Weekly Breakdown
Week 1 – Scenes
Students learn how strong scenes serve a purpose—revealing character, advancing the plot, or deepening theme—and how to write with intention.
Week 2 – Conflict
Students explore internal and external conflict and learn how layering both creates tension and emotional depth in storytelling.
Week 3 – Dialogue
Students discover how dialogue can reveal relationships, show hidden emotion, and shape the tone of a scene through word choice.
Week 4 – Subtext
Students learn how to write conversations where the real meaning lies beneath the surface—and how to make politeness feel like a battleground.
Week 5 – Setting (Part One)
Students examine how setting influences mood, meaning, and character experience, transforming a background into part of the story.
Week 6 – Setting (Part Two)
Students explore how the same setting can feel completely different depending on the emotional tone and perspective of the scene.
Week 7 – Static and Dynamic Characters
Students learn how to identify character growth—and what it means when a character stays the same, for better or worse.
Week 8 – Character Arcs
Students examine how changed behavior reflects changed beliefs, and how to show growth through actions instead of explanations.
Week 9 – Tone
Students study how a narrator’s word choice and sentence style create tone—and how tone can shift the entire feel of a story.
Week 10 – Opening Lines
Students learn how a strong opening can set the tone, introduce conflict, and hook the reader in just a few lines.
Week 11 – Pacing
Students explore how fast or slow a scene feels on the page—and how to use pacing to build tension or let emotion breathe.
Week 12 – Final Story
Students revise and expand a previous piece into a polished short story that uses the tools of voice, pacing, setting, and character development.