What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I generally like the way Pamela explain things and you see it play out in other aspects of writing, as inevitably one affects the other, so she has you thinking, that's for sure : )

The AWC definitely gave me the start I needed to enhance my skills with what my editor was trying to point out to me. The AWC courses shaped all that for me and improved my skills.

I thought Bernadette was very positive and I felt safe contributing pieces each week for feedback. She responded quickly to questions and her analysis of everyone's work was considerate and insightful.

I liked the pressure of completing at least one exercise and having it critiqued by the group.

Just keep going, make the practice regular, and out of that comes a little magic, ideas that could eventually turn into more. I liked seeing everyone's writing, including my own, on the white screen and many of them looked like they belonged in a novel. This was encouraging.

I now look at screen and novels with a more critical eye. How the story is structured, POV, how characters are described, the tone and voice and dialogue. This is very enjoyable!

Thank you, and congratulations on your success on developing writers.

Bernadette Foley was excellent and gave very useful information and feedback, was on time every week and made sure the input was equally shared across the group.

I enjoyed feeling like part of a larger group, and receiving insights and feedback on my writing.

It has helped me establish a routine and habitual writing practice, as well as forced me to make a writing place in my home. I have set up a computer just for writing away from my 'entertainment' computer and it has helped me create a place where my sole focus is writing and the AWC coursework.

Despite all my social anxiety, the group was there to be a collaborative endeavour and a supportive environment. It was really nice to be able to log in every week and have a pleasant experience.

AWC has very accessible and useful courses that can help you find the writer within! AWC is full of useful lessons and resources to help you discover your inner voice and flesh out the stories you want to tell the world.

Great overall coverage of the topic. I have confidence from knowing more about the process. A useful and straightforward introduction to the world of pitching and publishing.

Bernadette was great. She gave great feedback, was encouraging and lead the group really well.

The course let me see that I could write and I enjoyed getting constructive feedback.

A great introduction on Scrivener to get you quickly acquainted with core functionality. It's empowered me to take control of my writing and move forward.

I really enjoyed Charlotte's animated reading of the assignments and the varied and instructive feedback. I learnt a lot about planning, structure, punctuation and point of view. She was encouraging, and clear in her comments.

Five weeks seemed a good commitment to an initial idea. On its completion I feel more confident in exploring my subject and thoroughly enjoyed the process.

The flexibility of the online course was really useful. The course work creates inspiration for writing the assignments. You get the feedback really quickly and it is thorough and helpful in improving the development of your ideas.

Thank you, Charlotte and Australian Writers’ Centre, for a really great and enjoyable course. It was really worthwhile.

Charlotte demonstrated excellent knowledge of the industry and provided helpful feedback, which I could apply straight away. Her comments drew attention to areas where I could improve.

I didn't realise how much the accountability and the deadlines would help me to actually sit down and write.

I thought I knew the industry and craft quite well by now, but there's still so much I learned from doing this Pitching and Publishing course, especially about the publishing process.

The AWC is a veritable font of knowledge. It's the go to place to learn about the craft and the industry of children's writing and likely every other sort of writing.

I really enjoyed how the instructor showed each section in several ways and revisited the steps in an easy-to-follow manner. I love the outlining and image/research function of Scrivener now that I know how to use them!

I think learning how to use the cork board and outline was exceptional. For years, I've struggled to use these functions, but this course made that easy. Now, I feel equipped to keep everything I need for my novels in one place, and I understand what each section does to help me with my fiction writing so I focus on writing rather than wrestling with filing and administering my documents.

I think learning how to use the inspector and add cards to the cork board to help with plotting and the outline was a real 'aha' moment for me. I also loved learning about how I can add a photo, PDF or website as a bookmark for a document or a project. That's life changing information for me as a writer! Loved it!

I think this course was invaluable in teaching me how to use Scrivener in a way that is empowering and keeps everything to do with the story in one place. The structure this course gave me over my novel, characters, research and images is fantastic! I finally know how to use it for an outline and to keep drafts clear. I highly recommend this course to any writer who uses Scrivener on their Mac. It makes your writing life so much easier.

Kate is a fantastic, knowledgeable tutor. She is able to convey the course material in a practical, useful way while giving us the theoretical understanding as well. The information provided was clear with just enough detail to help aspiring writers apply the knowledge straight away in their own writing.

I liked the step-by-step approach. Bite sized chunks in a logical sequence helped me know how to proceed in crafting the plot of my novel. Also, Kate's explanations of her writing methods to illustrate the plotting and planning techniques provided.

I was stuck at 25,000 words of my novel. I can now see how to proceed through the planning process outlined by Kate.

The course offered very practical, useful writing craft techniques and processes to develop a novel in the context of a variety of narrative structures.

I have two books to complete in 2026 and I wanted a refresher about the most efficient way to approach it. I also heard Allison Tait say on her podcast (something like), 'My friend Kate Forsyth says you either have to like planning, or you have to like editing.' I'd really like to minimise the editing load by doing as good a job as I can with my early drafts. So plotting and planning it is!

I liked how Kate lays out the steps clearly and explains why they matter. The Plotting & Planning Challenges workbook pulled everything together super well. I will refer to this often, I'm sure.

I enjoyed how open Kate is about her process and how her books came to life, especially Bitter Greens. It was fascinating! I also liked seeing screenshots of Kate's notebooks that showed how she excavates for and captures many gems.

I like structure, and this course spells out exactly what I need to do to make a solid start with my story/s. I suspect the mind-mapping exercise Kate suggests will help unearth many good ideas - a tool I could really use.

Doing an AWC course is like having insider-access to the distilled wisdom and experience of accomplished authors. Each presenter is genuinely interested in helping aspiring authors to do well. Information is engaging, practical and inspiring, and is delivered in an efficient and actionable format. A great way to fast track your development as a writer!

The detail is phenomenal! I have saved all the downloads and audios to return to deepen my knowledge.

I liked both Val's videos reinforced with the print resources. The time stamps on the videos are very helpful too.

I have joined ASA and hope to pitch in 2026 at their Pitch sessions. Your pitching info was very helpful, and I recently pitched at the WYN graduates' evening which was terrific practice. All the different types of books, types of publishing (or as much as possible in this changing climate!), the variations between here and OS, learning about PLR, as well as the complex legal side - having some degree of knowledge before I submit my women's commercial fiction book is helpful, and somewhat reassuring.

Very professionally produced, detailed information is current, well-paced with a variety of media to convey the message.

A fantastic, easy-to-understand course for all aspiring authors.

Such great info. Super thorough. So, so good.

I've done a number of AWC courses and each has always over-delivered on content. So much amazing information, real world stories and author success stories. Pamela's stories about her own writing/publishing journey are full of insights and very generously shared. There are so many folks with no real experience, much less expertise. AWC is the real deal.

Margaret was a great tutor, giving so much information on submissions. Her feedback was both positive and informative.

I enjoyed reading the submissions from other students as it gave me a chance to learn what others were doing - which was the same as what I was doing / not doing. I also gained a better knowledge of how to critique my own work.

The course moved my story forward in leaps and bounds - both in terms of word count, character building and embodying of characters. I found myself thinking about my novel and jotting notes everywhere - on the train, in the mornings, at the gym - for 10 weeks I lived and breathed as if I was a character in my novel. I didn't want it to end!

It was a great course throughout.

I waited for almost a year before deciding to enrol in this course. I wish I had not waited so long as who knows where I would have been now. My advice for anyone considering this course: Do it! Don't hesitate and wait. Do it! Your novel will thank you for it. I wish I had started this sooner.

I thought the tutor was fantastic, engaging and very helpful. The content was super informative.

I feel very confident that I can make a career change and start making income from this.

I would say that the AWC has fantastic courses and it would be a great step that will leave you feeling confident in your next step.

Loved hearing back from Alex after every assignment. Very informative!

Found everything to my liking - pushed the boundaries as to what to write. Made me think of writing for profit in a different light. Looking forward to putting what I learnt into practice.

Loved the course material - and looking forward to doing the next course on my list of many through AWC to participate in!!

I loved how evolved this class was with beautiful examples and easy to understand patterns, with quality handouts.

I understand more and am excited to put the lessons into action.

This course helped me as a writer to develop my craft!

Kate's comprehensive understanding, analysis and delivery of the topic was amazing. Her clear presentation, accompanied by fascinating art anecdotes and historical references, made the course so easy to follow.

The steady pace of the course and the clear presentation of each element, delivered by an accomplished writer made the course very enjoyable.

It forced me to think about my writing in a much more analytical way, instead of the instinctual approach I've always had.

Planning ahead is clearly the surest way to keep your novel moving.

If you have a passion for writing but lack the tools, the AWC is guaranteed to help you develop the right equipment.