What’s it like to learn with AWC?

Feedback was always fair, balanced, and reasonable. Being forced to write under a deadline is always fun.

Cleaned up my writing a lot. I was completely ignoring transitions before this.

It's a kick up the butt to show you that it's possible to get paid for your work.

Thank you so much! I appreciated the breadth of the course, the range of topics, and the time allowed to complete the modules.

It reinvigorated my excitement!

I would say the AWC has a wonderful range of topics, passionate instructors, and the courses are a fabulous present to your creativity!

I have self-published a book after completing the AWC Writing Picture Books course and Picture Book Masterclass and am now being asked to present in schools

I feel a lot more confident about how to present for different age groups and have a better idea of how to really engage kids in more creative ways.

Great course, really enjoyed it. Nat is awesome.

Nat was very engaged. You can tell she has a general love of teaching and the content. It was great to get a very different perspective on the process. I really enjoyed the way she made you feel valued. Obviously, she has a great understanding of English usage and she can impart this knowledge in an enticing way.

It's a great place to build your confidence in a 'safe' space. You will get something out of it, it just might be a novel, a writing group or a new friend.

This course covered so much in an easy to digest format. The handouts are great. I'm using the character template as a guide to review each of my main characters. It's helping me understand them better and I feel more excited about writing their story.

Margaret's feedback was so useful when she read through everybody's assignments, raised questions and made suggestions, and provided encouragement to keep going. It was great to hear the views of somebody with extensive experience in the industry about the things that mattered and could improve my work.

It was great to be able to connect with other students, read their work and get their feedback.

I feel like it's given me tools and encouragement to help me move forward.

This course had an excellent balance of theory, practical exercises and insights that will help me improve the structure of my stories.

I particularly enjoyed learning about the common pitfalls and suggested techniques for the different structural elements. I also enjoyed learning more about the different structures and their history, noting that this wasn't the focus of the course.

This course has given me tips, tools and techniques on how to strengthen the structure of my stories.

AWC courses are insightful, comprehensive and well structured.

I found the workload per week to be exactly the right amount!

The tutor really took her time to go through all our assignments and gave very valuable feedback.

Now I am a much more active reader... I will not look at magazines in the same way! It also pushed me to believe in myself a bit more and it made me understand that there are plenty of ideas out there and so many different angles for the same story idea.

Just go for it! The AWC has amazing teachers and you will be part of an amazing community!

Thank you :) I really had fun!

The content in the audio, the handouts, the assignments and the feedback from an experienced, independent editor all far exceeded my expectations. It is a very well-structured course.

Margaret Whiskin was amazing. I learnt so much from her feedback of my work as well as all the other students. It was invaluable. Her advice was professional, solid, constructive and extremely encouraging. It has inspired me to start my dream of writing a novel.

I found it truly inspirational. It has opened my eyes to the world of writing fiction and for that I am extremely grateful.

The online tutor was great. I loved Margaret's feedback and found it really improved my writing.

I think it's given me more confidence in my writing.

My course tutor was great and each module is really in-depth even though they're quite short. The feedback you receive is invaluable.

Really interesting course; while a lot of the information I've heard before in different formats, Kate drew everything together in manageable sections and I was able to take some really good notes. It also got me thinking a lot about how my scenes connected, rather than it just being a case of "and then this happened".

I enjoyed how there was a mix of theory, practice, and realism - there was no great claim that this process would solve all of your problems, rather it was a set of guidelines to use and understand in the process of finding your own way.

I am already considering my current Work in Progress and thinking about where I can improve it in a second draft by planning and plotting it more deliberately. While I THOUGHT I had plotted it in advance, I now know that I had missed out on several key factors, thanks to Kate's course. I will certainly use her process to redraft this novel.

It sounds very basic but the structuring of the story around your word count and, particularly, the importance of sticking the landing on your midpoint. I have previously written novels (partly planned and also not planned at all) where the midpoint simply kept getting further away - the book began to look like Grady Tripp's second novel in 'Wonder Boys'! Now, I feel like I have the tools to recognise that happening and, in turn, it will (hopefully) save me a lot of cutting and editing!

I would say that the AWC has an excellent website and podcast in terms of free resources, as well as information about various events, etc. In terms of the courses, I would say that the one I have done (so far) has been an excellent introduction to their education offering and that it is great value in terms of being able to replay it and dip back in across the space of a year.

The feedback was really helpful and the course excellent.

Cathie gave wonderful and very specific feedback I needed to correct my work and make it more appropriate for my audience.

The tasks were fun and made me work.

Great tutors, great courses, great guides. I am grateful for having found these courses.

Cathie was clear with her feedback and delivered feedback in a very nice manner.

It was an appropriate pace and each week built on the previous week. The assignments were not heavy. I had two occasions where life and travel got in the way and I was still able to submit on time because the assignments are not large. Valerie's voice is a real pleasure to listen to, so that made it enjoyable and easy.

Cathie's feedback on my work has shown me that I am on the right track. It's given me the confidence that I lacked before.

I have already recommended the course! I said it was well worth the money, helps you learn the basics and develop your writing. It's a very manageable course to complete while also working.

I'm very pleased and have already purchased the masterclass. Thank you!

This was the perfect course for beginners. There is so much more to learn than I expected, and it is taught in a way that provides motivation to continue.

The tutor was very knowledgeable, very constructive and honest. Wonderful.

The different learnings all made sense, and it's like it provided understandings of things that were in the subconscious to some degree.

The course has provided the confidence that if I want to pursue this, if I put lessons into practice, research, and develop my skills I can achieve any goals that I set.

A wonderful course for any budding author.

I think Petronella did a wonderful job. Her feedback was thorough and helpful. She was very encouraging and approachable. I really enjoyed the Zooms and reading her feedback on my and other students' work. She responded promptly to questions and comments on the chat too.

I enjoyed it all. The other students were encouraging and their suggestions were helpful in making me think about things I hadn't realised. Petronella was great. The online lessons were really helpful and the format was great for listening to anywhere. I haven't done the exercises yet and am grateful that we have access still so that I can go back and do them when life slows down a little.

This course helped me see myself as someone who could actually do this (write a novel). It has caused me to admit to others that I was doing a writing course and that I aim to write a novel. And it helped me realise that my story could be a published novel as it has potential and isn't just something I'm wondering about.

The online lessons provide insider knowledge. The course unlocks lots of 'secrets' about how to make stories work. The lessons are accessible and giving and receiving the feedback was really useful. Even the help around forming a writing group to keep up the momentum of the course is really helpful.

Thanks for running the course. Thanks to Petronella for her kind and generous feedback.

The course makes you feel that it is possible to write in any genre of writing. The steps to take are very practical and simple to follow.

I connected my business knowledge to be potentially something I would be expert in, and this could be the starting point to obtaining work as a writer.

Easy online module in snippets and choice to submit on time to get feedback so no pressure.

I have been thinking about writing a novel for years now and have been an avid listener of the AWC podcast, so I decided to give it a crack!

Nat is such a wonderful tutor. Her feedback was constructive and very generous. She put a lot of thought into everyone's writing and offered great suggestions for improvement. She was also very funny and engaging. Loved her!

I enjoyed the writing exercises and all the modules, which really stimulated the imagination. The most enjoyable part was watching Nat's feedback videos on the writing. She made me laugh while teaching us how to improve our writing.

The course has impacted my writing greatly as now I understand the importance of POV and I have acquired better tools to help improve my writing.

Nothing compares to the AWC. I've previously done writing courses at university, and watched many YouTube videos and read books about writing but feel I gained the most from this course. Highly recommend to anyone who wants to write!

Many many thanks

Lesley was very easy to follow and gave a wide variety of examples from lots of current and also classic books.

I loved that it was self-paced. Sometimes I watched the same lessons a few times and spent much longer on some module assignments than others. I also really appreciate the opportunity to receive feedback on some writing.

I've always written for children 'secretly.' This course has helped give me the confidence to tell my family and friends and even start submitting some manuscripts. I also felt locked in to what I've always written (poetry and picture books) but again this course has opened up a whole new area of writing for children for me which is very exciting.

Definitely worthwhile. My tutor was knowledgeable, friendly and experienced in both teaching and writing. She has published a number of books and used both these and many others to illustrate her points to us.

Just thank you! I intend to complete more of your courses.

The level of detail, the excellence of Valerie Khoo's presentation and the handouts were good value for money.

I learned that the publishing industry is always changing and it's important to keep up with the changes. Not to lose heart and keep trying, by improving craft skills and keep writing.

If you're serious about writing, you would do well to enrol in the Pitching and Publishing course.

I've been writing short stories since I was a child. With (many) periods in my life when I didn't write a single word. I wrote for the escape or pleasure of doing so, without any clear idea of how to do so. I wanted to do this course to learn proper techniques.

I enjoyed learning about genres, POV, plots, the editing process, how to write dialogue. Also, "kill your darlings". A concept that although not being totally new, it made me realise how to edit heavily, no mercy, just eliminate the noise.

Run, don't walk! AWC offers a huge number of anything that you could possibly imagine for writers. Go for it! And don't forget Furious Fiction on the first Friday of every month.

Fitted well with my day job/personal commitments and covered all the things I needed to get me into the creative writing swing.

I was worried I wouldn't be able to find the time each week to do the modules. But everything was well spread out and didn't feel overwhelming and I looked forward to the new module releases each week.

Margaret was direct, encouraging and gave constructive feedback that I could work on. Much appreciated.

It's ignited my passion for creative writing, to knuckle down and hopefully produce something that I can get published one day.

There are so many elements to consider and pull together to write an engaging story that captures the hearts and minds of readers. It's a very structured and detailed process and one that requires thought and planning before jumping in. I hadn't appreciated this as much as I do now, and it's something I'm looking forward to doing more of.

100% recommend. Extremely great value and supportive learning environment considering the sheer amount of expert guidance on offer.