What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I have been a technical and feature article writer for years and wanted to try creative writing. The course seemed to offer foundation lessons. Also, I was keen to get feedback from Pamela.

Pamela was excellent. She was supportive and made constructive suggestions that I was able to incorporate into my assignments.

I enjoyed working at my own pace, yet having immovable deadlines for assignments.

It's given me confidence to continue with my plans for a series of novels. Valerie did not sugar-coat the amount of work involved in writing and that was a valuable lesson to learn.

The course was well-structured and obviously taught by experienced writers with excellent communication skills (as you would expect!). Thank you!

The audio format was great for learning, bonus exercises great, workload not too daunting and the course taught me a lot.

I've been doing the bonus exercises to maintain a daily writing practice.

Made me think about writing in a much more technical and structural way, being able to go beyond just instinct and assuming "great ideas" would be enough.

It is short and sharp but will make you think about technique and structure.

This course has given me a much better understanding of how to write a story. It has also given me more confidence in my ability. In addition to being very practical, it's full of insights from professionals within the industry. It's been a very fun and inspiring course!

Nat is very knowledgeable and insightful. Her feedback has been very helpful and I appreciated the humour with which she has delivered it. Nat has also been very friendly, helpful and prompt whenever anyone had a question. Thanks very much, Nat!

This course is very well thought out and I loved the way it was delivered too. It made writing a novel seem a lot more achievable.

Thanks, this has been a wonderful course.

Margaret was great! Offered feedback that boosted my confidence and pointed out areas where I could improve.

Loved the personal feedback and the layout of weekly content.

Provided a confidence boost and the drive to continue writing.

Definitely worth it. Engaging course material. Flexible with work/study. Easy to comprehend and I learnt a lot in 5 weeks!

Bernadette was supportive, kind, professional, good sense of humour, good comments and assistance.

I'm in a moment of transition and was wondering whether I could/should make space for my old love of writing in my new life. The answer is yes.

If anyone feels anxious about writing, this course offers support and will go a long way toward removing stress.

The course was great; it strengthened what I already knew and taught me a lot I didn't.

Margaret was fantastic. Her feedback was very helpful.

The character creation checklist handout has been brilliant! It's reminded me I don't know some of my existing characters as well as I should and been very helpful in creating new characters.

I have so many unfinished manuscripts on my computer in various stages of editing, all of them a compete mess! I'm ready to trust the process and finish the first draft of future stories first, then trust that any problems I have will be fixed in the subsequent drafts.

I would warn you the course is so good you'll want to come back to do another unit as soon as you're finished!

Thank you for the unit and you'll be seeing me again soon!

I've got some ideas that I want to work on writing, but I don't have a lot of confidence with the technical and structural aspects of a novel. This seemed like a good way to learn the basics.

The course was clear and straightforward, and all of the content was useful.

Margaret was very knowledgeable and constructive with her feedback. She presented her assignment comments in a clear and concise way.

It has given me some tools to use in my writing, and helped to address some challenges I'd been having.

The Creative Writing Stage 1 course is a good way to get an introduction into the process and industry. It is a good starting point for people thinking about writing.

I have been thinking of writing a novel for a few years, but need some accountability and also realised I have a lot to learn. I also have not received a lot of feedback on my writing, so I was keen to get an understanding of where I was at.

I loved doing this course. I looked forward to a new module opening up each week, seeing everyone's assignments and listening to the feedback. I learnt a lot in such a short space of time. The feedback is also so helpful.

I thought Margaret was great. I liked the fact that she gave feedback over video. This helped her impressions of the writing come through as she read aloud, and also meant I could listen to all the feedback while keeping up with other things in life. Margaret gave very clear and direct feedback, which was very helpful. She always pointed out what worked, what didn't and also gave great tips on grammar and punctation. It was very helpful!

It has convinced me to keep chasing my dreams!

Definitely check it out! There are an abundance of courses to choose from, a very friendly community and you learn so much. Above all, it's great fun! I found listening to the "So you want to be a writer" podcast gave me an insight into who AWC was, which ultimately led me to want to sign up for a course.

It's made me believe that what I want to do is possible. I don't have to 'be good' right off the bat. I can learn the craft of writing the same way I learned Pilates: practice, practice, practice. I'm more willing to do the work because I now view the work – and the learning/stumbling along – as fun.

I would say that Creative Writing Stage 1 is a great place to start learning about writing fiction because you learn the rules and tools of crafting fiction.

I have learned so much about the techniques of fiction writing. The course materials and audio lectures were excellent.

The constructive feedback from Bernadette Foley was excellent; she deconstructed the assignments I submitted focusing firmly on the shortcomings and areas for improvement.

I enjoyed the audio materials (well-presented by Valerie Khoo) and the hand-outs and additional exercises. The Write Direction Zoom webinar presented by Pamela Freeman was just great.

I was so overwhelmed by the user-friendly materials and the tutor's timely constructive feedback. You've also transformed my writing skills.

The Write Direction Zoom Webinar was the 'aha' moment for me. This was unexpected for me to have a live encounter with an award-winning author.

I would recommend the Australian Writers' Centre without a single hesitation.

I loved the course and learned a lot in a short amount of time. Bernadette was lovely. Ten out of ten! She was really nice on giving us feedback and she has an amazing vibe as a person. I also enjoyed seeing the excitement and writings of others in the course.

I now believe a bit more in myself that I can write.

This amazing course helped me a lot in many ways. Now, I see creative writing differently, so check this awesome course!

I was very pleased that Bernadette had so much experience in publishing and as an editor. It felt like an added bonus. And she was very helpful and considered in her feedback. She took everybody's work seriously and provided great feedback and interest.

I think it has made me less fearful of receiving feedback and of the idea of perhaps pursuing the dream of being published. At the very least it has encouraged me to engage in more courses and continue writing.

I think the Australian Writers' Centre provides courses that encourage writers, especially new writers, takes them seriously and provides the opportunity for some growth through exercises and feedback that is confidence-building and overall motivating.

I learnt so much! There are so many things about writing that I didn't even know I didn't know.

I thought the way the course was structured was excellent. It really led me through each stage of writing. I felt the offering was very generous with the handouts and the bonus exercises.

A novel has downloaded itself into my brain and is demanding to be written. I can't stop thinking about the characters. And I have completely changed the way I look at fiction. It's like a light bulb has been turned on in my brain. Thank you!

Understanding (as a beginner) the concepts of point of view and scenes has been revelatory. I've done lots of writing courses and no-one has ever mentioned these two fundamental concepts before. Doing the background thinking about character has basically gifted me a whole novel.

Far and away the best writing course I've done.

There were so many practical pieces of information that I learnt from the course. I learnt something in each module, but I particularly found the module on structure useful.

The tutor was very affirming and supportive.

It has made me rethink POV, scenes, structure and more. I would like to think that I have walked away as a better writer even from this 5-week course.

It's a very hands-on, practical course where you get real time feedback on your work.

Bernadette was very nice and always provided professional, constructive feedback.

I enjoyed the assignments. I also thought it was very helpful to have the annotations under the videos with the times and what is discussed at each point in the video. This helped me to follow along.

My writing has definitely improved and I learnt so many new writing tricks and skills.

Very friendly and knowledgeable tutors. Easy to access site. Great resources provided with handouts and extra exercises. Great content and writing tricks and skills.

Great course. Excellent and relevant material. A really good introduction. Great assignments and excellent feedback.

The teacher was thoughtful and knew what she was talking about. She put effort into giving useful feedback and it was great listening to what she said about my own and other's assignments.

Loved the audios. Loved the assignments and loved the feedback.

Helped me think about scenes, character development, point of view. All of it has been useful. It has really made me stop, slow down and think about what I am trying to write. There's so much I have learned.

Great theory. Great assignments and great feedback from tutor.

It's given me a new lease on life. After many years in the corporate world and living in Asia, coming home to Australia and starting a new life, I was not sure in which direction things would go. I have always loved the idea of telling stories but never considered writing would be a realistic option. The course has made me believe it may indeed be something achievable even if it doesn't result in being published. I just now find so much pleasure sitting down and writing and observing the world in a very different way, looking at people's characteristics and POV, looking at and describing things I see in more meaningful ways.

There is more to writing a book than you first realise, but knowing that and then realising it also isn't too scary leads to actually putting pen to paper in a way that makes you more confident and committed.

Thanks for the great course and I look forward to continuing my journey with AWC and the Writing Workout I am next signed up to.

Pamela Freeman didn't hold back with her feedback. It was honest and she always provided an explanation or an example for her comments. There was a lot of feedback that will be very useful moving forward.

I enjoyed the course layout, the audio and the actual assignments. It was also fun to interact with the other course participants, read their work and provide constructive feedback and receive it.

It's an excellent well-rounded Introductory course for creative writing.

I'm now inspired to continue writing and start writing with a purpose. I need to draw out that story swirling inside my head and put it in writing.

Would recommend to anyone who likes the idea of writing a novel, AWC is your absolute go to. Would also recommend if you simply want to learn the craft of writing for your own enjoyment.

I will be enrolling in more of AWC's wonderful courses in the very near future. So excited to add to the building blocks and skills learnt in Creative Writing Stage 1.
Kudos to your fabulous Podcast 'So you want to be a writer' - love them.

So many lessons crammed in to just five weeks. My next step is to go over all of the material again. Putting it into practice and then to continue my learning with the next recommended course.

Pamela's feedback and advice on all of our assignments was where the real learning took place. Personally, Pamela's feedback on the direction of one of my planned projects was the tough love I needed and helped me re-evaluate my possibilities.

I enjoyed the courage of my cohort to provide constructive criticism to each of our assignments. The quality of the learning material, especially the optional module exercises. And Pamela's advice and feedback.

If you have even a small itch to learn more about creative writing and storytelling, start with the Creative Writing Stage 1 course.