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Stay The Course – Finish Your Draft

w/ Emily Bitto

Stay the Course is an exclusive online program designed for alumni of Writing a Novel (of any graduating year) to help students keep up momentum, maintain a sense of community and maximise their writing time. This is a chance to stay on track with your word count and finish your manuscript, ahead of submitting to an agent or publisher.

Mondays 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm (AEDT), 13 October 2025 – Sunday 29 March 2026

$935 or $187 per month (alumni)


For some students, there is a strong desire to continue with the structure and collegiality that Writing a Novel provides, while they begin to write more independently. Stay the Course – Finish Your Draft is designed to keep you productive and accountable in the months after the course, to help you work through any issues you might face on the way to completing your full manuscript, and to accompany you over the finish line.

Across 5 months, you will attend monthly online ‘check-in’ sessions with acclaimed novelist and Writing a Novel director Emily Bitto. You will also join an open online forum for ongoing communication and support, featuring monthly exercises and prompts from Emily. You can work at your own pace through the monthly lessons and exercises, while always keeping in touch through the private class forum. You will also be able to partake in two one-on-one sessions, with Emily or, if available, your original Writing a Novel tutor.

The program will culminate in an Industry Weekend, featuring conversations with guest writers and editors about the process of finishing a manuscript, and a series of sessions with a leading literary agent, who’ll provide invaluable tips and tricks to help your manuscript stand out when it comes time to finally hit submit.


Writers you'll be working with:

Emily Bitto

Emily Bitto is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her debut novel, The Strays, was the winner of the Stella Prize in 2015. Her second novel, Wild Abandon, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2021. She has a Masters in Literary Studies and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne and has…

Course outline

The course consists of five online monthly sessions (Mondays 6.30pm to 8.30pm), two 30 minute one-one-ones and an Industry Weekend. Times are in AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time). Please convert the times if you live outside of this time zone.

5 x 2-hour “check-in” sessions with Emily Bitto:

Monday 13 October 2025, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Monday 17 November 2025, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Monday 15 December 2025, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Monday 19 January 2026, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Monday 16 February 2026, 6.30pm – 8.30pm

2x 30-minute semi-structured one-on-ones. Time and date to be scheduled w/ tutor and student.

Industry Weekend:

Full day conversation series: Saturday 28 March 2026 – 10am – 3pm (AEDT)

10am: Identifying and fixing narrative problems
11am: When you think you’re finished but you’re not: Approaching your novel as an editor would
12pm: Lunch break
1pm: Working with editors, publishers, publicists
2pm: Dealing with rejection and success.

Agent discussion day: Sunday 29 March 2026 10am – 2pm (AEDT)

10am: What is an agent?: Learn about the publishing industry and the role of an agent in an author’s career
11am: Preparing the pitch: How to approach agents and present the strongest query package
12pm: Lunch Break
1pm: Hitting submit: Questions to ask when querying and what happens after signing with an agent.

All sessions are held online on Zoom. The exact course content could be adjusted according to the experience and concerns of the group and availability of guest writers. The detail of the course is at the discretion of the Course Director and Faber Writing Academy at Allen & Unwin.

Praise for this course

“I was hoping for community, accountability, inspiration and feedback and it delivered in spades!”

“The weekend festival was AMAZING! I felt so inspired afterwards because it was full of practical and useful advice that I felt really helped to demystify the whole writing/editing/publishing process.”

 

How to Book

There is no need to use the alumni code at checkout, as the alumni discount has already been applied to this course.

If you choose to pay instalments, five instalments of $187 alumni will be automatically charged to the nominated card monthly (including your first payment).

Includes 10% tax