What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I found the course gave me so much information about writing an actual novel rather than crafting just a few prices of writing. I enjoyed actually doing the writing and having completed the assignments.

Suzanne is lovely, very insightful and not afraid to point out the bad bits as well as the good bits :)

All my fears were discussed by Valerie, which tells me everyone has the same fears and that is OK.

I now believe I can write a book. Above all it takes dedication and commitment to the process.

I can't speak highly enough of Bernadette's presentations and feedback. I enjoyed the continuity, the course content, the ease of working online.

I can see an exciting pathway that involves writing which is what I wanted but was unsure about the format of how I could do this. I have since enrolled in two more subjects to complement the first.

Extremely clearly designed course, interesting, and highly practical. Suzanne's feedback was great, really helpful and positive. Also pointed out where we could improve. I am writing a little every day and am determined to take this to fruition.

THANK YOU - I really enjoyed this course and am really hopeful it is the start of a great journey.

Suzanne was very knowledgeable, professional and encouraging. I enjoyed the opportunity to have my work read and critiqued.

The lessons and handouts really filled in many blanks and gave me more of an understanding on how to plan and work on stages of my writing.

It's a fantastic learning platform and resource for writers in which to subscribe to. I'll be enrolling in more courses!

Bernadette provided an environment of warmth that encouraged each of us equally and strength to continue exploring the writing exercises regardless of the level of our writing skills.

The Zoom interaction delivered so many helpful tips from Bernadette and my fellow writers.

The 'aha' moment was when I found scenes appearing before me as a result of the exercises.

I found AWC to be a genuinely supportive environment and will take another class with them.

So many enjoyable things in this course but the most important was the honesty; I greatly appreciated that. There was a line about not quitting your day job if you think being an author is going to make you rich, combined with write because you love it and write about the story you need to tell (not trends, as publishing process is slow and trends have changed by then). The other message about perseverance and persistence in relation to getting published and not giving up. The value of editors and their role and the differences between indie publishing and traditional publishing.

Knowledge is power - I have more knowledge now. It is good to know there is some room for negotiation in contracts and what to focus on. So much to learn, and this helped immensely.

You have to be able to be so much more than a great writer to be an author. You need to know how to edit your own work, promote it online and in-person and be a business person/ contracts lawyer-in-training to be able to figure it all out. Not to mention the essential personality characteristics of never giving up and don't take constructive criticism personally. Tall ask!

AWC courses are professionally run and resources are fantastic for referring to later. The audios are helpful, as well as PowerPoint slides. All very well put together and being able to do courses online and in your own time is so valuable.

I'm working on some websites and need to refresh my skills. I did a Grad Cert in Editing and Publishing a few years ago, but feel the need to keep updated. Also would like to be able to travel and take my work with me.

The tutor was very professional, yet friendly and relaxed.

I didn't realise what I didn't know. Very useful for work I'm currently doing, so a confidence boost!

I think copywriting suits my style, 'less is more'.

AWC courses - some seriously useful fun. Online courses that are super-informative, well-prepared and user-friendly, but above all fun.

I realised I was lacking an understanding of the intricate aspects of point of view and my basic understanding wasn't going to be enough to complete my novel. This course appeared to cover everything that I needed, so it's the one I chose!

I feel far more confident with creating characters that my audience can connect to in a meaningful way through POV.

The information around depth and discourse were probably the biggest learning curves for me. I now feel far more equipped at navigating POV after considering these aspects.

The courses and resources at the Australian Writer's Centre truly are made for writers by writers. The information is engaging and relevant and you leave with actual tangible resources in addition to new skills and understanding.

Bernadette is an excellent teacher: clear, comprehensive, and easy to listen to.

It covered everything a new copywriter faces but most importantly addresses all the fears we have about going out into the world and announcing ourselves as copywriters, and the daunting task of taking on projects. Bernadette understands how we feel and is very reassuring that we are all up to the task.

Gave me the confidence to approach prospective clients and to say yes to jobs I might have been hesitant to accept.

I have already recommended a friend do the course and she has just finished the Copywriting Essentials course. She had been thinking of getting into copywriting and I told her she would definitely benefit from doing their courses.

I wanted to learn more about crafting meaningful characters before diving into writing my own novel. Without this course, I wouldn't have noticed some potential issues with my initial planning.

The examples, worksheets/activities and overall presentation were very engaging and helpful. Not once did I zone out and have to re-wind! A wonderful course.

This course helped me consider characters from angles that I hadn't even thought to investigate. I think the characters, narrative voice and relationships I've now been able to craft are significantly more meaningful than what I had started with. The worksheets/activities are very helpful and really promote reflective thinking. They're also embedded into the audio lessons and are explained explicitly. Nothing in this course felt like a waste of time or money or a time filler. I now have resources and skills that I will definitely come back to in the future.

I really enjoyed meeting other writers on this and other courses run by the AWC. I feel like I have made a real connection with some of the other students and may have found not only some new friends but really wonderful long term beta readers.

Anyone with dreams of being a writer would be helped by a course run by the Australian Writers' Centre. It is a great starting place.

I started writing a novel and wanted to learn more fiction techniques and I needed some accountability to keep writing! I also wanted feedback on my work in a safe environment.

I was a bit scared about sharing my work with others, but I actually found it so helpful in the end having feedback from my classmates and Nicole.

Nicole was great at giving feedback. She picked up on a lot of things that I didn't think about until she said it, which is really going to help improve my work. She was a good tutor.

I enjoyed the workshopping, receiving feedback (even if it's a little scary) and reading other classmates' work.

I would say that if you are keen to learn fiction techniques properly and want to actually write a novel (the right way) to look to the AWC :)

I have recently begun to write stories for children and know the way to their hearts (and heads) is by making them laugh.

I liked the clarity and brevity. Tim was very knowledgeable and approachable. I now have a new arsenal of skills to take with me as I approach my next writing project.

A great course for anyone wanting to understand the specifics of writing humour for children and the finer details of how different types of jokes can be approached. Hilarity ensues!

This course exceeded my already high expectations! As always, Kate was a gracious, expert host and trainer. Kate shares her experiences and knowledge freely and with immense kindness and grace, she learns about your work and issues and addresses concerns and questions with ease. Amazing level of knowledge and interest as well as provision of information, insight and practical advice on the art of editing.

Every course I do with Kate changes my mind, my writing and my world as I leave it feeling a little terrified by the workload ahead but inspired and encouraged to embrace it to achieve it.

Kate is immensely kind and generous with her time, insight and advice. She leaves no one out, is never critical only constructive in a positive way. So you're not afraid to ask the 'duh' question and always get a gracious and expert answer. The materials were useful - as with previous Kate/AWC courses I will refer back to them time and time again. Everything leads to learning skills to identify issues or problems with your manuscript and doing your first edit and second draft.

If you want to learn how to write better and meet other aspiring and successful writers, this is the course and writing organisation for you!

Thank you - great quality content, expertly delivered by an awe-inspiring, exceptional writer.

The course was great in giving insider tips on getting started in the industry and providing tips on writing a good feature article. It also highlighted that I may need more practice in writing to fine tune my skills

The course overall was very interesting and enjoyable; I can't decide what was best. Alex was great. She was very encouraging and provided very constructive feedback.

It has helped give me a real insight into what it means to be a good writer and provided me with an understanding of where I need to improve my skills to become a great writer. It has motivated me to give it a go.

It's a really good course for giving you the key tools for good feature writing.

I felt I was in a bit of a funk and not enjoying the sort of writing and work I was doing at the time. I just felt I had lost my mojo and my love of writing.

I absolutely loved this course and feel really inspired. It has helped shape my thoughts about what I want to do for the future with a couple of big "ah ha!" moments. Although I still feel like my writing muscles need stretching after atrophy, I feel like they've had at least a little exercise now. And more importantly, I feel like it's lit a fire to keep exercising those muscles (way to mix my metaphors!).

It was like opening a present every day. I would never know what surprises were in store for me!

I get paid to write for others. It has been so long since I've written something just for MYSELF and I had forgotten just how satisfying that can be.

DO IT! You won't regret it. In fact, I'll join you on the next one.

I wished to challenge myself to do something new and I thought this course sounded interesting. Little did I realise how intricate writing for young adults is!

I had to make myself just enrol before I thought about it too much! I have a habit of leaving things for later and then thinking that it's not worth it. But with this course, I decided to do it, I enrolled and then I couldn't back out.

I must admit that I was a little taken aback when I first realised that submitting my weekly assignment was posting on a chat feed for all my classmates to read! That took a bit of courage. But once I found that confidence, it was lovely to read other people's work and get their feedback every week.

Suzanne was excellent. Her feedback was always insightful and greatly improved my writing.

I now understand how to plan a story. It's given me a structure to just start writing!

Thank you for this opportunity. Now to do something with it...

I wanted to write an eBook for my business, but wasn't sure where to start.

The variety of examples and case studies used throughout the course gave me some great ideas of what I could do for my book.

I've found that all I have to do is get started! The Bootcamp was especially helpful. Why have I waited so long to get started!

The AWC courses are very professional, with extremely experienced, friendly and helpful tutors. Worth the investment if you are serious about writing.

I was looking for a way to consistently practise my creative writing skills, although I was not ready to commit to writing a novel. I had some good feedback on this course from other people on the AWC Graduates Facebook page which made me realise that this was exactly what I was looking for.

Bernadette was great to work with, and her experience in the publishing industry really shone through in the feedback she gave us. Her feedback was always helpful, supportive and she always left me with something to think about.

I loved reading everyone's work each fortnight and watching their stories develop each session.

I created a character in Week 2 which I developed over the course and had great feedback about him and his story from Bernadette and my fellow students. I am currently working on developing his story into a novel. Bernadette also helped to foster some self-belief in my ability which has inspired me to keep going. The reaction I had to my Week 2 submission made me realise that I could actually do this!

This is my second course through AWC (not including MOJO Month) and I have loved both of them. I have learned so much both from the tutors and other students and it has helped me to hone my skills and grow my confidence.

If you are thinking about enrolling in Writing Workout, just do it! You won't regret it!

It really pushed home how well you need to know your characters before you start writing them. And the more I heard that the more I became convinced that of course that is true. And because of that I have been able to produce a far better mind map of my story than I had initially.

I enjoyed the raft of great ideas and tools for developing my characters - the stress on knowing your characters so you can write them.

I now know why my characters were same ole same ole. I now know my three key characters. I now have a good sound structure for my story. I now have hurdled the roadblock that was stopping me from writing this particular book.

It is a good and thorough course. It will bring home to you the big things about writing fiction. It will also bring home to you the little things. So you get the meat. And the gravy.