One Brick Quotes

One Brick at a Time: Crafting Compelling Scenes was a great online class that definitely helped improve my scene writing. From the numerous readings and lecture materials to the incredible teacher and seamless live online class meetings, this course is definitely something I would recommend for writers serious about improving Read more

I am so thrilled I was able to take an Odyssey Online Class, I can already see the improvement in my writing. The lectures and class discussion were wonderful. I learned so much in a short amount of time. The feedback I received from my classmates was invaluable and the Read more

I cannot recommend this course enough. The lectures and study materials were eye-opening in ways I didn't expect. I learned more about scene structure and plot than I could have thought possible in just three lectures. Barbara, the instructor, was thoughtful in her critiques and went above and beyond what Read more

Taking this Odyssey Online Class was one of the best decisions I've ever made. The instructor and other students were knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and encouraging. The assignments helped me dig into my own writing and find the weaknesses. The class gave me the knowledge and tools to correct those weaknesses. Mastering Read more

This course definitely helped me develop a different approach to reading and writing stories. I now feel more capable of building emotional and effective scenes that fulfill a purpose within a piece. This course has been a very significant part of my writing journey. It has broadened my writing toolbox. Read more

I was lucky enough to take Barbara Ashford's class: "One Brick at a Time." The scope of material covered was huge. I have dozens of books on writing on my bookshelves, but I learned more in a month, from Barbara's clear, concise, on-point, and funny lectures, than I learned from Read more

Barbara Ashford's One Brick at a Time has changed my approach to writing scenes. With organization, humor and enthusiasm, Barbara laid out ways to think of the promise a story makes to the readers, ways to hook the reader, ways to deepen the conflict and raise the stakes, and how Read more

Barbara Ashford’s class on building scenes was fundamental for me. At last I know how to use emotional beats to drive a scene to its turning point and on towards the next.         --JENNY GREEN

I'm looking at some of my scenes now and realizing that I just wrote down what was in my imagination and thought it was pretty cool that I had such a great imagination. The bulk of many scenes didn't contain the building blocks to pull the story forward, let alone Read more

One Brick at a Time has already had a noticeable impact on my writing: the scenes I wrote or revised while taking the course are tighter, more purposeful and propulsive, and I am looking forward to incorporating Barbara's and my classmates' critiques during the revision process. The course itself is Read more