What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I wanted to learn about writing picture book stories for very young children. This course looked interesting and comprehensive in the topics it covered. The course duration of five weeks and being able to study in my own time appealed to me.

Suzanne's feedback was insightful, constructive and revealed a deep knowledge of this area of writing and the publishing industry.

There is so much valuable information in each module, and I found being able to download the handouts, audio lessons and exercises very useful. The assignments are well thought out and it was great to be able to listen to the feedback on other classmates' assignments.

I feel that I have learned a lot about writing for very young readers, and the course has given me the confidence to keep on writing.

I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn about writing picture books and what publishers are looking for.

I had an idea bouncing around my head and I knew I needed help to refine the language and pace. Now I have a few other ideas!

I did not expect the brutal truth but I got it and I appreciated it. The way Suzanne delivered her constructive critique was firm and considered. You can tell she has years of industry experience and cares for the students.

The feedback made me reflect and adapt. I've been able to change my style without losing too much of myself and I'm confident in my newfound writing skills.

I've always wanted to write and this course has allowed me to feel vulnerable and excited. It's given me the fundamentals I need if I pursue publishers and certainly exposed me to the expectations which I didn't know existed about publishing.

Just do it, stop overthinking about your ability and just do it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Feedback was really constructive and it was useful listening to the feedback provided to each person. I appreciated the encouragement and validation of my idea.

I enjoyed the simple, practical and straightforward modules. I enjoyed the online chat and engagement with Suzanne and the other participants. I especially enjoyed producing and evolving my story, and being held accountable to do this!

I never thought I would actually be able to draft a full picture book - yet I have finished the course with a working version. I am really proud that I have taken a small idea and turned it into a passion project and I'm excited to keep developing it. I feel really motivated.

Thank you, it's a wonderful course!

Be brave and give it a go!

I was really impressed with the content covered in the course and I feel as if I have learnt a lot.

I loved the feedback from Suzanne after assignments and felt it was really informative and worthwhile. She had great advice that I was able to take on board. She was really active in the chats too and seemed to be approachable and involved and really interested in what everyone was doing.

I enjoyed being challenged with my writing and looking at it all in a different way. I feel as if I have grown more as a writer and I'm excited to keep putting all I have learnt into my writing from now on.

It opened my eyes to the wider world of picture books. It's not just writing the story but so much more. I learnt so much about writing the actual story and how to make my stories stronger and more interesting or appealing.

The AWC is such a worthwhile place to find courses to suit wherever you are in your writing journey. I really enjoyed and was challenged in my own writing. Just do it.

Well done to all involved. It was such a worthwhile course and so informative. Thank you.

The course content was invaluable - loved the work on structure and writing skills - the nuts and bolts. The lesson on 'show not tell' was crucial for me. The entire content is more useful than any other course I have done. It gave me more than I expected and I will extend a lot of the skills into my other writing.

Suzanne was excellent - loved listening to her feedback on our work. She has valuable insight, experience and knowledge. She was fair and provided very helpful feedback - constructive and positive. She speaks beautifully and I am grateful for her feedback!

I have learnt so much. It was great to be able to work one story throughout and continue to improve on this each week after feedback.

It has opened my eyes to the complexities involved in picture book writing. Coming from adult novels where showing visually is important, learning to allow the pictures to do this was new to me but made sense of course - it is a picture book!

I have been wanting a course that helped with the nuts and bolts of writing - language, structure, and basic skills. One of the big lightbulb moments was when Suzanne pointed out my point-of-view error in my story.

Highly recommend.

I will look to do another one of your courses in the future. I may not be great at picture book writing, but I will practise! Thank you, Suzanne!

I'd been searching for more information on writing picture books, and at last saw this course. I just wish I'd come across it a few years back. I found myself learning things I hadn't even realised I needed to know!

Suzanne was great, very clear, and her feedback was spot on.

I loved that it was purely picture book focussed. I'm not interested in writing chapter books right now, so was happy to be putting all my energy into a course that was so totally about this one type of book.

I now know what I've been doing wrong, and how not to make those same mistakes in the future! Believe me, I am sincerely grateful!

If you want to know about writing picture books, DO THIS COURSE! It's not too expensive, not too long, and has invaluable information.

I loved it and have learned heaps. Thank you so much!

I love my young students and I wanted to create some new stories for them! I've always loved writing and I've always been writing, but lately it's been more writing for work (marketing) rather than for pleasure or creative projects.

The assignments were great! The feedback was SO useful. I was not expecting to be able to read everyone's stories and hear their feedback and have everyone read/hear my stories and feedback, but it ended up being so cool. :-)

I loved Zanni's honesty and positive attitude. She provided really wonderful and useful feedback and recommendations!

Honestly, giving myself the time and space to read and appreciate all these picture books was so fun and inspiring. I always loved picture books but I feel like I appreciate them even more now that I realise how challenging they are! And of course, the ability to read other people's stories and hear their feedback. And to hear someone read my stories out loud was slightly scary but awesome. I really appreciated Zanni's feedback. :-)

This course reminded me I need to make my creativity/writing a priority. :-)

Give yourself the gift of creative time. It's more important now than ever! This course was part of my new 'self care' routine, honouring and nurturing my creativity.

I love you, AWC! :-)

I enjoyed the course, especially being able to listen to the modules.

Zanni was very helpful and I enjoyed getting her feedback each week. It was great having someone who is in the industry to offer a professional perspective.

I loved that it was only five weeks. Being my first course with AWC it gave me a chance to see the quality of courses offered without making a major time commitment.

I have gained so much knowledge from both the tutor, Zanni, and my fellow classmates.

Zanni was lovely. Her comments and feedback were always so encouraging but also really helpful and insightful. She would see things immediately that would elevate the story and gave really thorough feedback to everyone in the course.

I enjoyed actually sharing my stories, which at first I thought terrifying, and getting to read others was great.

I now write every day and believe I may actually one day write something that is good enough to be published.

Thank you for this course. I have never done a writing course before and this was so wonderful. I will definitely be looking into further classes with AWC in the future.

If you want to do a writing course, go to AWC!

I have just retired from a very busy and enjoyable career as a developmental/behavioural paediatrician. I've always loved children's books and recently become a grandmother, with more grandchildren on the way. I wanted to do something creative in the area of writing and found this course on Google. The AWC looked such an excellent group to start my quest for learning to write creatively.

Zanni has been thoughtful, encouraging and the experience she brings, very helpful. It has been enjoyable to read the stories from the rest of the group, and also to listen to Zanni's suggestions for them.

I enjoyed many things about this course. Learning about the structure of a picture book, and what makes a 'not put downable' story. The interaction with others on our course and reading their great stories. Zanni's guidance.

This course has given me a new pursuit, which I think about daily, and look forward to continuing with.

If you are interested in writing in any form, do one of the online tutored courses to start you on your journey. The Australian Writers' Centre also introduces you to the vibrant community of writers and illustrators in Australia.

Just a big thank you.

I have an illustration background but want to write and illustrate my own stories. I knew very little about the writing side of things, so this course was perfect!

I was a little concerned that it would be too much for me to fit into my work/life schedule, but it was very manageable. I could listen to the lessons whenever I wanted to. I really appreciate the flexibility the course offers in that respect.

I was impressed by the speed and clarity at which Zanni dissects and critiques stories. I found her feedback to be very useful, straight to the point and also very encouraging. She guided me to write a story draft that I believe is worth presenting to a publisher with a little more editing.

I found the structure and format of the online course really refreshing. I've studied a lot, up to a master's degree, and believe this to be the best course I've done in terms of balance between the volume of information and practical assessments. I also enjoyed Zanni's feedback. The course is affordable in terms of cost and time commitment as well.

This course has really helped me to start thinking like a picture book author and has also taken the mystery out of the publishing process and industry as a whole.

The Writing Picture Books course is a perfect introduction to the field. It offers a thorough understanding of the current trends, what's involved in the practical process of writing a picture book and how to edit and prepare for a publisher. I totally recommend it to anyone wanting to make a start or needing guidance on their first attempts at writing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Thank you!

The AWC course on children's picture books is great! I have already recommended this course to a friend. It teaches you a lot of valuable skills for writing children's picture books as well as valuable tips for getting into the industry and approaching publishers. You will definitely come out of the course a better writer and with skills for approaching publishers professionally.

Suzanne has great industry knowledge and was a massive asset to have as a tutor. She provided constructive criticism and often provided alternatives to the way things were written. That helped me understand the differences between my writing and what publishers are looking for.

I enjoyed writing! Being given a weekly assignment to write stories was great motivation and a thoroughly enjoyable task. It has made me realise that I really want to pursue this path to writing a children's picture book.

I would highly recommend the course! The more your commit to the course and the assignments, the more you will gain from the feedback.

Zanni came across as caring and experienced. She delivered her feedback in an insightful, helpful and constructive way

Although in the beginning it was daunting to construct a story in a week, it became a bit of fun to create another new story idea within a timeframe. I also enjoyed reading everyone else's creations and enjoyed how different they all were.

Before this course I had very little confidence in my ability to write a children's story let alone let anyone read any of it. This course made me face my fears and allow my thoughts to be public. I feel I have moved closer to making my aim of writing a book a little bit closer to reality.

It's been so wonderful to be creative and challenged as a distraction and different focus from the current everyday life. In fact, my partner watched me enjoy the course so much he signed up to do the copywriting course as well.

I had an idea for a picture book based on something my five-year-old boy did.

The tutor was exceptional. I enjoyed the assignments and the feedback. It has given me the confidence to pursue this specialised area knowing I have valid ideas and I can write.

If you want to go down the path of being a writer, go with the AWC.

I've done two other courses with AWC and really liked them. This one was outside of my comfort zone, but something I wanted to try.

Zanni was great. Really awesome at constructive feedback! My story developed a lot each week based on her input and guidance.

It was great having the opportunity to keep developing/refining the same story over a few weeks. I liked the consistency and applying skills from the lessons each week into the assignment.

I had a vague idea for a story going into the course. Now I've written my first full draft of that story. It's come to life through the lessons, but mostly through Zanni's feedback.

I'd say AWC courses are a great resource to learn some basics, or if you have a story in mind, it's a great place to develop that story in a safe environment.

I loved this course!
- I liked that we could share in the assignments and feedback of others.
- The assignments and exercises are diverse and valuable.
- Valerie has a lovely voice to listen to for the presentations. Having the audio to embellish on the written notes is very useful (and some videos too).
- The handouts were very well set out and easy to follow.
- The feedback is very positive (strengths) and constructive (areas to improve).
- I feel like I can go out and tackle this now, and have enrolled in the masterclass.
- The course took the recommended time each week (usually 3 hours for me).
- I know what is involved now and that it is not an easy process that gets completed over the 5 week course.
- Yay!

I am more knowledgeable in teaching reading and writing for my job as a primary school teacher (year 2 - so lots of picture books!). I feel that this course should be part of teacher training!

More importantly, I am confident that I could turn some of my ideas into picture books and have benefited immensely from the content and feedback on assignments. It made me commit to the writing and spend my time in purposeful writing rather than doing random things!

I have enrolled in some of your other courses and am now motivated to finish them. I love writing so much more!

Zanni is an amazing tutor. I loved that the feedback was verbal and that she read our stories back to us. Her feedback was thorough and timely, always pointing out what is working well and what could be improved upon. She doesn't just tell you what to improve upon though, she tells you how and gives you an example of a possible change. It's great that she is a well-loved children's book author so you know that the advice you are getting is going to be useful. While I didn't ask anything, I noticed that she wrote back to others very quickly. Thanks Zanni :)

I can't recommend this course highly enough. I was turned off creative writing at high school, but since teaching primary school children, I realised the magic of picture books. This course reignited my passion for writing, which is a dream of mine that has tended to come and go. I now know not only why to write (I see that every day in my students!) but how to write. There's no way you could get this information delivered in such an engaging, fun and meaningful way through any book or through your own research. You have to do this course, even if you love it only half as much as I do then you'll be absolutely stoked!

Keep doing what you're doing because it's magic!

Zanni was great, very honest. I enjoyed learning different literary techniques and getting to try out a different story every week. The course was pretty perfect!

I've rewritten a story and come up with a brand new story that I'm pretty confident about. I have the confidence to keep trying even if I don't succeed with these ideas.

If you want to have a shot at being published, you need to do this course.

I enjoyed listening to the lessons and following along with the handouts. The content taught was very thorough and gave me a good understanding into the Picture Book world.

The tutor was knowledgeable and gave practical feedback.

It has given me a practical insight into the picture book world. I have always wondered about how to get a story published, and I feel like the course provides a very clear path to get there. Just have to write a good story now!

Having a dedicated tutor that was able to provide real-time feedback and weekly assignments were both really valuable aspects of the course.

Zanni was highly professional, available as needed, and her feedback was very helpful! I would definitely consider scouting her out for ongoing personal mentorship in the future!

I enjoyed reading the ideas and stories of other participants and being able to build upon new skills introduced each week.

Picture book writing is so much more than a good idea and cute characters. There is a whole structured process to picture book writing than I originally thought! It's quite a carefully thought out process with many components and ingredients!

Do it! You will definitely learn something new, or at the very least, you'll have a lot of fun and get to exercise the creative side of your brain!