The 23rd Davitt Awards shortlist has been announced and we are so excited to see AWC graduates Dinuka McKenzie, Fleur Ferris and Louise Bassett on the list! Here are the details from the Sisters in Crime website: Crime alert: Sisters in Crime has announced its shortlist for its 23rd Davitt Awards for the best crime and
The world is divided into two types of people – those who pore over the acknowledgements page at the end of a book and those who don’t even glance at it. If you’re an aspiring author, whether of fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry, I recommend you join the first
Carolyn Swindell was working in a “high heels and business suit job” in corporate responsibility when she decided to enrol in her first AWC course.
“The biggest thing about the courses is the permission you give yourself to be a writer by investing in yourself,” Carolyn told us. “I had been shy about admitting this ambition, but going along and sitting with other aspiring writers and learning the craft and the business was such a boost to my motivation and my skill level.”
Carolyn put that motivation and skill to good use, with her debut novel, We Only Want What’s Best, out now with Affirm Press.
We are so thrilled for AWC graduate Zewlan Moor who is celebrating the launch of her debut picture book Nothing Alike on 19 August. Zewlan never imagined that she would be a published author one day until she started listening to the ‘So You Want to Be a Writer’ podcast.
When you’re writing a suspense or thriller novel, you want to make sure you keep your readers hooked and compelled to turn every page. But sustaining that level of devotion from a reader means that every word needs to count. And you need to ensure that your plot, characters and
Penguin Random House Australia has just revealed the shortlist for the 2023 Write It Fellowship. We are so excited that six out of the 11 shortlisted writers are AWC graduates! Here are the details from Penguin Random House’s website: We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for Write It, a
Attention Australian crime and mystery writers! The 30th Scarlet Stiletto Awards are now open. Here are the details from the Sisters in Crime website: Sisters in Crime’s Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short crime and mystery stories turn 30 this year and are offering a record $12,720 in prizes. The
Deciding to write picture books was literally a lightbulb moment for media and communications manager Claire Thompson. Each time she put her newborn baby in the carseat, the interior lights flashed on, so Claire and her four-year-old invented a story about a magic baby. She immediately realised she wanted to write a children’s book and enrolled in the course Writing Picture Books a few days later.
You may have heard authors, particularly authors of book series, talk about their ‘bible’ when discussing their writing process. And no doubt you realised they were talking about the notebook or document that helped them to keep track of characters, relationships, settings and other important information in their book or
Do you love a new writing book as much as I do? Even after co-writing my own book about writing (‘So You Want To Be A Writer: How To Get Started While You Still Have A Day Job’), I find myself adding new writing books to my shopping cart way
Proofreading is an art, a science and a challenge. At first glance, it’s a simple proposition. Read your manuscript to ensure there are no mistakes before you send it off to be submitted or published. But, as any experienced proofreader will tell you, there are pitfalls along the way. For
The So You Want To Be A Writer podcast has become a feature of the Australian publishing landscape since it first appeared more than eight years ago. Since that day, the podcast has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times and featured hundreds of writers, who’ve shared the ins and
The best moment of every author talk I ever give in a school is when I share the dirty secrets of being a professional author. “Writers are horrible people,” I say, to a response that varies from gasps (grade three) to blank faces (grade eight). “Writers are mean and they
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but there’s been a sudden rise in the number of authors who’ve begun blogging again. Around ten, and even five, years ago, blogging was a big part of building a platform or profile for many authors, and I count myself among them. It was
In 2000, I was contacted by a nun from the order of the Sisters of St Joseph – the order established by Mary MacKillop (who is now Australia’s first saint). They wanted to commission me to write a children’s book about MacKillop, and I’d been recommended because I’d been brought
The So You Want To Be A Writer podcast community on Facebook is a wonderful place to be on those days when a writer posts about their first publishing deal. The excitement is palpable and the goodwill is genuine. But I confess my heart occasionally sinks when I see that
Samera Kamaleddine quit her job as editor of Women’s Fitness magazine to finally write the novel that was in her head – but she quickly discovered she had no idea where to start! After taking a course at the Australian Writers’ Centre, she found her writing rhythm and has now gone on to publish her debut young adult (YA) novel, Half My Luck.
Have you ever been asked to beta read a manuscript for a fellow writer? Maybe you’re in a writers’ group or perhaps you’re looking to set up an exchange with someone willing to read your manuscript too? A beta reader is simply one of the ‘first’ readers – not the
In order to convince your reader that the world of your story is ‘real’ or ‘true’ – no matter whether it’s high fantasy, a crime novel, a rom-com, and so on – you need to create a sense of ‘verisimilitude’. Now, that’s a word that comes from a bunch of
Do you need to write every day? I was scrolling through Facebook this week when a post stopped me in my tracks. It was by Pamela Freeman, bestselling author and Director of Creative Writing at the Australian Writers’ Centre. Pamela wrote: “I was thinking today about the ‘you must write
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