Bridge to Story

All Lessons

These lesson categories will take you through a year of better writing. With 52 lessons to work with, jump in anywhere.

  1. Week 1: How to Look at Your Own Work Toggle
  2. Week 1: How to Look at Your Own Work
    If you’ve got writing prompt exercises lying around, take things to the next level. Jumpstart all your drabbles or snippets with this lesson.
    Begin Week 1
  3. Week 2: Bio into Fiction Toggle
  4. Week 2: Bio into Fiction
    This lesson illustrates why you don't want to tell the truth and nothing but the truth in telling your fictionalized tale.
    Begin Week 2
  5. Week 3: Character Arc Tools - Worksheet & Map Toggle
  6. Week 3: Character Arc Tools - Worksheet & Map
    Help for planning your characters with worksheets and maps. This works for linear or visual writing styles.
    Begin Week 3
  7. Week 4: Craft Basics - the Big Half Dozen & Some Little Stuff Toggle
  9. Week 5: Who's On First? Toggle
  10. Week 5: Who's On First?
    Now what’s so important about using an antecedent? The importance is in how these words are left off or misused in writing.
    Begin Week 5
  11. Week 6: How to Be More Sense-ative Toggle
  12. Week 6: How to Be More Sense-ative
    If you show with senses rather than with extra exposition that can be removed, you begin writing a faster, tighter read: right now.
    Begin Week 6
  13. Week 7: The Special Case of Dialogue and Senses Toggle
  14. Week 7: The Special Case of Dialogue and Senses
    Surprise: the best way to use Dialogue Attributes (speech tags) is not to tell the reader someone said something.
    Begin Week 7
  15. Week 8: The Pitfalls of Under and Overwriting Toggle
  16. Week 8: The Pitfalls of Under and Overwriting
    In this lesson, we’ll look at examples of over and under writing and ferret out a ‘weak verb’ tendency that most novices fall into using.
    Begin Week 8
  17. Week 9: How To Show It, When To Tell It Toggle
  18. Week 9: How To Show It, When To Tell It
    By showing your reader scenes, you'll always get someone to turn a page. Telling (reporting) everything to your readers, page after page, might disengage them.
    Begin Week 9
  19. Week 10: Reader Feeder & Information Dumps Toggle
  20. Week 10: Reader Feeder & Information Dumps
    Get your story info to the reader by letting the story reveal (via characters actions, reactions and dialog) the why and how of their backstory.
    Begin Week 10
  21. Week 11: Lying, Stealing and Cheating Toggle
  22. Week 11: Lying, Stealing and Cheating
    You want to begin but you’re not sure how. Here are three very sneaky ways to get your writing going.
    Begin Week 11
  23. Week 12: Opening with Intensity Toggle
  24. Week 12: Opening with Intensity
    Here’s a tip: finding that intense opening in what you already have is as important as struggling to write one to begin with.
    Begin Week 12
  25. Week 13: What to Write About? Toggle
  26. Week 13: What to Write About?
    ‘What should I write?’ Choosing your own story is one idea, but that material needs to be filled in with high-grade fiction.
    Begin Week 13
  27. Week 14: A Dozen Ways to Start a Short Story Toggle
  28. Week 14: A Dozen Ways to Start a Short Story
    How many possible ways can you start a story? Or a scene for that matter? Are there tricks to starting? We help with that here.
    Begin Week 14
  29. Week 15: What is a Story Arc? Toggle
  30. Week 15: What is a Story Arc?
    Arcs happen all over the place in fiction. Characters have arcs. Scenes should as well. The overall story has the biggest arc of all.
    Begin Week 15
  31. Week 16: Writing With Words That Aren't Yours Toggle
  32. Week 16: Writing With Words That Aren't Yours
    Search for phrases that are filler. Words that are strings of automatic sayings, hooked to your writing like boxcar after boxcar.
    Begin Week 16
  33. Week 17: When Your Words Don't Make the Best Impression Toggle
  34. Week 17: When Your Words Don't Make the Best Impression
    We all want our words to sound the best. But, sometimes trying too hard (being too writer-ly) makes for poor writing.
    Begin Week 17
  35. Week 18: Hunt for Run-on Clauses Toggle
  36. Week 18: Hunt for Run-on Clauses
    Get out the red pen! This time we’re adding a little something to avoid the dreaded run-on clause.
    Begin Week 18
  37. Week 19: Running on About Run-ons Toggle
  38. Week 19: Running on About Run-ons
    Here, using three simple tests, we work with the over use conjunctions, prepositions, and commas.
    Begin Week 19
  39. Week 20: The Minor Character’s Work Toggle
  40. Week 20: The Minor Character’s Work
    Aside from deciding about protagonists and antagonists, decide if your story also contains a Helper character. A Guide. Is one a Trickster, one a Fool?
    Begin Week 20
  41. Week 21: Beginning with What Someone Else Has To Say Toggle
  42. Week 21: Beginning with What Someone Else Has To Say
    Equal time must be given to all your characters to create a true-to-life piece of fiction.
    Begin Week 21
  43. Week 22: Where Action Conveys a Thought Toggle
  44. Week 22: Where Action Conveys a Thought
    Thoughts, narrations, actions, and motivations need to be intermixed in storytelling. We don’t always write like this, but for a more realistic story, we should.
    Begin Week 22
  45. Week 23: Going Beyond Gut Wrenching Emotion Toggle
  46. Week 23: Going Beyond Gut Wrenching Emotion
    Try reaching down and underneath, where the sense memories are. Bring up something with emotion. Not just detailing something emotional.
    Begin Week 23
  47. Week 24: Start It Up Toggle
  48. Week 24: Start It Up
    If you don’t limber up by planning your work in some way you can end up short of what you think is a finished piece.
    Begin Week 24
  49. Week 25: Character Role Call Toggle
  50. Week 25: Character Role Call
    Knowing that 'something' that your characters stand for, right from the start of your effort, makes you a writer with a plan.
    Begin Week 25
  51. Week 26: Short Stories and Endings Toggle
  52. Week 26: Short Stories and Endings
    The difference in where you end your story is Plot vs. Premise. A premise is a "What if" question. Plot shows motivations and outcomes.
    Begin Week 26
  53. Week 27: From Fancy to Precise Toggle
  54. Week 27: From Fancy to Precise
    This lesson deals with adjectives, adverbs and precision. We'll learn the tricks to putting away the fancy, and finding the precise.
    Begin Week 27
  55. Week 28: More on Turning Work into Something Precise Toggle
  56. Week 28: More on Turning Work into Something Precise
    Work for precision by trimming the ‘given’ from lines. Context of other lines usually fixes the need to report so much stuff to the reader.
    Begin Week 28
  57. Week 29: Changes To Make In Sentence Structure Toggle
  58. Week 29: Changes To Make In Sentence Structure
    Try the task of taking your words from Telling to Showing by how you structure your story facts in their lines.
    Begin Week 29
  59. Week 30: Articles Vs. Pronouns Toggle
  60. Week 30: Articles Vs. Pronouns
    These are the smallest of changes in edits you might consider, but they change your work in very strong ways.
    Begin Week 30
  61. Week 31: Mixing Up What is Doing and Done Toggle
  62. Week 31: Mixing Up What is Doing and Done
    When the Doing and the Doer don’t agree a simple fix might be asking some questions about what you’re seeing in your mind.
    Begin Week 31
  63. Week 32: The Last Adverb Search Toggle
  64. Week 32: The Last Adverb Search
    Some verbs might sound lame, off, plain, or boring. And instead of adverbial misdirection or camouflage we should be working to better our verb choices.
    Begin Week 32
  65. Week 33: Finding Your Characters Toggle
  66. Week 33: Finding Your Characters
    However you wish to build your characters there are still steps to be taken to create characters that are "alive". Begin here.
    Begin Week 33
  67. Week 34: The Visceral, Physical and Visual Toggle
  68. Week 34: The Visceral, Physical and Visual
    Whether you write a short story or a novel your words must work to get the visual, physical, and visceral on the page.
    Begin Week 34
  69. Week 35: Change in the Novel, Choice in the Short Story Toggle
  70. Week 35: Change in the Novel, Choice in the Short Story
    Choice can be quiet, not always a large, dramatic thing. Chance only needs to come about, not to shout it is here.
    Begin Week 35
  71. Week 36: Making a Scene Toggle
  72. Week 36: Making a Scene
    The goal of a really well realized scene is not using all your story notes, literally, in your writing. These are notes for your story – not your story itself.
    Begin Week 36
  73. Week 37: More Ways to Make a Scene Toggle
  74. Week 37: More Ways to Make a Scene
    Setting can be a prop for the intention of a scene. It can reflect a character, her emotion, or the tone of a scene.
    Begin Week 37
  75. Week 38: 'Absolutely' Better Writing Toggle
  76. Week 38: 'Absolutely' Better Writing
    Adding ‘Absolutes’ to your existing sentences move your work from telling into showing. That’s the main reason for adding words to a story.
    Begin Week 38
  77. Week 39: Fixing a Clunky Sentence Toggle
  78. Week 39: Fixing a Clunky Sentence
    Capturing images seems easy enough, but trying, we fail most times. And we end up reading back clunky words that seem tongue-tied on the page.
    Begin Week 39
  79. Week 40: The Red Flag Quick Check List Toggle
  80. Week 40: The Red Flag Quick Check List
    Remember: Not all problems need to be fixed right as you find them. You’re better off spotting things to change before making changes.
    Begin Week 40
  81. Week 41: Weeding Out the Un-needed Words Toggle
  82. Week 41: Weeding Out the Un-needed Words
    Writing in weaker state-of-being verbs keeps us away from what we want to get across. Some usage works well. Too much short-changes your readers.
    Begin Week 41
  83. Week 42: Sentence Structure Toggle
  84. Week 42: Sentence Structure
    Same sentence length and structure for three or more consecutive sentences is a sign that you might consider varying how you usually write your sentences.
    Begin Week 42
  85. Week 43: Metaphors and Similes Toggle
  86. Week 43: Metaphors and Similes
    The best use of metaphor or simile is to illustrate something. Not, at the need of a line, to explain ‘how something is like’.
    Begin Week 43
  87. Week 44: Dramatic Tension in Memoirs Toggle
  88. Week 44: Dramatic Tension in Memoirs
    But when we write memoir we have facts to stick to. And that can curtail our fashioning of dramatic tension.
    Begin Week 44
  89. Week 45: Standard Editing Questions Toggle
  90. Week 45: Standard Editing Questions
    How to set up your manuscript pages, and then how to question what you have there on those pages for better edits.
    Begin Week 45
  91. Week 46: Dialogue on a Diet Toggle
  92. Week 46: Dialogue on a Diet
    The intangible goal is to have Subtext via ‘Dialogue that’s there but not noticed by the characters’, yet it’s understood by the reader.
    Begin Week 46
  93. Week 47: Premise vs. Plot Toggle
  94. Week 47: Premise vs. Plot
    A premise is an idea that asks, “What if…?” A plot is your answer to that first “What if?” question and any that follow.
    Begin Week 47
  95. Week 48: What Do You Plan On Writing? Toggle
  96. Week 48: What Do You Plan On Writing?
    Having a plan about what to write gets you closer to beginning your story. With an outline or not, have some idea of where you’ll go.
    Begin Week 48
  97. Week 49: The Bane and Joys of Summary Narration Toggle
  98. Week 49: The Bane and Joys of Summary Narration
    Summary Narration condenses story sections. Expand Summary Narration if you’re ‘telling too much’. Aim for a balance between telling vs. showing. Or action vs. summarization.
    Begin Week 49
  99. Week 50: Settings: Building Evocative Places Toggle
  100. Week 50: Settings: Building Evocative Places
    Setting’s not simply the place where your character is while the story’s being told. Setting can reflect what your character is all about.
    Begin Week 50
  101. Week 51: Types of Stories to Tell Toggle
  102. Week 51: Types of Stories to Tell
    Run an inventory of your works in progress – what type of story are you currently – or not – working on?
    Begin Week 51
  103. Week 52: You’ve Crossed the Bridge to Story Toggle
  104. Week 52: You’ve Crossed the Bridge to Story
    You've made it through a year of weekly topics, learned ways of better writing, of less Reader-Feeder, of opening choices and manuscript formatting.
    Begin Week 52