What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I very much enjoyed working with Sue. I enjoyed the very helpful, practical recorded modules and the ability to be able to go back and review.

I have focused mostly on adult fiction to date, but am now looking at how I can split my time (and personality! Just kidding!) to write something manageable for children.

It’s an approachable, practical and hands-on course that is both motivating and hugely helpful.

I have been working on the same middle grade/YA novel during NaNoWriMo for several years and have got stuck. I wanted something specifically to give me skills/knowledge for the age group AND give myself a kick in the backside.

There were so many aspects to writing for children/YA that I hadn’t considered. I had many “lightbulb” moments doing the course.

Stephen’s feedback was extremely helpful. Seeing his feedback of other people’s writing as well as my own was useful. I started to see the things I was doing in the other students’ writing too, which helped me to recognise where I needed to improve my own.

Online learning is great for me because I’m in a rural location and can’t easily get to the city for courses. Also, being able to listen to the audio repeatedly helps to cement things for me.

The feedback provided was excellent and thought provoking. It was really helpful to hear comments on both my own work and that of other participants. Lots to reflect upon and to go back and review in future.

I enjoyed challenging myself weekly with an assignment, reading the assignments others submitted and hearing the feedback on all of our work.

It gave me a starting point and a structure and was the catalyst for setting out ideas for a first story.

I was thrilled with the understanding and emphasis on diversity and representation as well as the care taken with that which made it clear it wasn't a performative thing; it was a genuine recognition of what is needed in modern society.

I feel validated in what I've got and motivated to actually see it through for once!

AWC exceeded my expectations and I was very impressed with their vast knowledge in many areas and the care and thoughtfulness of what goes into their curriculum and feedback.

Pamela was a great tutor and provided a lot of insights.

I enjoyed getting feedback on my assignments - although daunting and nerve-wracking, it was really helpful for me to see where my strengths and weaknesses were.

The course helped me to see the children's books industry in a way I've never seen before, and removed my misconceptions.

I would say it is very informative, teachers are very helpful and the workshopping is invaluable.

I really looked forward to receiving feedback from my tutor, Stephen Hart, about the previous week's writing assignment. I looked forward to each week's new challenge. I also appreciated listening to and responding to the learning opportunities provided by the audio lessons.

Stephen Hart is a terrific tutor. I found him to be intelligent, knowledgeable, thoughtful and personable. Thank you, Stephen, l take on board your suggestions and appreciate your words of wisdom!

I believe the combination of the following worked really well for me:
- Combination of theory (audio tutorials) and practice (assignments)
- Learning in a supportive group of writers
- Provision of an expert tutor to provide weekly feedback.

I feel more confident to keep writing. I have resources to assist and don't feel isolated. Feedback from Stephen following the first week's writing assignment meant a lot to me. Thank you.

Take the opportunity to do this course! I felt really supported along the way and now have a sense of enrichment and confidence to follow my writing ambitions.

Thank you to the team at AWC. I appreciate your expertise in putting together this course.

The exercises were fun and the information about YA writing was invaluable. I feel I have gained more of an understanding about the differences between audiences of various ages.

Very helpful if you are serious about writing. It has helped me to be a more organised writer.

I was a bit concerned about time (juggling a baby and work) but found that the audio really helped with this and it was nice to have a reason to set time aside for the reading and assignments.

Allison was great - her feedback was always clear and helpful and she always offered suggestions or different directions to try.

It has pushed me back into a writing routine. It's a great way to learn new skills and get your writing on track.

I have been wanting to refine and improve my skill as a writer in this genre. I had no idea how little I knew, very grateful.

The tutor was honest and careful in reading our assessments. Very good.

I learned a lot about how important it is to keep up with the times when writing children’s literature.

I am interested in writing upper primary and YA novels and thought this would be a great and informative course to do. I have also completed Creative Writing Stage 1 so I knew that this would be a high-quality course.

Allison provided wonderful and helpful feedback for my written pieces. I think what I enjoyed most was interacting with others and getting a wide variety of perspectives.

This course has made me want to begin writing my novel. It was the push I needed. The AWC is a wonderful place where you not only learn, but gain invaluable feedback from actual writers!

The lessons were great and very engaging. I have done a year of creative writing at uni and I found this course much more practical.

It has helped me have the confidence to go on to one of the novel writing courses. Also helped understand more of the work of writing.

The AWC is a great place to start on your writing journey.

Allison's feedback felt insightful, fair and clear. Her experience was evident and impressive. The module podcasts were excellent and more in-depth than I expected. The assignments were fun.

It has given me the confidence to continue novel writing. I have more self-belief that - with further learning and experience - I will get there.

If you're serious about writing, you'll definitely come away from a course with new knowledge.

I've wanted to know about writing for middle grade and young adult readers. I thought having Allison as a tutor would be great.

It was wonderful to get constructive and encouraging feedback from a great tutor.

I enjoyed having fun with writing again. I've had a break for a few years. I've reconnected with my writing voice and my creativity.

I think the pacing was good. The fact that it wasn't an intense, time consuming course meant I had time to think about each exercise and take in the lectures.

The lectures are relevant for today's industry and the environment is very supportive.

I'm glad I could do this course during our harsh, Melbourne lock-down. It gave me a ray of hope and a guiding purpose in this difficult time :)

I am about to start writing my second middle grade novel and thought it would be a good idea to go into this one with a good sense of the fundamentals before I start... a bit of procrastination I know, but worthwhile.

I appreciated the course content, assignments, and the level of feedback Allison provided. Also the number of students felt right. I enjoyed reading everyone's assignments and learned so much from Allison's feedback on all. I appreciated Allison's feedback on my assignments and agreed with her feedback on all assignments throughout the course. In each instance, it reassured me that I am on track with my learning and writer’s journey.

I enjoyed reading everyone's assignments. There is so much talent in this group and everyone has such a unique voice. I looked forward to reading the assignments every week and will miss that the most. I also enjoyed reading Allison's feedback on all our assignments.

I will write my middle grade novel with a strategy in mind. I will finish it and edit the drafts. And ultimately I will save time with less revisions because I feel like I have a good handle on the fundamentals going into it.

I recommend AWC all the time. I always tell people it's a good idea to take a course from AWC before they get too far into their writing journey - it helps set the stage. I have done this for picture book writing and now I will recommend this one as well. I would like to thank Allison for being a wonderful tutor and also let her know that I appreciated her speedy feedback.

I enjoyed applying the content that I learned. It's taught me many things about writing and spurred me to persevere with a story.

Good chance to learn and gain momentum writing. Thanks! I'll probably see you again.

I thought the feedback provided by Pamela was very helpful. Listening to the feedback for all students, as opposed to just my own, gave me further insight that I think will be useful going forward.

It's nice knowing you are on the right path. The other students seemed to like the characters I am developing. You always have doubts when you are working in your own little bubble. Also knowing there are other people at the same point as me feels kind of nice.

This is the second course I have done and I'm sure I'll be back for more.

Sue is obviously very experienced and picks on one or two specific things that will make a difference to your work.

The content was all really relevant. Unlike some other courses I have done, there wasn't any content that I thought was not relevant to my current writing project.

It made me approach my first chapter completely differently. And gave me confidence that my character's voice was strong.
Being forced to re-write our first few paragraphs. I didn't think I needed to do it but after I did it, it made all the difference.

If you are considering a course with AWC, you should absolutely do it. Not only is the course content excellent, the online delivery is good, and the tutors are experienced in the field. The price is also very reasonable compared to other courses.

Great. And very efficient! Feedback was fast and clear.

The ability to listen to the audio file while reading along - or not. This made it flexible so I could multi-task while listening if I wanted to.

It's got me writing again by focusing on a specific task or technique - the idea of practising writing, rather than always writing for your project.

Give it a go. Very welcoming and fun, plus learn real skills. Thanks so much for a very enjoyable course. It's lovely to reconnect with this community again - will be hanging around :)