How to Write Like Ray Bradbury

Live Like a Writer: The Ray Bradbury Course

A practical, good-humored course for writers who want pages that breathe—stories with vivid images, humane ideas, and that unmistakable summer-with-a-shadow feeling. We’ll borrow Bradbury’s principles, not his sentences, and we’ll put them to work in your own voice. By the end you’ll have new habits, new pages, and a piece you’re proud to show. Who this is for * Authors of fiction and literary non-fiction who’d like their prose to feel more alive without lapsing into purple; teachers and book-club leaders who want reliable exercises that actually get words on the page; anyone who has ever put a book down and thought, “I want to write with that kind of warmth and clarity.” What you’ll learn  * How to use concrete details, gentle metaphor, and a varied cadence to create paragraphs that evoke rather than merely describe. * How to fold a single speculative idea into an otherwise ordinary room—so the wonder feels plausible, not pasted on. * How to shape scenes and sections that turn, end cleanly, and leave the reader with a clear, felt image. * How to draft quickly and revise sanely, preserving your voice while lifting the line. You’ll finish with a polished short story (or a narrative essay) plus a compact toolkit you can reuse on every project thereafter. Why this works  * The course is built around short, repeatable drills: one image per paragraph; the “short-medium-long” cadence; totem objects that change meaning; sunny scenes with a sliver of October. These are simple levers you can pull in an evening. You’ll see the improvement on the page—less abstraction, more life—by the end of Week One. What makes this different? We don’t imitate Bradbury’s voice. We learn his principles—concrete before concept, one bright metaphor per paragraph, technology judged by its effect on people—and then we apply them to your idiom. It’s literary strength training: modest weights, correct form, frequent reps. Frequently asked questions Do I need to know Bradbury inside out? No. We’ll reference his work, but the drills stand alone. You’ll be practicing in your own voice from Day One. Is this only for science fiction? Not at all. The techniques work for literary, mystery, historical, and narrative non-fiction. The “single strange pressure” exercise is genre-agnostic. What if I’m new to writing? Perfectly fine. The course is built from small, concrete steps. You’ll see progress quickly. If you keep the ordinary in good repair—the verbs, the images, the breath in the line—you can invite a little wonder in and it will mind the place with you. That’s the spirit of the course. Shall we begin? → Enroll now below Keep Writing!