What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I loved the videos with Pamela. It was lovely to see her expressive face and passion she has for the for the subject of fantasy. I also enjoyed the exercises that were set especially the map making. The course provided reflection, revision and renewed enthusiasm to continue with the development of my story.

The course gave me the depth of information I was looking for to develop the story plot, characters, and magic system, as well as the enthusiasm to start putting my story together.

It actually took me over two years to finally enrol. My main hesitation was whether it would be worth the financial investment. Before committing, I tried reading books on writing, researching online resources, and even taking cheaper courses-but none of them gave me the help I was looking for.

The depth of information in this course was much more than I expected.

My tutor was fantastic. She struck a perfect balance between being encouraging and offering valuable areas for improvement. Initially, I found the feedback a little disheartening and difficult to take, especially since it had been a while since anyone had reviewed my creative writing. However, after a few sessions, I quickly realised that all her points were valid and solely focused on helping me grow as a writer.

The handouts were so helpful. There is so much information included that I think I need another 5 weeks to go through it all again!

I have much more confidence in my writing now, and am motivated to keep persisting.

My biggest 'aha!' moment was gaining the tools to diagnose my own work. Before the course, I had several half-written stories that I knew 'didn't work', but I could not explain why. Now, I can go back to those drafts and pinpoint the exact structural, pacing or other issues that were holding them back, giving me a clear path to fix them.

This course is definitely worth the investment. It costs more for a reason - specifically, the incredible depth of information and the quality of direct feedback given throughout the modules.

I enjoyed being able to listen to each section more than once and having the visual handouts to support the spoken elements worked well together. I also enjoyed making connections with well-known picture books.

I had hit a wall where I felt anything I wrote wasn't good enough and I was embarrassed to share it. Now I feel more confident and proud of my writing.

If you are serious about learning how to write and publish a picture book, the Australian Writers' Centre courses are thorough and professional.

Kate covered all aspects of the course with fascinating insights, and I loved the accompanying artwork.

I now construct my sentences with intention. (I rewrote the previous one three, no four, times!) Furthermore, prior to this course, I hadn't considered sentences as music, but now I understand words have rhythms that, when used purposefully, produce a powerful atmosphere or create a deep emotion.

It's possible to break the rules, take risks, and still create a magnificent book such as The Book Thief.

The AWC is the perfect place to go if you want to become a better writer.

I enjoyed the practical exercises and also the handouts to refer to in future.

The AWC has so many great courses and you learn so much.

As a teacher, I have worked with picture books my entire career. I got to a stage where I wanted to know the 'behind the scenes' of a picture book. I wasn't even sure if there was a 'behind the scenes' but I figured that AWC was the place to go to find out. I was to discover that there is an actual recipe for writing a picture book and I was fortunate enough to learn the recipe from AWC.

Margaret was supportive, knowledgeable and the critic (in a kind way) that I needed. She was able to help me realise that writing and publishing a picture book could definitely be in my life plan. However, she also helped me realise that I have a way to go!

I will never read a picture book to my students or to myself ever again in the same way. I feel like I have gone 'backstage' and found the real goings-on of a picture book.

I would absolutely encourage a friend or colleague to do AWC courses. I feel the self paced 'learn when you can' style of learning is great for busy people (I sometimes listened to the lessons when I was making dinner!). I also feel like the courses are well priced and good value for money.

I want to say a huge thank you to all at AWC including Margaret. I have learned so much about the art of writing picture books, from developing characters and creating engaging story lines to understanding structure and repetition, and that all-important 'warm hug' ending. The course has given me confidence, inspiration and skills to attempt writing my own picture book. I have loved every moment of this journey. Thank you also for covering the business end of things. This is learning I also greatly appreciated.

This course will give you solid ideas about how to put the content of your book together as well as the fine detail of publishing and advertising it.

This information is for a place well in my journey's future, however good to know where you are headed so as not to fall into traps if/when you reach this stage of the process.

I had no idea it was all so complex. All of this information will (hopefully) be great to have in ones toolbelt.

The tutor was professional, knowledgeable and thorough.

I enjoyed the rhythm and pace of the course. I now have so much respect for shorter text!

If you love to write, seasoned or not, AWC have got the lot! I'll be signing up again soon!

This course was great for gaining knowledge on the technical structure of picture book writing.

Margaret was lovely, encouraging and positive.

Knowing more about the structural requirements of picture book writing will definitely save me time and (hopefully) set me in the right direction toward publication.

The timeframe is doable in a busy week and it's great to have a starting point of potential industry contacts.

I wanted a sound foundation for writing historical fiction and to compare with my background in writing academic research.

It made me focus on writing actual chapters instead of just the research (however much I enjoy that part of the process).

The course brought everything together in one place and allowed me to review as I needed. Module 5 especially provides a thorough, up-to-date overview of research methods and sources. The defamation modules gave me confidence in this area. The lists of reference material at the end of modules gave me useful books to follow up. Coming online with AWC also opened me up to the newsletters and podcasts which provide other dimensions for learning. I have now commenced Fiction Essentials: Dialogue.

I had questioned my ability to make the transition from academic writing (which I felt was probably not current enough) but found that my intensive approach to research and many of my skills are compatible with writing historical fiction. I also viewed Kate Forsyth's presentation on "Inside the Making of a Novel". I enjoyed her dissection of her own research process and found many similarities with my own. I realised that I wasn't being overly pedantic at all. Her analysis has helped me to further develop my own approach.

Find your area of interest and have a go. There is always something more to learn.

I am loving it. I've written four draft manuscripts. The three that have been part of the course have improved significantly over my many redrafts and I have no fear to look at them repeatedly to try and make them better.

Margaret was very helpful with her feedback. In my past life, I ran advertising agencies, and a great deal of client feedback on creative work was subjective and lacked strategic thought. Margaret's feedback was constructive and presented in a welcoming tone. It helped me a lot. Thanks Margaret.

One of my roles was as a strategic creative planner who was not particularly strong with grammar. Most of my presentations were in bullet point form. However, developing creative ideas was one of my strengths. This course allowed me to build on those strengths while addressing some of my weaknesses. And I had a lot of fun doing it.

I found the course very very good. It helped me get a clear direction for my writing and I have started to write what I hope to be a novel. This came out of the very first assignment in creating a character. I really want to run ahead and do the novel writing course but I think I will write my first draft first and also give myself more space to redo all of the exercises with every character I create.

I liked Amy and found her feedback really positive. I really enjoyed the material, the exercises, the assignments, the feedback and especially the feedback from other writers.

I already have a novel started from the course and already the characters and the scenario seem so real that I can't stop thinking about it. This is so different from the one I've been slogging away for the past couple of years.

This course is brilliant and I loved every minute of it. I would say if you want to get a good handle on the writing processes you can't go wrong with this course.

Aspects of this course that I found to be most enjoyable were the assignments and feedback. I think Margaret was great.

I now feel that I am able to continue along this path of writing picture books for children.

I would say that it's well worth the time and money if you are serious about producing good literature for young children.

I'd like to thank AWC for putting together this great program and I'm sad to see it finish! I felt like it was a brief stint back at college and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I enjoyed working through different genres with Kate's interpretations. I loved the addition of the artwork in each module and the literary techniques explanation and information in the last module.

I took this course whilst in between Novel Writing Essentials and Write Your Novel - it kept me writing and thinking about writing during the break in courses.

Bernadette was positive and honest. Had a great ability to see what's not right with your story.

I enjoyed workshopping. Giving and receiving feedback. I have a clearer idea of what is not working in my novel.

You will love it, meet wonderful people and your manuscript will vastly improve.

I really enjoyed studying the creative non-fiction books currently on the market and analysing them from different perspectives throughout the course.

If I had discovered the Australian Writers' Centre earlier, I wouldn't have spent so many years trying to figure out how to get my books published.

I had been writing on my own for a little while previously and wanted to get a better handle of writing technique.

Nat is very passionate and supportive, and gives the sort of detailed moment to moment feedback they'd I'd hoped to receive on my work.

I enjoyed having a group of other writers to share thoughts and ideas with, meet up regularly and give feedback. I enjoyed the giving feedback process more than I'd expected.

I've learned quite a lot and gotten a bunch of helpful feedback to rework my manuscript into something better. I also recently attended a writing conference with students I met through the course and have begun attending a monthly writers group with one of them.

It's a substantial commitment, but the learning and community you'll get from the course is well worthwhile.

The course was easy to follow and I enjoyed it very much. The templates and structure for each writing style will make it much easier for me remain focused on writing more quickly and succinctly.

I have already recommended AWC to several friends. I have been coming along to courses since about 2018 and I always learn something new in every course I do!

I have learned a great deal from this course. And enjoyed it!

It has motivated me to do more writing, including writing some short stories for my young grandson. It's a pleasant contrast, while being also complementary, to the adult creative writing courses I've done/am doing. Definitely improving my grasp of humour techniques which has enabled me to apply them across the age spectrum.