"I got published!": Victoria Birch

We love hearing from our students no matter what they have to say, but when we hear of a student being published, we just want to shout it from the rooftops! We’re a little scared of heights, so we’ll go with a blog post instead.

Victoria says:

I had an idea for a first person story that I thought could work for the Good Weekend magazine. I say could because never in a million years did I think it would work.

I sat on the idea for ages, finding endless reasons to avoid actually pitching the idea. I then had one of those weird days where I was all gumption and impetus – and pitched the idea to GW’s deputy editor. He called me the same day to say he liked the pitch and would I be prepared to complete on spec. I hesitated for all of a nanosecond before agreeing. I then put the phone down and attempted to do my first cartwheel in 20 years!

For two weeks I enjoyed being a writer who had the potential to be published in my dream publication. On submission it took 30 minutes for the editor to let me know that I was a writer who was going to be published in her dream publication.

Without a shadow of a doubt, there’s no way I would have ticked this particularly huge box if it hadn’t been for the fabulous Australian Writers’ Centre. The course itself gave me the tools to complete the job but the on-going relationship with all of the incredible writers in my Australian Writers’ Centre Facebook group gave me the push to go for it. The combination of tuition and peer support is invaluable.