What’s it like to learn with AWC?

Pamela was fantastic, I could listen to her talk about writing for days! I learnt so much about all the topics covered by taking on board her feedback about all of our assignments.

I loved the Zoom classes and hearing the feedback from Pamela and my fellow students. I learnt so much from reading and commenting on everyone’s assignments.

I started Writing Workout with a vague idea for a book and through doing all the exercises I was able to finish the course with a solid outline to continue on with. For me, this course was invaluable.

There’s a huge amount involved in writing a fabulous book! But I’m now much closer to doing that than I was before I started this course in November. I enjoyed it so much that I’m thinking about doing it again.

Just a HUGE thank you to Pamela... she was absolutely fantastic!

Pamela, as will all the tutors I have had with AWC to date, exceeded my expectations. She was friendly, approachable and encouraging. She helped us refine our work as well as troubleshoot along the way. I will miss Pamela as well as my classmates.

I enjoyed the Zoom experience, added bonus, no travel time. Being able to attend the classes from home, even when my life was at its most chaotic was a real bonus. In addition, being able to discuss our work in real time and with a shared screen was immensely helpful.

I am now more confident to take on a novel.

Don't just think about it. Do it! Whatever you want to write, AWC will have a course to help you on your journey. Take one, take two... it will be the best thing you ever did for your writing and most importantly the best money ever spent in your pursuit of writing.

Thank you, Pamela for a wonderful course, and thank you to my classmates whose thoughts and opinions I value.

Pamela is lovely and very knowledgeable having published 32 books. Her feedback was very helpful and her insights have allowed me to think more deeply about where my story is going.

I enjoyed the ability to have a published author comment on my work and to have the group comment/workshop the ideas. The group were lovely and I'm hoping that a few will continue on together.

The course has made me feel that is a lot I don't know but rather than getting caught up in all of that - I know that I need to get a first draft written so that is what I will concentrate on now.

I learnt a lot about different aspects of writing. I have done some other AWC courses and my first one, Creative Writing Stage 1, was with Pamela. This course seemed to bring a lot of my previous learning together.

I definitely enjoyed the workshopping with others and feedback from Pamela. The Zoom meetings were a great way to do this.

I have gained the skills and confidence to get out of my own way and just sit down and write what I want to write. I realise it will be a lot of hard work, drafting and redrafting, but I have gained skills which will help me write a novel and get published. I lacked the belief in myself before.

If writing is your dream, AWC can teach you the skills, give you the confidence and inspiration to write. Thank you. I feel closer to my lifelong dream of being a writer than I ever have.

Pamela is such a gift. Her ability to hone and polish made our work way better than it was and I will always be grateful for her constant encouragement.

I enjoyed the feeling of being part of a group. I believe that everyone in the group has improved in our writing and has a far clearer understanding of our story. I know I certainly do.

Thank you for the opportunity to do this. It's made a huge difference to my writing and they were two hours every fortnight I've really looked forward to. I'm going to miss it.

The Writing Workout course with Pamela (I've done it twice!) has been my favourite so far for many reasons - I really enjoyed the animated Zoom class atmosphere and I benefited greatly not only from the live feedback on my own assignments, but on those of my classmates. I really recommend this course.

Pamela has a marvellous capacity for communicating writing technique in a spontaneous manner. She's lively and interesting, and has incredible knowledge and skill.

I particularly liked being able to use the writing I'm working on as homework for the class.

The tutors at the Australian Writers' Centre are all proven authors themselves, so the courses are sound and practical. Pamela is a treasure.

Bernadette was awesome. Respectful. Encouraging but honest. Knowledgeable. Great!!!

I enjoyed meeting a diverse range of writers. Learning to give and receive feedback. Great advice.

The exercises are fantastic. They really made us think about things we do instinctively and unpacking the process gives us a tool kit for when we are stuck. Bernadette was awesome in pointing that out. So that was a revelation. When you are in the learning craft phase it is so easy to be overwhelmed - trying to remember everything. So the notion of writing with your creative brain, but falling back on craft when you need to dig deep really cleared my mind for me. I can seeeeeee!

Honestly, great theory and like minds ... what’s not to love???

I'd just finished Mojo month and wanted to take the next step. I liked the theme and opportunity to be part of a group. Having fortnightly sessions also seemed easy to fit into my schedule.

I loved it.

The tutor was brilliant. I felt comfortable from the first session and she was so encouraging and knowledgeable. I thought she facilitated our online sessions well so that we all had a chance to speak and engage with each other.

I enjoyed the workshopping with the group. I learnt so much from the process and had a lot of fun. I looked forward to our sessions each fortnight.

Thank you, it was wonderful and I hope my group keeps in contact.

I liked the idea of being part of a group and hearing the feedback from my classmates. It felt a bit daunting at first but I wanted to stretch myself out of my comfort zone by responding to and hearing from, others.

Bernadette was a great tutor, and I found her feedback very encouraging and helpful. And she had a great way of telling us if something needed improvement without us being left with the feeling that we’d failed.

I enjoyed the diversity of each module, and being pushed where some of the exercises were hard to grasp. Also the Zoom interaction.

Being enrolled in the courses that I have over the last few months have been exactly what I’ve needed to help me have creative focus during a very difficult year personally.

Bernadette was very welcoming and knowledgeable, and her feedback was honest in heplping me to become a better writer.

Whilst I'm normally shy, this course bought me out of my shell a little more, being able to discuss writing with my fellow students. At the time, it was daunting to critique other students' work and have them critique mine, but as we went along I found that it made me look at my writing in a different way.

It has enabled me to think of the different areas we studied in a different way. Before the course, I didn't put much thought into the pace and structure of my novel but now I know how important it is.

I would say that it helped my writing, and I enjoyed how the other students interpreted the writing exercises.

Most of all I had fun. By the end of the course, I didn't want it to end! Now to find the next chapter of my writing career.

I really liked the Zoom meetings. Bernadette was a great tutor and host and I much enjoyed the interaction with my fellow students.

Very professional and experienced. It was clear that Bernadette has been working in the literary scene for a long time and her remarks and questions were always insightful and useful.

I most enjoyed the interaction with everyone on Zoom. We laughed a lot and shared a lot. It was a nice group and everyone was very generous and made an effort to deliver honest and useful feedback to other participants.

I feel like I’ve made progress in my writing. I also have a better idea of how to go forward with my stories, especially regarding their structure! I even hope to publish one short story I submitted for this course.

I am a fan of AWC anyway and have recommended the centre to a few people already. I would tell them that the Writing Workout was the perfect thing to do to keep writing.

A big thank you and till next time :)

Bernadette was a fantastic tutor, making everyone feel welcome and valued. She was knowledgeable, encouraging and gave valuable feedback. The workshopping proved to be enjoyable.

It has giving me more confidence to move forwards.

I thought Bernadette an excellent tutor. I enjoyed sharing work with the other members of the group. Learning about different concepts. How powerful the written word is on the consciousness of the writer; how writing engages the intelligence and the emotional aspects of the writer. How important it is to use language appropriate to the character depicted.

I would encourage aspiring writers to enrol in the courses offered by Australian Writers' Centre. I really enjoyed being part of the class.

I loved working with the group and Bernadette! Bernadette was kind, firm, and a great instructor. I loved working with her and hope I get to work with her in the future.

I loved the ability to workshop with the other participants, even if it was on Zoom rather than in a classroom. The course ended up with 5-6 participants who showed up regularly which was the perfect amount.

It got me on the path of creativity again.

I wanted some constructive one-on-one feedback on writing and the fact that it was face-to-face via Zoom basically sealed the deal for me.

I thought Bernadette was great. Her feedback was constructive and honest but at the same time encouraging.

Having the face-to-face interaction with the other participants allowed for a much freer conversational environment than the standard online format.

It has given me a little more self-confidence in my writing and allowed me to entertain the thought that I may actually have the ability to at least write short stories, if not the 'great Australian novel'. Everybody has a different viewpoint. Writing and reading are very subjective and what appeals to one person, doesn't necessarily have to appeal to another.

Give it a go. The feedback you get from fellow writers is invaluable and the tutors are great.

I'd never done workshop / critique type work before. That was daunting. I was nervous about whether my writing was good, because I wanted it to be good. I was worried about critiquing other people's work.

Bernadette is an excellent teacher / facilitator. She is very patient and engaging. She only inspires, even when critiquing. It was a pleasure working with her.

It was a great, intimate group of people to work with. I enjoyed it more than I expected to.

It has given me confidence that I should proceed with writing a publishable novel.

I enjoy the stimulation of your courses, and this one being fortnightly seemed not too onerous while I'm busy writing my novel.

The way Pamela structured this course was excellent - I learned as much from hearing her critique other people's assignments as I did from hearing my own. Pamela's ability to see and clearly communicate the faults in or suggestions for a piece of writing, and do it quickly, was excellent. She allocated her time between all the students equally so that no one felt left out.

Pamela sprinkles her assessments with absolute gems which hopefully I'll remember the next time I'm tempted to make the same mistake. I learned to trust the reader to fill in the blanks.

The Australian Writers' Centre tutors are not only highly successful authors, but they're able to communicate the 'how' of writing. Thank you for such well-organised, well-staffed courses. The Zoom platform is brilliant.

This is the best writing course I have done (and there have been a few); all those skills the previous courses taught actually coalesced into something so practical I actually felt myself improving.

Pamela is a gift. Her ability to identify how something works, why it works, how to make it work better is just amazing. Even better were the incidental gems she dropped along the way that gave the most brilliant insights into writing.

The Zoom format had the group of students developing a real rapport and interest in each other's work as well as the immediate feedback that could be shared between the students and Pamela.

I feel I might actually have a book in me after all. That a book is not written in one draft and that it is okay to not get it absolutely perfect first time.

Do it. Just do it. Even if you never do write The Book simply giving yourself permission to put words out there is a bonus.

I thought the course sounded like the boost I was needing to improve my writing.

The tutor was great and I was given the help I required. I enjoyed the opportunity to interact with other people to gain feedback.

Do not hesitate to enrol in a course. There are plenty of opportunities.

I absolutely loved it. Pamela is a fantastic teacher and mentor. She is patient and gives you constructive feedback that is useful. The exercises, the teacher and classmates. I have some tools to start writing my novel.

In the last section, the exercises enabled me to summarise my story in a way that pulls out the key elements. I will find that very useful in planning future stories. Can't wait for Part B!