Emily McAuliffe’s successful venture into full-time travel writing

Emily McAuliffe can’t remember what first prompted her to do a writing course – possibly just for “something to do”. However, many words later, she now lives in Portugal and works as a full-time writer – with work published here and overseas!

Getting started
“I had no real expectations and wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a writer,” recalls Emily, who completed the course Magazine and Newspaper Writing Stage 1.

“Undoubtedly the best thing about Australian Writers’ Centre (AWC) courses is how practical they are. It’s one thing to learn how to write, but another to know how to approach editors and actually get published.”

Fast tracking success
Clearly she’d been paying attention in class, because after she submitted her first article to an online editor, they wrote back within minutes to say they would like to publish it – and pay her for it! “That gave me the confidence to keep going.”

From here, the balance of her life began to change. While she continued to chip away with writing alongside her day job, she completed the AWC Travel Writing course. “That’s when I discovered my love for travel writing,” says Emily. In particular, she found that it nicely complemented her love of travel photography, so she slowly started to focus on this area.

By now, the writing cogs were well and truly turning – and Emily added a further string to her writing bow with AWC’s Copywriting Essentials course. The skills learned there have allowed her to pick up work writing website content, brochures and more for private companies and government organisations.

Writing takes you places
Emily now lives in Portugal, working full-time as a freelance writer, editor and photographer. Her writing has now allowed her to take the plunge and move to Europe – as it offers her the freedom and flexibility to work from anywhere.

Her recent six-page article in the in-flight Qantas magazine was a nice milestone for her, as it had been one of her “bucket list” publications. She has added it to other national titles she has written for such as Tigerair’s Tigertales and Jetstar’s in-flight magazine, Women’s Fitness, Women’s Health, Get Up & Go, the Australian Yoga Journal and more.

Where she had once hesitated, Emily now has very real sense of credibility as a professional writer. And it was all from doing that first course all those years ago.

“I would absolutely recommend AWC to aspiring writers. The courses are affordable and well structured and equip you with the tools you need to get published.

“Given I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a writer and hadn’t ever considered travel writing before taking my first course at AWC, I definitely didn’t expect to be in the position I’m in now. I’m not complaining though!”