FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How do students interact online?
Teenagers participating in the 10-week program will complete the weekly modules at their own pace and interact solely with their mentor, who has had a Working With Children check and has had significant experience teaching teens to write.

All of the teenager’s details are kept securely, and their work will not be shared with others. For teen protection reasons, this course does not have any opportunity for participants to interact with each other. Note that AWC staff who have Working With Children checks will have access to the course and may be on hand to answer any technical questions about how the platform works.

How does the online course work?
The online tutor-led course has ten modules, and we release one module each Monday of the course. Each module consists of audio lessons and handouts. There are no set class times – you can complete each module whenever it suits you.

In Modules 1, 5 and 10, the student is invited to complete a short assignment which is due by midnight Sunday (Sydney/Melbourne time) of that week. Your online mentor gives personalised feedback on each assignment submitted.

How much time should teens set aside to complete the program?
We suggest that 2-3 hours be set aside each week to complete the module, read the handouts and complete the assignment or exercises. Most writing activities can be completed in 30-60 minutes, except for the final short story. There are some exercises which have specifically been designed to match the 45 minutes high school students are often given to write a narrative in an exam.

Of course, teens may take more or less time on some exercises/assignments depending on their level of enthusiasm or the complexity of their story – one thing we know about budding authors is that once they start, it can be difficult to stop!

Do you need to log in at a set time each week?
Not at all. We all lead busy lives, so modules can be completed at any pace during the week. However each of the three assignments will have a due date and need to be submitted by the deadline. When these are submitted by the due date, the participant will receive their feedback from the mentor.

Will there be homework?
There will be three small assignments to complete during the 10-week course and the mentor provides the student with feedback for each one. We won’t hound the student about their assignments, and if your teen really does not want to submit their writing, that’s fine – it’s entirely up to them. However, they won’t receive the full benefit of the course if they miss receiving this valuable feedback from their mentor. The course also offers a series of optional exercises to help them build their writing skills. These exercises can be completed anytime and don’t include mentor feedback.

My child is 11/12 but loves to write. Can they do the course?
The Teenage Creative Writers’ Program has been specifically developed for teenage writers in high school. But we do have a great course designed for younger writers aged 9-14: Creative Writing Quest for Kids with children’s author Allison Tait.

My teen is 13/14 but they’re not a confident writer. Is this course suitable?
We have been very careful in constructing the course to make sure it’s suitable for a whole range of teenagers. Remember teens will be interacting only with their mentor, so there is no chance of feeling out of place with an advanced class. Our mentors have taught children of all ages, so a ‘young’ 13-year-old will be treated gently and appropriately. But, if you’re concerned, you may be interested in our other children’s writing course, Creative Writing Quest for Kids which is focused on storytelling for 9-14 year old writers.

My teen is 18/19. Are they too old for the course?
The course is aimed specifically at helping high school students, although the content of the course would be useful to any aged writer. If an 18/19 year-old wants to learn the fundamentals of fiction writing, we recommend they do our Creative Writing Stage 1 course which is the equivalent course for adults.

If your teen is still at school, and wants help with writing for their final exams, we would recommend this Teenage Creative Writers’ Program, as it has a number of exercises designed to help exam-style writing.

Can students write fan fiction?
Fan fiction is a wonderful way to develop the skills you need to write. Character, dialogue, setting, pace and structure, as well as editing. Many very successful authors (including our own Pamela Freeman) started out writing fan fic. Teens won’t be able to publish a fan story professionally, but it’s well worth them writing it. Apart from anything else, writing should be fun, and there’s nothing more fun than writing fan fic!

Are there further courses my teen can do?
We have a number of creative writing courses for students aged 17 years and over, designed to further hone their fiction writing skills. Some of these include the Fiction Essentials self-paced course which are targeted to different areas of storytelling, such as characters, dialogue, point of view and grammar and punctuation.