and comments on the chat too.

I enjoyed it all. The other students were encouraging and their suggestions were helpful in making me think about things I hadn't realised. Petronella was great. The online lessons were really helpful and the format was great for listening to anywhere. I haven't done the exercises yet and am grateful that we have access still so that I can go back and do them when life slows down a little.

This course helped me see myself as someone who could actually do this (write a novel). It has caused me to admit to others that I was doing a writing course and that I aim to write a novel. And it helped me realise that my story could be a published novel as it has potential and isn't just something I'm wondering about.

The online lessons provide insider knowledge. The course unlocks lots of 'secrets' about how to make stories work. The lessons are accessible and giving and receiving the feedback was really useful. Even the help around forming a writing group to keep up the momentum of the course is really helpful.

Thanks for running the course. Thanks to Petronella for her kind and generous feedback.

Nat was great and her feedback was 100% constructive. It really felt like she believed in all the students without just blowing smoke up us.

I enjoyed the solidarity with other students and Nat who did the work every week :)

I actually believe I can write. Not just this one novel I'm working on - I'm a writer!

I'd say that it was like injecting a university creative writing course straight in to the vein.

I really enjoyed the tutor's feedback. It was supportive but also constructive and offered insight into things we did well and areas we could improve on.

I really liked the workshop component and being able to develop a critical eye.

It really helped me through a roadblock of my writing, being able to get a story structure that others thought worked well and also for me to start getting words on the page with a regular writing routine.

AWC has a great range of courses for people at all stages of writing in all types of genres. If you're looking to develop your writing skills and also connect with others, I would definitely start there.

I had been writing a novel since Jan 2024. It was pretty stop-start. I had just gotten back into writing and felt like I was doing a terrible job. So I signed up, to learn more and hopefully keep writing. Just learning that what I was feeling was NORMAL was a game changer. Straight away I let go of this thought about writing garbage and was able to just write.

The tutor was great, considerate and constructive. I plan to go and listen to her feedback to others, especially the structural outline to pick up more tips and tricks.

If you're interested in writing a novel or are currently writing a novel do it.

I thought the feedback from Margaret Whiskin was exceptional. Margaret went into so much detail and provided excellent advice.

I enjoyed the course very much. I feel that I can attempt to write a novel now.

I loved Margaret. I found her wise, incisive, positive.

I enjoyed building community. The positive responses of other writers to my work.

It's kickstarted my writing practice in a big way. Given me the confidence to write. I'm now finding it like therapy!

Making a large goal like writing a novel concrete is a matter of taking small steps. It's a journey. My novel is changing and growing like a child in development.

Great introduction to novel writing and foundations for creating my own project.

I thought this course was great and lots of fun. I enjoyed reading and giving feedback on everyone's work a lot more than I thought I would.

I think Margaret is a great tutor. I like that she is direct and clear in her feedback. She also doesn't sugarcoat feedback, which I found extremely helpful. I liked that she both provided comments and the videos. She was also very responsive in the course chat.

I really enjoyed meeting the other writers and getting to read their work.

It has inspired me to keep going!

It's worth it! The courses have been really enjoyable and fun, you get to meet lots of great people and you realise just how much there is to learn. My writing has already improved a lot and I'm sure it will continue to!

Just want to say thank you! I've really enjoyed the courses and I'm glad they've been made available. I also love that the AWC has a very welcoming and encouraging community. It's great!

This course opened my eyes to a vast selection of genres and how other writers work and plot their stories - we're all different!

Margaret was really helpful. Her feedback was considered and constructive and I really appreciated her wisdom through this course.

I enjoyed Margaret's valuable feedback and the connection with other people on the same journey, experiencing the same fears, setbacks and hurdles as me.

I now have 25,000 words and have momentum.

I would say it's money well spent and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Margaret was an amazing tutor. She gave great feedback, and she was helpful and answered all the questions!

The material was great, giving feedback was great, and writing was great.

I was able to see where I am weak in creative writing and learned a lot about it. I learnt that I have great imagination, but I need to learn how to write properly, and especially I have a lot of work to do in POV.

The AWC is the best place to learn about creative writing and, most importantly, to have fun!

I loved the course - it was really enjoyable and great to connect with the other classmates. The tutorials were extremely useful and I will go back to them time and time again.

Louisa was great - very knowledgeable and provided great feedback.

I really enjoyed learning and meeting the other writers.

It's given me direction and confidence to continue writing!

Do it! It was great and I'm so glad I enrolled. The AWC is well organized and the content was really useful. The design and structure of the course was perfect for my needs. I will definitely look at enrolling in more in the future.