Year: 2020

Fiction writing
Australian Writers' Centre Team

5 key mistakes to avoid when self-editing your manuscript

For writers, self-editing is a crucial skill, especially if you’re planning to send your finished manuscript off to a publisher or enter it in a competition. Whether or not you have friends who can help you as beta readers, you need to be able to edit yourself well.   The Australian

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Why is a boxing ring square?

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, we’re thinking outside the box…

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Podcast: So You Want to be a Writer
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Ep 346 Meet Nick Place, co-author of ‘Stalin’s Wine Cellar’.

Discover what you need to know about writing across age groups. Meet Nick Place, co-author of Stalin’s Wine Cellar. It’s launch day for A.L. Tait’s eagerly anticipated book The Fire Star. Plus, there are 3 copies of The Good Teacher by Petronella McGovern (AWC alumna) to give away.

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Competitions and Opportunities
Australian Writers' Centre Team

COMP CLOSED: ‘The Good Teacher’ by Petronella McGovern

A good teacher can change lives… This week’s giveaway is from AWC alumna Petronella McGovern – author of 2019’s acclaimed thriller Six Minutes. (For an insight into how she turned her author dreams into reality, check out our case study on her.) Petronella’s latest book is called The Good Teacher

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Alumni/Student success stories
Australian Writers' Centre Team

How Felicity McVay reignited her creative passion to become a published picture book author

AWC courses completed:
Writing Picture Books
Creative Writing Stage 1

Sitting in darkness feeding her newborn daughter each night, Felicity McVay began to dream up the character of a boy who loves to burp. After taking two courses at the Australian Writers’ Centre – Writing Picture Books and Creative Writing Stage 1 – Felicity is now a published author, with her picture book The Boy Who Burped released by New Holland Publishers. “I feel a great thrill when I tell people that I’m a writer,” Felicity says. “The courses at AWC gave me a sense of legitimacy.”
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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Born vs borne

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, it’s the “borne” identity… Q:

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Competitions and Opportunities
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Furious Fiction August 2020 winner and shortlist

Furious Fiction was this month transformed into a comedy club, as we invited entrants to counter the prevailing 2020 narrative of doom and gloom and bring the funny! To help set up such a tee-hee-friendly scene, were these criteria: Each story had to contain HUMOUR/COMEDY of any kind. Each story

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Competitions and Opportunities
Australian Writers' Centre Team

COMP CLOSED ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ by Richard Osman

Who said old age has to be dull? This week’s giveaway book is The Thursday Murder Club by British author and recognisable man from the TV, Richard Osman. This is his highly anticipated debut novel (reportedly secured through a seven-figure two-book deal); the first in a classic crime series. In

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Fiction writing
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Bestselling children’s author Tim Harris: How he got his big break and why he loves writing for kids

Looking at Tim Harris’ body of work, it would be easy to think he had planned it all out in advance. After spending 15 years as a primary school teacher, he picked up a pen and started writing for that same age group: less than a decade later, he has 11 children’s novels under his belt along with a pack of literary awards, and he’s an in-demand presenter at primary schools across Australia.

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Venomous vs poisonous

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, name your poison… Q: Hi

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Fiction writing
Guest Writer

How to write during a pandemic

By Adrian Beck, author of the Derek Dool: Supercool series.
Making time to write is tough.
Making time to write when you have kids is an even bigger challenge.
But making time to write when you have kids (doing remote learning) whilst in the middle of a pandemic is MISSION IMPOSSIBLE! Well, nearly. But like Tom Cruise, I’ve found a way. And I also do all my own stunts.

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Podcast: So You Want to be a Writer
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Ep 344 Meet Adrian Beck, author of the ‘Derek Dool Supercool’ series

In Episode 344 of So You Want To Be A Writer: You’ll meet Adrian Beck, author of the Derek Dool Supercool series. AWC presenter Candice Fox’s book turns into a movie. And AWC grad Brooke Graham’s picture book Go Away, Worry Monster! to be published! Plus, we have 3 copies of The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle to give away.

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Competitions and Opportunities
Australian Writers' Centre Team

COMP CLOSED ‘The Girl in the Mirror’ by Rose Carlyle

Identical twins only look the same… It’s giveaway time again and this week we have three copies of Rose Carlyle’s The Girl in the Mirror to be won. This edge-of-your-seat debut thriller explores identical twins, a crazy inheritance and a boat full of secrets. Who can you trust? Absolutely nobody! 

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Our famous Q&As!
Dean Koorey

Q&A: Why is it a “catch-22”?

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, here’s the catch… Q: Hi

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Fiction writing
Guest Writer

Write across the ages – from junior fiction to young adult

Deciding whether a story is YA, Junior Fiction or Middle Grade comes down to the fundamentals of all writing. That is: story, idea, setting, language, character, voice, structure, length… All these factors help shape what sort of story you’re writing. But in making this decision, possibly the most important thing to decide is… Who is your reader?

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Alumni/Student success stories
Australian Writers' Centre Team

Penelope Janu: Meet the lawyer who became a bestselling romance novelist

After more than 20 years as a solicitor and legal academic, Penelope Janu thought it was high time she finally followed her creative impulses. She completed a short course at the Australian Writers’ Centre (AWC), which gave her the confidence to pursue a creative writing degree – and led to her first novel, In at the Deep End, being accepted for publication. She has since gone on to publish several more popular romance novels.

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