For emerging nonfiction writers ready to leap in and get serious, this course begins with a focus on the creative essay and builds towards core competencies essential for embarking on a nonfiction book project. We will take your writing from the planning stage, through chapter by chapter drafting, to sketching out a detailed proposal for a publisher to consider.

Words and pictures combine in this course, which will teach the skills you need to write picture books and children’s fiction. Packed with industry guests and including the chance to collaborate with a professional illustrator, this lively program will give you the inside information you need to stand out from the crowd.

Page one, chapter one: this is where you start. In a close-knit supportive group, this 12-week course will nurture you through the fast and furious stage of committing the first words of your novel to paper.

This intensive course is for writers wishing to concentrate on crafting personal essay, memoir or biography. A practical craft-based course, featuring readings, discussion and exercises, Writing True Stories offers the opportunity to develop several chapters, while working towards a full manuscript, under expert guidance.

For emerging novelists ready to dive in and make the commitment to complete a full manuscript, this rigorous Masters-equivalent course will guide you through the process of executing your novel, developing essential skills in writing and composition, as well as establishing a dedicated writing practice.

YA fiction is amongst the bestselling genres in Australia, read avidly by teenagers and adults alike—but how do you start writing for this highly engaged community of readers? In this special course, you will carefully study YA’s complex set of rules and conventions, while working towards completing a full first draft of your manuscript.

Equipped with a reader’s report on your full manuscript, author and editor Sophie Cunningham will lead you through the process of re-drafting your novel, by focusing on key ideas and strategies from plotting to characterisation and style. Over six fortnightly sessions, you’ll workshop your re-drafts and stress-test the decisions you’ve made, exploring what works and what could be made stronger in your novel.

Speculative fiction is a universe unto itself. How do you navigate this widely popular genre without losing your way? In this new and innovative course, you will learn from two leading writers in the genre as you discover the ins and outs of writing outside the realms of the ordinary.

Successful crime fiction writers may find their work on bestseller lists and even making the leap to movie and television screens. The writing can be hardboiled, action-packed, even philosophical in nature, making crime fiction a diverse genre. This course will take you through the fundamentals of crime fiction, while affording you space to develop your own craft.

Over the course of six months, you’ll submit newly written or revised material for constructive feedback from fellow Writing a Novel graduates and your tutor. Between fortnightly workshop sessions, you’ll have access to our zoom channel for a “shut up and write” session with your peers, where you can write material for your next workshop session and maximize the value of the bi-weekly workshops.

In an intimate group of ten writers, Lauren Chater will guide you through a workshopping process designed to strengthen the opening chapter of your work-in-progress, at the level of the line, the paragraph, and the story, giving you skills you can continue to apply to your manuscript as a whole.

This two stage course will assist you in completing a finished manuscript draft, looking critically at a wide range of forms and subject, designed to accommodate any type of nonfiction project: memoir, history, essay collection, investigative study, immersive explorations of other lives and situations, and experimental work.

Project plan your manuscript with one-on-one consultations with a leading writer.

You will be paired with a leading author for a series of fortnightly one-on-one consultation sessions to discuss your work, and help you negotiate the roadblocks and challenges you might be facing.