What’s it like to learn with AWC?

After hearing Nat Amoore speak so highly of Cathie Tasker and reading about her illustrious career, I really wanted to do this course and be guided by her. I knew that Cathie's wealth of knowledge would help me grow and improve as a writer. I also found Cathie's feedback for myself and my classmates to be really helpful and I greatly appreciated her words of encouragement as well.

First of all, I absolutely loved that I could fit the course in around other commitments. I also enjoyed the challenge of submitting an assignment each week and getting Cathie's valuable feedback. Another aspect I was grateful for was to be able to go through this experience with a number of classmates. Being able to read each other's assignments and also each other's feedback from Cathie was a great way to learn even more.

I have learnt so much about writing children's picture books. I knew that there would be a lot to learn but never could have imagined just how complex it could actually be. Now that I have completed this course, I feel that I can create stories that have potential to be published. I don't think this would have been possible otherwise.

For me, the 'aha' moment was when I starting looking at my daughter's picture books after having learnt so much during this course. I feel like I'm seeing these much-loved stories in a whole new way with new-found appreciation.

I'd just like to say a very big Thank You to the team at the Australian Writers' Centre and especially to my lovely tutor Cathie Tasker. I thoroughly enjoyed the Writing Picture Books course and I look forward to putting what I've learnt into creating wonderful stories for children. Thanks again!

I highly recommend the Australian Writers' Centre to anyone who has an interest in writing and would love to take their writing to the next level!

I loved the course and feel equipped to start working.

Fantastic tutoring. I loved Bernadette's succinct and clear delivery. It's a blessing to have such an experienced tutor.

It's helped me be more succinct and direct. I'm confident enough to start working now. In fact, I'm midway through making my copywriting landing page!

It's a great foundation to learn more about a style of writing. It's well-structured. It works if you work it!

Thank you!

I enjoyed the detail. I had no idea that the publishing world was so complex.

I'm very glad I took this course because I'm more confident for future projects.

Together, the courses constitute a fantastic way to get up to speed on any and all aspects of writing.

I know SEO is really important but never really understood what it was or how to integrate it in my writing. I wanted to learn how to.

The tutor was fantastic. Super informative, clear and engaging. As mentioned, I knew nothing about SEO, so I really appreciate the time she took to explain everything from scratch.

Being able to see how other people approached the assignments was really encouraging. The feedback was always really constructive and I always felt included and quite empowered!

It's provided me with practical tools I can use in my everyday work. I have a newfound appreciation of SEO and am interested in continuing to utilise the skills I learnt.

I love that the AWC was able to take a really complex and sophisticated subject and make it easy to understand in a flexible format. The content was not only interesting, but super practical and I've taken away some really useful skills I can integrate in my career moving forward. Enrolling with a mixture of people also kept me engaged, and I always felt empowered to participate in assignments.

Thank you!

Jennifer was a fantastic tutor. Her feedback was constructive, insightful and encouraging. She gave some great examples too.

I loved the way the course was set up with tutorials, additional exercises (if students wanted to extend their learning) and assignment feedback. I also enjoyed the interaction within the group and the opportunity to read others' work and provide feedback. The additional 'chats' about what we like to read, etc. throughout the course were also fun. And the Q&A Write Direction session was very informative.

The positive feedback from Jennifer, other students and a few friends has encouraged me to continue to write and flesh out some of my stories.

I would say it is an engaging course, well put together and very enjoyable. Good value for money too. :)

Thank you!

I'd always struggled with the idea of having to do a multiyear course. I want to write and I want to write now, and it seemed like the perfect springboard.

Vivienne was awesome, she gave really in-depth feedback that I found very helpful. She's really nice and it was lovely having her as a tutor.

I enjoyed the assignments, but also learning and constantly getting ideas and inspiration. It was exactly what I needed right now and has left me feeling reinvigorated.

I feel like this is a possibility for me now. Not that I'll automatically become a freelancer but it has inspired me to actually give it a crack.

Thanks Valerie and Vivienne, it was a great experience.

The feedback was great. Jenny made valid points in a very gentle way - encouraging people to continue to explore writing.

I enjoyed writing and getting feedback. I learnt a great deal. I loved the challenge each week and waiting for feedback was both exciting and worrying. I really enjoyed reading other people's writing and then listening to Jenny's feedback compared to my own thoughts.

I HAVE recommended the course to friends - it is challenging but in a very small-step, structured way.

I have tried to write a book in the past and I do not enjoy working in Word (or Google Docs). I had to write my PhD in Word and I am a little scarred from that experience! I had read about Scrivener years ago and wanted to try it with some support, as when I did a trial years back, the platform was not particularly intuitive.

The course was super useful and great to have the PDFs in case I forget (which I am bound to do!).

As a big fan of historical fiction, having the opportunity to learn just a little bit more about Natasha's method was great! I also purchased three of her books whilst doing the course, so that's a win for Natasha too!

Huge number of courses, great facilitators and known, published authors + you've been around for a long time now, so we know your programs help.

I really enjoyed this course. It has helped shape the way I approach writing picture books and I felt I learned enough to give me more confidence with my ideas.

Cathie was helpful and very knowledgeable. I appreciate all her feedback and have taken everything she said and worked with it.

I loved challenging myself and writing a new story each week.

Ten years ago I wrote a YA novel. And a few years ago I started to learn the craft of script writing. But I have always wanted to learn how to write picture books. We, as a family, have had a very rough recent few years and I completely lost myself. I had thought I would probably never pick up writing again. So it took a lot of courage for me to sign up to this course but I knew that I had to do this to make that one positive change in my life. And without sounding ridiculous, I have truly found my 'happy' again. There is nothing I love more than writing and this course has given me a new and wonderful focus.

Do it. If you really love writing and you say this is what you want to do, then do it properly and learn from someone who can actually guide you.

I would like to say thank you. This has been a wonderful experience for me.

A well-structured, well-considered and well-paced course.

The tutor is BRILLIANT. Her feedback is short, constructive, well-balanced and positive. I've been able to make significant, meaningful changes to my writing based on her feedback and it's delivered in such a way that I feel I can make the changes, that it's not a hopeless waste of time.

It has helped structure my writing time and pinpointed some of the key ingredients that I've not given enough attention to. I've been able to share some of my work and receive useful, constructive feedback and had a little motivation injection from this.

Accessible, affordable, high-quality courses. Thank you.

Angela was lovely and so supportive of us developing a process and giving us templates to work within. I liked the week-by-week structure - helped me develop some momentum.

I felt that last 500-word submission really came together well - also shared some writing with work colleagues who really enjoyed it - wanted more, always a good position!! I feel that I can do this and continue with AWC in developing characters and stories.

Great structured useful courses facilitated by writers willing to nurture and mentor new talent.

The skills, tips and frameworks provided in this course have been invaluable in helping me to upskill for a new career. The assignments were enjoyable and directly relevant to the content for the week. The feedback provided was comprehensive, thoughtful and useful. I am confident that what I have learned from completing this course can transform my writing from mediocre to having depth and breadth, beyond what I could have achieved on my own. Thank you for putting together such a useful course and sharing so much knowledge in such a small time.

Bernadette was the perfect person to be a tutor for this course. She was engaging, knowledgeable and easy to relate to. I looked forward to each lesson and found her very easy to listen to. Her feedback was comprehensive, personalised and relevant every week and reliably provided in a timely manner. Bernadette is obviously extremely talented in this field and was very gracious about sharing her knowledge and tips throughout the duration of the course.

I have the confidence to look for copywriting work and charge people for my content, as I believe I have the skills to provide a valuable service to my clients. If I can start to make some money from these skills, I could potentially resign from my current job and pursue a career that allows me to enjoy my parenting life more freely.

The AWC is a highly professional organisation with user friendly online course platforms. The course I completed was well structured and paced and all content was easily accessible.

Just a big thank you! I hope to study another course with AWC in the future, and hopefully with Bernadette as the tutor, as I think there is still much I can learn from her.

Outstanding. Bernadette's expertise and honest feedback was both impressive and well delivered.

I enjoyed the content, the assignments, the teacher's delivery and the network of other enthusiastic Copywriters.

I completed the Creative Writing Stage 1 course and enjoyed that process. I was hesitant about sharing my writing - not knowing what to expect.

Pamela was great! She provided great constructive feedback and was always available to answer any questions.

The best part about the course is all the feedback on our submissions, and not just from the tutor but from the whole class. It's just so valuable!

I am more motivated to continue writing and I can actually see a way forward to completing my book.

For anyone thinking about writing a book, this is the course to do. Even if you know most of the theory, it's also great to just put you in touch with other like-minded writers.

I was surprised at how much I didn't know (or had perhaps forgotten since school). I feel armed with a new collection of tools to refine my dialogue writing - just what I was looking for.

The self-paced design worked really well for me, as did the clearly scaffolded modules. The 'nuts and bolts' approach appealed to me: the don'ts in particular. It was just the right 'bite sized', user friendly length.

The clear delivery and examples are easy to apply. I feel ready to tackle scene writing with greater understanding of the importance of paralanguage. I also tend to overuse adverbs and speech tags in my writing...well, not anymore!

My novel feels a bit overwhelming; I hoped that learning more about plotting and structure would help me to shape it, so I can keep going with my draft.

Kate Forsyth is so friendly, professional and generous in sharing her knowledge and experience. I learned so much from her sessions.

I enjoyed the quality of the information shared, and Kate's excellent presentation slides. The depth of information shared, and Kate's practical examples provided of different plots and narrative structures, have given me greater confidence and ideas on how to improve my draft novel. Very grateful!

These little courses are great value, highly practical and always exciting. The Zoom recording format make it so easy to review the content later, and I always appreciate hearing other people's questions. I was unable to attend the full Zoom sessions due to other commitments, but watching them later was tremendously helpful. I am just watching them again now - for the fourth time - because they were so content rich. Thank you Kate and AWC.

I'd done four other AWC interactive courses and learned so much from each. But EYN was something else. I think it was the weekly Zoom call that elevated it. Having a conversation with Pamela and my classmates every week where we discussed structural issues, plot problems, character arcs, how the publishing industry works - and this is just the tip of the iceberg - was hugely informative and interesting. And then there was the 30 minutes assigned to each of us every four weeks where we got to receive verbal feedback on our own writing and to ask questions of the group. I made several substantial changes to my manuscript based on this invaluable advice. It was also very helpful and interesting to hear my classmates talk about their own work and the different feedback we each gave.

Pamela is an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and generous teacher who dispenses (much-needed) critical analysis and encouragement in just the right measure.

I especially enjoyed the logic and structure of the course's approach to editing. It gave me a solid scaffolding to work with, and broke the giant task of editing my story into manageable chunks. The exercises I did during that process led me to discover some stronger plot points and character development opportunities.

But what became even more enjoyable was getting to know Pamela and my classmates, and watching everyone's stories evolve. It was an incredibly supportive environment, and we are making plans to keep in touch and keep workshopping each other's stories.

It gave me a well-thought out and logical approach to structurally edit my novel (which was sorely needed). It gave me deadlines to meet (also sorely needed). It introduced me to a tribe of like-minded aspiring authors who cheered one another on, and to Pamela Freeman whose insight and guidance was extraordinarily helpful.

Thank you for offering this course! I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much from Pamela and my classmates. And writing my second draft was anything but lonely!

Do a course with the AWC and you'll fast track your skills as a writer and probably save yourself several drafts!

Bernadette was so amazing and really knows her stuff. She made the course so enjoyable. She was a great tutor and I enjoyed her feedback.

The course is fun, engaging and you learn a lot. It has made me want to learn more and practice my copywriting skills.

The course looked like a great way to learn how to structure my stories to get the best out of them. As soon as I read the outline, I wanted to do it. And I'm glad I did.

So much information in five (ish) short hours - well ten actually as I have already listened to it twice, and plan several more listenings. Each time I listen I get more out of it. I get more daunted too of course as there is so much to do - but then I change my mind set to "You can do this. Not only that but you need to do it as, if you can see how your story is structured now, it will save you so much time in the end as there will be fewer rewrites. And you'll get the pace right!! You can do this."

I enjoyed the challenges it sets. The huge learning journey that I have just travelled, and continue to travel. The information in the handouts that I can see will be used over and over. The reinforcement of the structure of a novel that I am working on - I seem to be on the right path.

I'm 70. I have been writing all my life, yet I continue to learn, and want to learn.

As I said, it reinforces what I am doing at the moment, but also completes my skill set - which I think is extremely important - and gives me permission to know the rules, and break them if I need to. Which I also think is important.

Michelle is a very knowledgeable and skilled course presenter who likes to share her writing and editing skills with others. I learned more than I expected, such as the hierarchy of adjectives and non-essential clauses.

The workbook with the exercises was very useful and workshopping to assess how much we had learnt from the 2 half days intensive training.

Reinforced editing tips I had picked up through trial and error and also provided new insights.

Editing is essential for everyone who wants to write well. Michelle is skilful at sharing her writing and editing insights and encouraging others to refine their writing skills.