“The course gave me tools, knowledge and confidence which set me on my path. I haven’t looked back or paused for breath since!” Claire told us. Her debut picture book Lily The Inventor was released in 2023 with Redback Publishing – based on a very real inventor named Lily.

“I was amazed, overwhelmed, and incredulous. I film all my reactions to publisher emails on social media so you can see for yourself here.”

And the reactions have kept coming – having since followed it up with two more ‘based-on-a-true-story' tales in the form of Croc Candy (Woodslane Press) and Abbie's True Colours (Owlet Press), both out in 2025.

Never give up on your dreams

Claire had had early ambitions to be an author, stapling pages together as a child to make her own books.

“At 12-years-old, I submitted my first manuscript to Scholastic,” Claire says. “It was a YA horror story in the style of the popular 90s ‘Point Horror’ series. Shortly after, I proudly received my first rejection letter. It was hand typed, encouragingme never to give up on my dreams.”

In her 20s, Claire pursued journalism instead, a career she loved. It was only after her second daughter was born that she revisited those early dreams of becoming an author during that lightbulb moment heading to the park.

“My older daughter and I came up with a hilarious story about a mischievous magic baby who made lights flash and furniture whizz around. Of course, the car lights were flicking on as I knocked them with my head putting baby into the seat (baby brain!) But the seeds of an idea for a fun, children’s book were planted.”

The Writing Picture Books course was exactly what Claire needed to explore her re-ignited passion for fiction.

“I knew I was in the right place because every element of the course was fascinating to me. I drank up every drop and felt bereft when the five-week course ended. From learning about structure to character development, language and rhythm, alongside weekly feedback, every part of this course filled me with knowledge and excitement.”

Magic starts happening

Claire’s debut picture book Lily the Inventor tells the true story of Lily Born who, at seven years old, invented a cup to help her grandpa with Parkinson’s Disease.

“I fell in love with Lily’s true story and the first draft came together quickly,” Claire recalls. “I sent my manuscript to 50 publishers and got a yes from Redback Publishing in Sydney. They were looking for a STEM story and loved Lily The Inventor.”

It’s a perfect read-aloud story that follows Lily’s six-step invention process – Observe, Brainstorm, Prototype, Experiment, Repeat, then Launch – and introduces the idea that science and innovation begin in the home. It has been illustrated by debut picture book illustrator Zoe Bennett.

Her second book, Croc Candy tells yet another remarkable true story – this time that of 7-year-old candy maker and entrepreneur Angus Copelin-Walters, his ‘super power’ dyslexia and his amazing ‘croc candy'. The book was illustrated by Deborah Brown and published with Woodslane Press. And seemingly not short on wonder-kid inspiration, Claire's third picture book is Abbie's True Colours – again about (and co-written by) Abbie Jane – founder of The Rainbow Shoelace Project – and illustrated by Eliot Bulpett. This book is published globally by Owlet Press and set to make waves across the oceans, with a message that rings true all over the world – “Bullies shouldn’t dim our true colours!”

That's three remarkable true stories brought to life (and counting!) for Claire – who is still pinching herself as she enjoys the ride.

“Before I did the Australian Writers' Centre course, being a published author seemed too much of an impossible dream,” Claire says. “But once I’d done the course, armed myself with knowledge and equipped myself with tools, the dream started to come into focus. I started to believe in myself, and of course, that’s when magic starts happening.”

Courses completed at AWC:

• Travel Writing
• Creative Writing Stage 1
• Writing Picture Books

Q: Hi AWC, what does it mean to give something the “acid test”?

A: Good question. According to Macquarie Dictionary, an acid test in the figurative sense is “a rigorous test which conclusively establishes a person’s character, a product’s performance, or a held judgement”.

Q: Example?

A: Well, it’s anything you might do to prove something is what it says it is. For example, if something is said to be waterproof, you might say that “the real acid test would be submerging it in a swimming pool”.

Q: Is the pool filled with acid?

A: No, we’re still figurative. So it’s a pool of water.

Q: Riiight. Okay.

A: Think of it as an everyday experiment to prove something. The Cambridge Dictionary gives a great example of this: “I think that baking fresh croissants is the acid test for any establishment that claims to be a patisserie.”

Q: That reminds me of my friend Charlie. He used to work 18 hours a day as a pastry chef.

A: Oh! We know this one – it’s because he “kneaded the dough”, right?

Q: What?? His daughter had an incurable disease and they had to work hard to pay for the medical bills …

A: Oh, um. So sorry.

Q: Nah, kidding, it was the kneading dough joke!

A: Ugh. Shall we move on?

Q: Yep. So, the acid test of whether someone is serious about their New Year’s resolutions is to see if they’re still going three weeks later?

A: Yeah, that can work, although usually it’s something more immediate. 

Q: My goal for this year was to swim more, but I’m now scared that pools might be full of acid… 

A: It was just an example, calm down.

Q: But hang on, pools have chlorine in them! Isn’t that acid?

A: Actually, adding chlorine in liquid or solid form is alkaline – making a pool LESS acidic. It’s only chlorine gas that is acidic.  

Q: So is chlorine where this whole “acid test” saying comes from? 

A: Nope. Nothing to do with that or swimming pools at all. 

Q: Of course it isn’t…

A: Anyway, the original, literal acid test was indeed a chemical test, and it was first used by gold miners in the 1840s. 

Q: What a fun nugget of information!

A: Indeed. The point of an acid test was to identify actual gold versus other metals. This could be done using nitric acid to test if a mark would dissolve on the surface. If it passed two specific acid tests, it proved the mineral was actual gold – thanks to gold’s properties that make it resistant to corrosion and oxidation. 

Q: So how long was it before figurative “acid tests” popped up?

A: Almost immediately. It must be something to do with the idea of proving authenticity that appealed to the wordsmiths and advertisers of the day, as the first recorded use was in 1845. More than a century later, in the 1960s, “Acid Tests” also became the name of LSD parties in California.

Q: Groovy baaaby!

A: Oh, behave.

Q: So as a recap, an acid test is just a check that something is what it says it is, or does what it says it does.

A: That’s right – like testing something is real gold, this is simply a way of saying you’ll find out if it’s really what it claims to be.

Q: So is this similar to the “pub test”?

A: Not really. Whereas there are an infinite number of acid tests you might conduct to prove all sorts of things, there is just ONE pub test – an Australian term typically applied to politics.

Q: Explain?

A: A policy or decision would pass the pub test if an ordinary pub patron would understand it as fair were it to come up in conversation. 

Q: Example?

A: Let’s say there was a proposal to tax tall people an extra 10%. That’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t pass the test if it came up in casual conversation in the pub.

Q: I dunno, those giants do take up a lot more space…

A: Meanwhile, a politician might be said to pass the pub test if they seem friendly enough to have a beer with. A “person of the people”.

Q: Yardglass drinker and former PM, the late Bob Hawke then?

A: Yes, most certainly him.

Q: So a pub test is a measure of what Mr Everyday Joe at your local pub thinks about something or someone? 

A: That’s right.

Q: And the “smell test”?

A: If something doesn’t “pass the smell test” then it’s much like sniffing month-old milk from the fridge.

Q: Heeeey, it doesn’t say “expires”, it simply says “best before”!

A: Okay, well, much like drinking rancid milk, if something doesn't pass the smell test, it's not a good idea – something smells off about it. It’s also sometimes called the sniff test.

Q: A bit fishy!

A: That’s right. Same meaning.

Q: And yet, fish are high in fatty acids! We’ve come full circle with the acid test.

A: Cute. But they’re all quite different. An “acid test” is a particular way to prove or disprove something. A “pub test” is a gauge of popular opinion. And a “smell test” is simply a measure of whether something is a good idea or not.

Q: Any other fun tests?

A: Well, there’s the “duck test” in logic.

Q: What’s that?

A: It’s about making a reasonable assumption based on the absence of any conflicting information: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck.”

Q: I like that one.

A: And moviegoers might be familiar with the Bechdel Test.

Q: The what?

A: It’s a term that was coined by American cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 1985 in response to a trend she noticed in screenplays. In a movie, if two women can be on screen and talk about something OTHER than a man, then that film passes the Bechdel Test! 

Q: Wow. Do many films pass?

A: No, not many.

Q: Interesting.

A: And finally, you may have heard “litmus test” used. This also comes from an actual science lab test involving litmus paper that changes colour in the presence of an acid. So it probably comes as no surprise that when used figuratively, it has a similar meaning to…

Q: Acid test!

A: Yep. The Free Dictionary says that “a “litmus test” of the quality or success of a particular thing is an effective way of proving it or measuring it.” The subtle difference (versus “acid test”) is that this is more an indication rather than proof, such as a political poll providing a litmus test on how people might vote in an election.

Q: All very fascinating, but I need to run. A new patisserie just opened around the corner and I have a sudden urge to test its croissants…

Do you have a question you’d like us to explore? Email it to us today!

You can listen to the episode below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or add the podcast RSS feed manually to your favourite podcast app.  

Links mentioned in this episode

• Introduction to Personal Storytelling and Memoir Writing
• WIN ‘More or Less Maddy’ by Lisa Genova
• Buy So You Want to be a Writer – the book!
• Facebook group for So You Want to be a Writer

Writer in residence: Rebecca Heath

Rebecca Heath studied science at university, worked in hospitality and teaching, and wrote obsessively whenever she could find the time. She wrote several young adult novels as Beck Nicholas, published in Australia and Germany. She lives in Adelaide, Australia, halfway between the city and the sea with her husband, three children and a much-loved border collie. She spent her childhood summers at a remote beach not unlike where The Summer Party is set. The Summer Party is her debut adult novel.

Follow Rebecca on Twitter and Instagram.

Follow Head of Zeus on Twitter and Instagram.

From the bestselling author of Still Alice and Inside the O'Briens comes a breathless, riveting novel about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally ‘normal' life for a career in stand-up comedy.

Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out student at NYU. Between exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent breakup, it's normal to feel overwhelmed. It doesn't help that she's always been the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy's latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on antidepressants. She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

With her signature ‘deep empathy and insight' (Booklist), Harvard-trained neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova has crafted another profoundly moving novel that makes complicated mental health issues accessible and human. More or Less Maddy is destined to become another classic.

If you’d like to win a copy, simply enter your details in the form below. Three lucky people will win a copy!

Entries close midday (Syd/Melb time) Monday 20 January 2025. Winners will be notified within a week of the competition closing.

GOOD LUCK!

In this episode, Elaine Abery of Unravelling Red Tape shares her invaluable expertise in grant writing, advocacy, and working with government organisations. Whether you’re new to grant writing or want to refine your skills, this conversation is packed with insights to help you become an in-demand grant writer.

You’ll learn:

• What grants are, who offers them, and where to find them
• How to craft a winning grant application, use the right language, address the criteria and avoid rookie mistakes
• How to pitch your grant writing services to not-for-profits and build a sustainable business model
• Where to find lucrative government grant writing opportunities
• How to approach individual government departments outside the formal tendering process

Bio:
Dealings with the government are notorious for complexity, frustration, cost, and time consumption. Elaine Abery, Principal of Unravelling Red Tape, helps businesses, charities, and individuals navigate these challenges, build collaborative government relations, and achieve better outcomes. With experience spanning the Property Council of Australia, Private Healthcare Australia, and law design at the Australian Taxation Office, Elaine brings unparalleled expertise to government relations, policy, and advocacy.  

Fun Facts About Elaine:

• Elaine's favourite achievement while working for the ATO was having a formal complaint made against her for impersonating a government employee, as “no government employee is that happy”
• Until recently, Elaine thought ocean swimmers were mad, about to be chopped up by surfboard fins – now she is one
• Before starting her business, she bought plane tickets like others buy shoes

Mentioned in this episode:

• Elaine on LinkedIn
• Elaine on Facebook
• Elaine’s Website
• Bernadette’s Website
• Bernadette on LinkedIn

Listen to the episode below. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or add the podcast RSS feed manually to your favourite podcast app.

This podcast is brought to you by Copy Club

However, now it’s Shelley’s turn to shine thanks to her debut travel memoir about her solo journey to the Greek island of Hydra. Here’s our chat with Shelley.

What is your book about?

Hydra in Winter: An Island Escape in Search of a Greek Pirate is a humorous travel memoir in diary form about my two-week trip to the Greek island of Hydra. I went there to research a historical novel inspired by my husband’s ancestor, Ghikas Voulgaris, Australia’s first Greek convict and a pirate who narrowly escaped the gallows. 

Between dodging chilly winds and rain and trying to charm the archivists with zero Greek language skills, my search morphed into a joyful lesson in slow travel. In the end, I discovered more about myself (and the local seafood) than I did about piracy.

What inspired you to write it?

When my husband and I retired from raising cattle and moved to the beach, I began marketing subscriptions to my daily online diaries of our overseas travels. This book grew naturally from the diary I kept during my solo trip to Hydra to learn more about the pirate – revisiting it recently reminded me that the joy of exploring Hydra during the wintry, tourist off-season was a story worth telling on its own.

How has your writing group benefited your writing journey?

The ALL WRiTE CLUB has been invaluable – receiving thoughtful and encouraging reviews of my writing has sharpened my storytelling skills and kept me motivated during periods of self-doubt. It’s been a revelation that reviewing others’ work is the best way to identify faults in your own. And there’s a kind of magic chemistry that happens when a group of passionate writers comes together.

How did your writing group form?

The sixteen-member group, based in every state of Australia, grew out of the 2021 AWC Six Month Novel Writing Course with our wonderful tutor Bernadette Foley. This was during Covid, so staying sane was as important as bonding over our love of storytelling. What started as a casual writers’ group has become a close-knit family with a shared commitment to each other’s success.

How frequently does your writing group meet, and what is the structure of your meeting?

We have an online chatroom open 24/7 and generally a few people are writing at any time and available to chat. But it’s all about writing – we celebrate champagne news and commiserate over rejections, share progress towards goals, ask each other questions about mundane subjects like grammar or discuss deeper structural issues, share useful links and podcasts, and offer each other constructive feedback and encouragement. And we laugh – a lot. 

We also have a monthly Zoom meeting often featuring guest speakers. Recently, we imitated the Lost Generation at our first face-to-face retreat at a gorgeous holiday house in Daylesford, Victoria – it was such a success that we’re already planning the next one. 

You did several courses at AWC. What benefit did you get from the courses?

I wanted to write a novel about the pirate but needed more knowledge and the confidence to see it through. I searched online for courses and AWC had everything: practical tools to hone my writing skills, a course on story structure, another to master Scrivener and advice on building my author profile. 

Best of all, I found a community of like-minded writers who have become my collaborators and friends – a brilliant outcome.

What are some of the achievements of the group members?

Our writing group members have achieved remarkable successes since completing the course.

A’Mhara McKey won the NT Literary Award in 2023, was shortlisted for the ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize 2024, and has secured representation with Abigail Nathan of Alex Adsett Literary Agency for her novel, The Shores Between. She has also been awarded a Varuna residency for 2025. 

Both A’Mhara and Natasha Neary were shortlisted for the prestigious HarperCollins Australia Banjo Prize in 2023, with Natasha’s novel, The Sister Tree, also earning a Commended place in the Affirm Press Mentorship, 2023, and a Highly Commended in the ASA/Copyright Agency Mentorship, 2024. 

Brigita Ozolins won a Hachette Mentorship and is currently undertaking a writing residency in Latvia. Amy Barnett has self-published two romantic suspense novels, Dangerous Secrets and Intent to Kill. 

Most of us have novels in progress. Short fiction has been an essential part of our group’s creative growth. We have entered competitions together, and most of us have received awards and been featured in anthologies, both locally and overseas. We have plans for an anthology of our own.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of writing your book?

When you love writing, just settling in at your desk – armed with coffee and a cream bun – is the best reward of all. For this book, though, the real joy has been hearing from readers who said it made them laugh; that they learned something new about Hydra and its history and felt as if they’d travelled to this magical island alongside me. 

I’ve also found learning about self-publishing quite challenging (understatement!), so seeing the book reach #1 in its categories on Amazon has been incredibly rewarding as well.

What are your plans for future writing?

I have to live long enough to get it all done! I really enjoy writing my Instagram posts and find the pressure of the quick production of (hopefully!) humorous content stimulating. In 2025, I plan to publish Son of Hydra, the historical fiction novel about the pirate. I’ll write more travel memoirs and another historical novel, Daughter of Cork, which will explore the life of the convict’s Irish wife. And one day I may write the Cream Bun Lover’s Guide to Australia. 

Shelley’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shelleydark/

Website: https://www.shelleydark.com/

Courses completed at AWC:

• Write Your Novel
• Novel Writing Essentials
• FOCUS ON… Creating The World Of Your Story
• Build Your Author Platform
• Writing Workout
• Writing Workout +
• Inside Publishing
• History, Mystery and Magic
• Plotting and Planning
• 2 Hours to Scrivener Power

Q: Hi AWC, I have a question about videos.

A: We told you – just dance along to the music, then upload it. It’s simple.

Q: Nooo, I was referring to a specific word relating to videos.

A: Oh, okay.

Q: It’s the word “footage” – why do we call recorded material that?

A: Good question. And thankfully the answer is fairly straightforward – relating to the measurement of a foot. 

Q: But everyone has different sized feet! My uncle is a size US17. He has so much trouble finding ballet shoes that fit.

A: Sorry to hear that. But in this case, it’s the imperial measurement of a foot – 12 inches or 30.48cm to be precise in metric.

Q: Ah right, that makes more sense. Well, it does and it doesn’t.

A: Sure, in this age of digital footage, it has little relevance, but you have to remember how film first started out.

Q: Silent!

A: Yes, that’s true. And also on ACTUAL film, that could be measured in feet. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the term dates back to 1916, so definitely still in the silent era of 35mm film, where everything was measured in feet and frames.

Q: So it was basically a measure of how long the film was?

A: Or a scene. Physically, it was the total number of running feet of motion-picture film used. Film wasn’t cheap, and it made a difference to talk about footage in this way.

Q: Did people really measure out film like that though?

A: They did. In fact, Merriam-Webster Dictionary quotes an account of a fundraiser after the Hiroshima bomb, where “people would buy ten feet of ‘footage’ from American photographers for one thousand yen”.

Q: And I suppose it just stuck around even when we stopped using actual film tape?

A: That’s right. While it started out literal, today “footage” is used in a figurative way to describe “material recorded on a film or video camera, either on film, tape or digitally” – according to Macquarie Dictionary.

Q: So not only did it outgrow its literal meaning, but we also no longer use the imperial measuring system here in Australia!

A: That’s true. Another example of that would be the word “mileage” – again, fairly clear where it comes from in relation to the rate of miles travelled or the amount of fuel used per mile. Even today, with everything in kilometres here, “mileage” continues to be used.

Q: I suppose “kilometerage” is quite the mouthful.

A: Indeed. Of course, like “footage”, “mileage” also gained a more figurative meaning, relating to usefulness or derived benefit – dating back to 1860. An example might be: “we seem to be getting a lot of mileage out of this topic”.

Q: Nice. So why end these kinds of words with “–age”?

A: It came from Old French “-age”, and Late Latin “-aticum” before that. Meaning “belonging to or related to”. 

Q: And what about the term “found footage”?

A: That is the term for a cinematic technique first coined back in 1975 by US film critic Roger Ebert. He described “found footage” as a horror sub-genre made up of mostly fake archival footage edited together for suspense. 

Q: Example?

A: The 1999 movie The Blair Witch Project took the idea of “found footage” mainstream.

Q: Surely if the term had been around since the 1970s, it can’t take all the credit, right?

A: Well, okay, the first “found footage” film came out in 1961. But let’s put it this way: in the next 38 years before The Blair Witch Project, only 13 films were classed as using this technique. 

Q: And since then?

A: A whopping 192 films!

Q: Wow, they’ve sure got a lot of mileage out of that kind of footage haven’t they!

Do you have a question you’d like us to explore? Email it to us today!

You can listen to the episode below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or add the podcast RSS feed manually to your favourite podcast app.  

Links mentioned in this episode

• WIN The Hidden Hand by Stella Rimington
• Buy So You Want to be a Writer – the book!
• Facebook group for So You Want to be a Writer

Writer in residence: Kathy George

Kathy George is the author of The Scent of Oranges, Estella and Sargasso, and has a master’s degree in Australian Gothic Literature. She has won the Hal Porter Short Story Award, been short-listed in a string of short story competitions, and been published in numerous literary journals including Meanjin, The Big Issue, Award Winning Australian Writing, and Margaret River Press anthologies. Kathy is represented by Sally Bird of Calidris Literary Agency.

Follow Kathy on Instagram.

Follow HarperCollins Aus on Twitter and Instagram.

A historic institution is hiding a very modern threat.

The student

Ai Ming, a Chinese student, is forced by her government to transfer from Harvard to Oxford University, where she is recruited to an elite Chinese study centre based out of St Felix's College.

The scapegoat

Meanwhile, the centre's newly recruited head stumbles on its more sinister purpose: recruiting Chinese and sympathetic British students to steal high-value research and intellectual property. Unsure who at the university he can trust, he turns to CIA agent Manon Tyler for help.

The spy who might be their only hope…

But as Ai and another Chinese-American student are drawn deeper into a deadly game, will Manon be able to penetrate the heart of St Felix's secrets in time to save them?

If you’d like to win a copy, simply enter your details in the form below. Three lucky people will win a copy!

Entries close midday (Syd/Melb time) Monday 13 January 2025. Winners will be notified within a week of the competition closing.

GOOD LUCK!

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED. THANKS FOR YOUR ENTRIES! WINNERS WILL BE CONTACTED BY EMAIL AND ANNOUNCED IN OUR NEWSLETTER.

“I was a new mum juggling family life and work when I decided to take one of your courses,” Angie shares. Initially aspiring to be a journalist, she found herself drawn to writing through a more unexpected route. “Writing had always been a passion of mine, but I didn't have the confidence or the time to fully explore it.”

Finding her voice

Angie's writing journey began with the Australian Writers’ Centre’s Freelance Writing Stage 1 course, driven by a desire to be a published journalist. “I'd been toying with story ideas for years but struggled to turn them into something coherent and compelling,” she explains. What she sought was more than just a course – she wanted “guidance, structure, and a community of like-minded individuals to help me take my writing seriously.”

The course proved to be transformative and the feedback from instructors and peers gave her the confidence to embrace her unique perspective. “The practical advice on story structure and character development was invaluable, but what stood out the most was the encouragement to find my voice.” 

Bringing her stories to life

Surprisingly, Angie's writing path took an unexpected turn towards books after reading to her children, and she enrolled in creative writing courses at the Australian Writers’ Centre, including Writing Picture Books. “Initially, I thought I would write adult fiction … children's books seemed so challenging to me – telling a big story with just a few words, often in under 500 words, was intimidating! But when I started reading picture books with my kids, I thought, maybe I could write something like that!”

Angie's debut books explore themes including individuality, empathy and identity. My Mum is a Bird uses a humorous lens to tell a story of an embarrassing parent at school, while Our Map is about a child who discovers that his parents’ homeland no longer exists on a map. Both books reflect her belief in the power of storytelling to bridge understanding. 

Once she had polished her manuscripts, Angie attended conferences where she was able to successfully pitch to publishers. “Hearing back from a publisher with interest was surreal – it felt like a dream!” she recalls. She then worked closely with her publisher, editor and illustrator to refine her stories even further. “It was a collaborative process that helped shape the books into something even better than I had imagined.”

And on becoming a published author? “I was absolutely thrilled!” Angie says. “It felt like validation for all the hard work and late nights. It also felt deeply personal – proof that my stories and voice mattered.” 

Writing in the real world

Despite working full-time, writing has become an integral part of Angie's life. “While I don't write every single day, storytelling is always on my mind,” she says. “I often find myself playing out scenes or imagining dialogues during quiet moments.”

Angie has completed at least a dozen courses at the Australian Writers’ Centre and has a simple message for those considering taking the leap: “If you have a story inside you – or even just a spark of curiosity about writing – this is the place to start. The courses are practical, supportive, and inspiring, offering the tools you need to bring your ideas to life.”

For more success stories see here:
https://www.writerscentre.com.au/success-stories/

Courses completed at AWC:

• Creative Writing Stage 1
• Novel Writing Essentials 
• Fiction Essentials: Scenes
• Plotting and Planning
• Fiction Essentials: Grammar and Punctuation
• Fiction Essentials: Structure
• Inside Publishing
• Your Author Website