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BACK TO BASICS
Back to Basics is a mini-course designed to help you build a strong foundation in writing. Learn "the rules" so you know when, where, and how to break them to your story's benefit. Courses may occasionally highlight specific writing styles or genres where the focal topic is most commonly used (or over-used).
Each course includes a full post on our blog and many issue a challenge. You can submit your effort for free feedback!
Back to Basics is free to all writers around the world. Talk with us on Discord in the #b2b channel in the Crits section.
Find all past courses below and some on our YouTube channel!
For courses with a challenge, get free feedback through the Back to Basics Dropbox.
Please be sure your name and email address are included in your file so we can deliver feedback.
Back to Basics: Summaries
Sometimes less is more! It’s a fun phrase that essentially means to not overcomplicate things. It can be applied to anything in life, especially writing: summaries. When it comes to writing a story it’s pretty safe to say that the most important (and sometimes most difficult) part is actually writing the story itself. But there’s also stuff that comes after the story is done, and that’s how you describe it to someone in a concise, brief, and organized way. For this Back to Ba
Back to Basics: Embracing Revision
For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re trying to embrace revisions— as a process . Let’s look at the basics. Getting a first draft of anything done, be it an essay, a novel, or anything in between, is grueling. Something special happens when you complete a draft: it gives you an almost indescribable feeling of joy . Sometimes we’re so proud of what we made that it can be hard to find any fault with it. But even if you think your first draft is perfect, it can never hurt t
Back to Basics: Accountability Partners
You can’t do it alone. The writing process, that is. You can write an entire novel, or short story, or screenplay, or whatever completely by yourself, and that’s typically the norm, but you also need some sort of outside help to get you through a hurdle in your writing process. Take this blog post for example: you’re reading it because you’re hoping to find a nugget of useful info that will propel you forward in some way in your writing. Expectations are high: I’m supposed to
Back to Basics: Purpose & Theme
The more I look around the more I realize: everyone has something to say, and something they believe they have to do. In fact I would argue that we all strive to have a purpose one way or another: a grand meaning for which we lead our lives. We’re all living on a giant hunk of spinning rock after all, so why not make the most out of that, right? Nothing’s ever just what it seems, and if it was, well, life would be kind of boring. You can apply that same idea to stories, too.
Back to Basics: Passive vs Active
How you tell a story says everything. You want to keep readers invested in what’s happening and not lose their interest. It’s important...
Back to Basics: MacGuffin
Every aspect of a story has to be intentional. Not only is this a great way to hook your reader, it also helps build a long-term...
Back to Basics: Narrative Structure
Everything is built on structure. Things have a rhyme and reason, and stories are no exception. Stories in particular rely on narrative...
Back to Basics: Rereading
Reading is important. Yeah, that’s a real shocker, I know. It’s a fundamental skill not just for writing, but for everything . For this...
Back to Basics: Goals
For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re exploring how to set achievable goals to help keep you on track (and not beating yourself up)....
Back to Basics: Process
For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re talking about your writing process. Each Back to Basics course includes a challenge at the end...
Back to Basics: Sense & Description
For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re talking about the five senses and their role in description. Each Back to Basics course...
Back to Basics: Hooks
How do we keep them engaged? In this Back to Basics course, we’re discussing capturing the audience’s attention.
Back to Basics: Point of View
For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re talking about point of view. Each Back to Basics course includes a challenge at the end to...
Back to Basics: Scenes
Scenes make up everything. In fact, every story is a compilation of scenes. Usually when you first begin thinking of your story, you...
Back to Basics: Hearing the Story
A note before we begin: This course is designed to help hearing writers achieve stronger flow and pacing. In our experience, deaf writers...
Back to Basics: Reading
This course honors the fortieth anniversary of one of the most influential (and our favorite) pro-reading shows on tv, Reading Rainbow,...
Back to Basics: Prologues
Is a prologue the right move for your story? Let’s figure that out together! In this Back to Basics course, we’ll talk about prologues:...
Back to Basics: Personification
For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re talking about personification. Each Back to Basics course includes a challenge at the end to...
Back to Basics: Flawed Characters
For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re talking about flawed characters. Each Back to Basics course includes a challenge at the end to...
Back to Basics: Setting
Setting is an important aspect of creative writing because it’s the place where the story unfolds.
Back to Basics: Dialogue
Dialogue is a very important component of stories, one that may seem simple at first but is more complex the more you think about it.
Back to Basics: Sympathetic Antagonists
Back to Basics: Sympathetic Antagonists talks about building villains your readers will love.
Back to Basics: Flashbacks
For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re talking about flashbacks. Each Back to Basics course includes a short video (linked at the...
Back to Basics: Conflict
Why is conflict so important to a story? Conflicts drive characters to act. Characters can be in conflict with themselves, others, or nature
Back to Basics: Sentence Structure
For January, the Back to Basics skill challenge is sentence structure. Writing as a craft comes with so many different fundamentals that...
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