What’s it like to learn with AWC?

I am a complete beginner. I love reading and I wanted to write but just didn't know where to start or how to go about it. This course broke it down to individual parts and made the process more clear.

Pamela is very knowledgeable and sounds like she knows what she is talking about! I learned a lot from her constructive feedback, and when she says you've done something well it's a good feeling :-) I found myself refreshing my emails every 10 minutes on a Monday morning to see if the feedback was up yet.

I liked the structure. I felt I learned a huge amount in such a short space of time. I quite liked the Write Direction Zoom call where you could see your classmates' faces. I enjoyed seeing everyone else's work and see where they went with the prompts.

The AWC made my dream of being an author more accessible. It's shown me I have a lot more to learn - but luckily they have plenty of courses!

I have been dabbling in creative writing for the last year or so and wanted to take the next steps in my writing journey. This seemed like the perfect jumping-off point!

I put it off for a while because of my own personal worries. I didn't think I'd have enough time in the week to commit to the work, but this is exactly what I needed! I loved that I could do the materials at my own pace, and I loved the extra exercises and handouts, information I will definitely be able to take with me.

Jennifer was lovely and warm, very insightful and provided some wonderful comments and extremely helpful feedback.

In every lesson, I learned something new. A new writing term or a style of writing I hadn't heard before. I've been writing largely in fanfiction with characters that already exist, so even just reframing my thinking around characters is a game-changer.

I had such a great time! Now I'm trying to work out which course I want to do next!

If you are looking to kickstart your writing journey, this is the place to do it.

The tutor was very nice and knowledgeable. She gave very honest and constructive criticism to help us improve.

The course has given me the confidence to continue writing and hopefully publish a novel/story one day.

If you want to be around a group of amazing supportive people while improving on your writing skills, definitely come do a course here!

Thank you so much Jennifer and to all the Australian Writers' Centre team!

I enjoyed learning so much in such a short time. Before the course I'd started writing a book. The course has helped me understand where my writing was deficient.

It's brilliant.

Loved it. Tutor was great. The feedback was relevant.

I enjoyed creating the characters in my mind using the techniques I've learned.

I am really excited to go on with my next novel. I know how to make my story believable and interesting. I hope!!!!

A great tool to help you learn how to write.

The course taught me so many new skills, but most of all assured me I am a writer. It pushed me beyond my comfort zone, and I enjoyed that more than anything.

Margaret was amazing in her feedback on our writing. I learnt so much from listening to her feedback not only on my writing but all the other participants. I grew in confidence learning from her.

Great to see such a diverse group of writers all with different genre intersects, and so enthusiastic. The tutorials were very informative and inspiring.

It has helped me step out of my own fear about writing, something I didn't achieve all the way through my PhD but this course has helped me do this in only 5 weeks. Perhaps I was ready to be pushed.

If you want to learn about creative writing and taking steps toward writing that novel, this course is for you. But even if you don't want to write a full novel there is still so much to learn.

Useful info and ideas were provided. I enjoyed the opportunity to get some additional skills and see others at the same point of their writing odyssey.

It's given me more confidence to keep pressing on with my writing - others can do it successfully.

I found it really useful in terms of the building blocks of writing - character, setting, scene etc. I found the feedback provided very helpful, not just that provided to me, but to other students as well.

I enjoyed the interaction with other writers and reading their work.

I'm still waiting for some aspects to gel, but I understand much more fully what is involved in writing a novel.

I'd say that the course I completed was very helpful in developing my craft as a writer. I found engaging with other students really helpful and the course helped improve my confidence in my ability.

Margaret was great and gave everyone good feedback. Always positive and making sure to point out what she thought worked and what did not in a constructive way.

A great first step towards getting more confident as a writer.

Thank you!

I've always wanted to write but felt overwhelmed by how to get started. When I saw the course outline for Creative Writing Stage 1, I decided to just give it a go and see what came out of it.

I loved the way feedback was provided. Having someone read out what I had written provided me with an understanding of how someone else might read my words on a page.

The tutor was fabulous! She gave great feedback whether it was for something done well or something I could work on.

I loved that I wasn't doing this alone.

I learned that I can actually write something people find interesting and there may be a possibility of doing something with my writing in the future. I felt completely supported!

Do it! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Thank you and I can't wait to join more courses.

It's motivated me to get started with my writing. The feedback about character development and scene was a major learning moment.

The Australian Writers' Centre is a great resource to support and further develop writing skills. The precise feedback reinforces writing skills.

The course and its activities came at a particularly busy time for me as a classroom teacher but I was not going to be put off. I have not listened to all of the modules yet and in the summer holidays I look forward to doing just that. It is great the material is available for such a long time after the course has finished.

The wide variety of activities and the character development structure was incredibly helpful and fun to complete.

Pamela Freeman's feedback for assessment 4 brought me to tears. It was not until that moment that I realised that I could write, and others genuinely thought it was good. Then her encouragement to continue writing my children's novel idea lit a fire in my belly to do just that. Thank you so very much.

I now have the confidence that others think I can write. It has profoundly touched me and helped my self-confidence develop. I am doing another course. I will write my book and I will get it published.

If you are thinking about enrolling in a writing course to develop technique as well as confidence that will actually move you closer to getting published, then AWC is the place for you.

I was already working on my novel, which is a collection of short stories, and the course has given me extra impetus to move forward with my writing.

Pamela's approach is constructive as she points out sections of writing that shouldn't be there and ways in which to improve the text.

I enjoyed the handouts, the audio modules, reading what other students had written and receiving feedback from them as well as the valuable feedback from Pamela. Also, I found the list of titles and authors that were mentioned in the handouts very helpful in that there were quite a few authors I either hadn't heard of or hadn't read their work, so I have been reading their books.

I have already mentioned this course to my friends in the writing world and have told them it's an excellent investment towards achieving goals in their writing career.

I've always dreamt of becoming a writer, and after a long time of reading my favourite books, I decided I wanted to finally make that step into writing a book of my own fantasy!

I used to write stories as a kid and early teen, mystical worlds, zombies, romances... But I lost motivation due to issues at school and felt I wasn't good enough. I struggle A LOT with social anxiety, and prior to doing this course I was terrified I wouldn't be good enough to write, and terrified of the negative feedback. After doing this course I realised that the feedback was SO helpful, and I'm becoming confident in myself that I can write an amazing book - All thanks to AWC!

I thought the tutor was amazing. Gave me GREAT feedback, and really helped the little things I was doing wrong, teaching me how to make it compelling.

I found it so fun to write little scenarios based off the character I fleshed out in module 1, and after the feedback I received, I updated/upgraded my assignments and feel I could incorporate them into my actual story.

I genuinely felt looked after and I was stressing out about the fact that everyone could see my feedback and assignment, but it was so helpful and I'm very grateful for the experience.

This course has helped me grasp the confidence to write an AMAZING book, and given me the perfect techniques to keep readers intrigued. It felt great to put my imagination on paper, and have people actually enjoy reading it!

I would say to give it a chance - it helped me so much. There's so many little things with creative writing that I wouldn't have ever thought of if I were just writing it on my own. This course is so good for any aspiring author.

Thank you for this opportunity to pursue my dreams of becoming a writer.

I was interested to learn more about the basics to writing. I was also looking forward to receiving feedback on my writing from others. I had no concerns or hesitations before enrolling. I was maybe worried I was going to be the least skilled but discovered all levels of people were in the course and most people taking it were just like me.

I think the tutor was nice and knew her stuff. She gave the right level of criticisms and positives. When she would take someone's submissions and make adjustments in a Word document for everyone to see how it can be improved, this was very good.

I liked a lot of things about the course. I enjoyed the videos and that they are paired with the handouts. Also, I like that I can refer to the handouts in the future.

It's confirmed what I know and fine-tuned the things that I was unsure about. It's given me more confidence in my writing and an understanding to trust myself and the time it takes to write a good book. It's also encouraged me to consider workshopping or some form of beta readers when I've written more work.

You should definitely try this course if you want to write creatively because it gives the right tools and resources. It also tests your current writing abilities and shows that it's ok to change and explore other ways to write.

Feedback in video form was great; I feel like the tutor's comments came across really clear and was able to understand where I'm at.

Definitely the support of others and the assignments really helped me realise so many different things about novels.

The AWC is really great to dip your toe in a very achievable way alongside work and other commitments.

I have completed some non-fiction courses (mainly for my work-related writing) but always felt drawn to exploring fiction. I knew Creative Writing Stage 1 was the course to do first, to learn the foundations then go on from there.

I feel the course has really been very thoughtfully crafted so that the foundational skills of creative writing are covered well. I really feel like I have developed the foundations now and can confidently go on to do other courses in the order suggested by AWC.

Victoria has a very warm and engaging style and I almost feel in a way like we were chatting live. Her video feedback was valuable, both her encouragement and also her tips for improvement, very sensitively and thoughtfully delivered.

I was excited on Monday mornings! The moment I woke up I was so keen to look at what the week had in store - the audio lessons from Val, the worksheets, exercises and assignment. Carving out time to plough on with the work and feeling really energised. I'm going to miss it and my classmates who have also been actively engaged in reading each other's writing and providing feedback

It has made me want to pursue creative writing and keep on writing, developing skills and improving. I know there might be times it will feel like a hard slog but knowing that I'm part of a supportive community of writers is a great comfort and benefit of AWC.

If you're creative, love words and have ever wondered if you'd enjoy writing, you should do one of the AWC courses. You will definitely learn and appreciate how stories and books are created and understand writing as a craft. The courses are so thoughtfully put together and the AWC community so supportive, you won't regret enrolling.

Thank you so much AWC for another great course experience.

Victoria was great and I really appreciated her honest feedback.

I had not thought to create such deep profiles of my characters, but it really helped me to work out the characters I was writing about.

I now know I can write a story, and I can enjoy the journey.

Just do it; its quality time spent on yourself.

Victoria was great! Her feedback was very helpful, constructive yet encouraging.

I am far more motivated to keep learning and improving!

I would say it's a great course that imposes structure, teaches you the fundamentals in an approachable way, and actually gets you writing (which is the most important thing!)

Loved it, thank you!

I wanted to focus on my fiction writing skills and get feedback from a tutor, and other students. I was drawn to the course specifically because Victoria Purman was the tutor. I wanted to learn from her experience and now I have!

I have studied fiction writing for a long time now and worked with a number of different teachers, so I wasn't sure if it would add much to what I've already learned, but I'm pleased to say I learned many new things, and I solidified my fiction writing even more because I enrolled in this course.

Gosh, there's so much to love in this course. Victoria Purman is a gem, and I loved the way she gave feedback. She is kind and honest. She is inspiring and insightful on what works and what isn't quite working. Victoria delivers her feedback with compassion and that's so important to us vulnerable writers. I appreciated all of Victoria's efforts in tutoring us in this course. I hope to do more study with her in the future.

Enrolling in Creative Writing Stage 1 was one of the best decisions I made. It helped solidify all the previous things I'd learned about the foundation of writing fiction, narrative structure, characters with stakes and more. I'd say, 'Don't be afraid to try creative writing. If this is in your heart to do, then learn with Australian Writers' Centre because it's a safe place to learn and grow as a fiction writer.'

It's an excellent course with lots to offer the beginner and the writer with experience. We're always learning, no matter how much we've studied and every teacher has something to offer creative writers. I'm so glad I finally (after about five years of being indecisive about doing this course) did Creative Writing Stage 1.